ABSTRACT
About half a century after the devastations caused by the Great Plague, around 1400 another ‘great generation’ emerged in Florence (Hall 1999: 72); a generation to which it is customary to connect the rise of the Renaissance, even though their most important feat was to finish the work of Arnolfo and his generation. The most spectacular achievement was the completion of the Cathedral cupola by Filippo Brunelleschi (1377-1446), but almost as important was the sculpting work done by Lorenzo Ghiberti (1378-1455), Donatello (1386-1466) and Luca della Robbia (1399-1482), perfecting the decoration of the Cathedral, but also of the Baptistery and the Orsanmichele church. Surprisingly, developments in painting were less spectacular, no doubt influenced by the fact that the greatest talent of the period, Masaccio (1401-28) died very young. Thus, in the first half of the Quattrocento in painting the leading role was played by Flemish masters (Nuttall 2004), which in itself undermines the consensus about the origins of the Renaissance.
