BRUNELLESCHI, Filippo
(b. 1377, Firenze, d. 1446, Firenze)

View of the Capponi Chapel

1419-23
Photo
Santa Felicità, Florence

The Barbadori Chapel (now known as the Capponi Chapel) is attributed to Brunelleschi by Manetti, who said he designed and executed it for the Barbadori family; late 20th-century research confirms that it was built between 1419 and 1423 by members of that family, and its origins go back to Bartolommeo di Gherardo Barbadori (d. 1400 of plague). It is the first chapel on the right inside this aisleless church and is thus open in two directions with the help of a corner pier, which is faced with Corinthian pilasters. These support an entablature and flank a minor order of engaged Ionic columns carrying arches. A portico effect is thus created, recalling the loggia setting sometimes shown in depictions of the Annunciation. The interior of the chapel is roofed by a dome (now truncated) on pendentives with roundels, while the mathematical imperatives of the new system of articulation defined by Brunelleschi are evident in the way that the pilasters in the internal corners are reduced almost to extinction.