Brunelleschi’s lantern, the model of which from his own hand we shall see in the museum of the cathedral, was not placed on the dome until 1462.  The copper ball above it was the work of Verrocchio.  In 1912 there are still wanting many yards of stone border to the dome.

Of the man himself we know little, except that he was of iron tenacity and lived for his work.  Vasari calls him witty, but gives a not good example of his wit; he seems to have been philanthropic and a patron of poor artists, and he grieved deeply at the untimely death of Masaccio, who painted him in one of the Carmine frescoes, together with Donatello and other Florentines.

As one walks about Florence, visiting this church and that, and peering into cool cloisters, one’s mind is always intent upon the sculpture or paintings that may be preserved there for the delectation of the eye.  The tendency is to think little of the architect who made the buildings where they are treasured.  Asked to name the greatest makers of this beautiful Florence, the ordinary visitor would say Michelangelo, Giotto, Raphael, Donatello, the della Robbias, Ghirlandaio, and Andrea del Sarto:  all before Brunelleschi, even if he named him at all.  But this is wrong.  Not even Michelangelo did so much for Florence as he.  Michelangelo was no doubt the greatest individualist in the whole history of art, and everything that he did grips the memory in a vice; but Florence without Michelangelo would still be very nearly Florence, whereas Florence without Brunelleschi is unthinkable.  No dome to the cathedral, first of all; no S. Lorenzo church or cloisters; no S. Croce cloisters or Pazzi chapel; no Badia of Fiesole.  Honour where honour is due.  We should be singing the praises of Filippo Brunelleschi in every quarter of the city.

After Brunelleschi the chief architect of the cathedral was Giuliano da Maiano, the artist of the beautiful intarsia woodwork in the sacristy, and the uncle of Benedetto da Maiano who made the S. Croce pulpit.

The present facade is the work of the architect Emilio de Fabris, whose tablet is to be seen on the left wall.  It was finished in 1887, five hundred and more years after the abandonment of Arnolfo’s original design and three hundred and more years after the destruction of the second one, begun in 1357 and demolished in 1587.  Of Arnolfo’s facade the primitive seated statue of Boniface VIII (or John XXII) just inside the cathedral is, with a bishop in one of the sacristies, the only remnant; while of the second facade, for which Donatello and other early Renaissance sculptors worked, the giant S. John the Evangelist, in the left aisle, is perhaps the most important relic.  Other statues in the cathedral were also there, while the central figure—­the Madonna with enamel eyes—­may be seen in the cathedral museum.  Although not great, the group of the Madonna and Child now over the central door of the Duomo has much charm and benignancy.