| Page Views: 5,179 Last Visit to Milan: October, 2004 | A Designing Town by tpal - last update: Jan 11, 2005 |
Everyone's Got An Opinion On Design | Carol in a flying buttress. |
Several months after our visit, I have finally begun to recapture in my mind our trip to Milan. At about the same time Carol gave me a new "Tom Book", having decided that the type of books I enjoy now comprise an entire new genre. The book is "Brunelleschi's Dome" by Ross King. The book traces the history of the design and construction of the great dome of the cathedral of Santa Maria del Fiore in Florence. From this unexpected source came a sudden insight into a question I recalled asking on the roof of the Duomo in Milan, "What were they thinking?"
"Giangaleazzo Visconti, the duke of Milan...was a ginger-bearded tyrant, cruel and ambitious, whose coat of arms was suitably grisly: a coiled viper crushing in its jaws a tiny, struggling man... In 1385 Giangaleazzo had seized power in Milan by imprisoning and then poisoning his uncle, Bernabò Visconti, who also happened to be his father-in-law. To befit his new status Giangaleazzo had bribed the emperor Wenceslas IV to grant him the title duke of Milan. He also begun work on a new cathedral in Milan, an enormous Gothic structure complete with pinnacles and flying buttresses-precisely the sort of architecture to which (the Florentines) objected."
...Ross King
Apparently, what "they" were thinking about was to build "big and showy" in much the same way as the Germans and French had done using flying buttresses and ...at least in the minds of the Florentines, in a manner using solutions considered to be "ugly...awkward makeshifts".
Ok, ok...enough! What is going on? For years I thought the flying buttress was a somewhat elegant solution to a tricky engineering problem. Now it turns out that whole groups of people hated the design and not just on style but as it turns out for political reasons as well. It seems there was a lot of "that's the way they do it" going on even back then. |
| The Duomo's flying buttresses |
|  | Of course, at the time of our trip to Milan Carol and I had none of these marvelous insights to temper our impressions of what we considered then...and still consider to be a magnificent cathedral. As we ascended to the roof of the Duomo, our excitement rose proportionally with each marble step. Ultimately we could not get enough of the views of the flying buttresses receding into perspective in much the same way as an image does in a mirrored elevator.
Milan is one the great design centers of the world. Carol and I have been involved in architecture and design most of our lives and in fact it is an important reason why we are together. We knew there would be wonderful opportunities in Milan to see things of great style and were excited by the prospects. The Duomo is what we did first. |
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 Comments for tpal about Milan | | | | |
JLBG Fri Feb 20, 2009 05:30 UTC
I was in Milano a long time ago, I should pay another visit. Ufficio etc is something like tax consultation office for the territory of Milan. Not sure that the Smart car would have handled your luggage! Passenger OR luggage! | Mikebond Wed May 21, 2008 17:38 UTC
I visited Milano at Easter this year, it was my first visit as a tourist. I loved it! I saw a lot of churches and museums, but I don't know when and if my Milano page will be finished. Did you see the painted art nouveau house near Porta Venezia? | penumbra Thu Dec 7, 2006 03:08 UTC
And there still aren’t very many smart cars on North American roads. Makes you wonders if the Europeans aren’t a bit smarter in this regard. | hindu1936 Sun Sep 10, 2006 03:25 UTC
thank you for the advice, photos and good detailed descriptions. |
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