WHEN CONNECTION FAILS

WHEN CONNECTION FAILS

Filippo Brunelleschi, the great Renaissance artist and architect, was excellent at his work and was revered by other artists across the world.

There also was another artist, Lorenzo Ghiberti, who though was not adept at work but was notorious to take credit for others’ work due to his influential connections with powerful people.

The upset artists once complained about this to Filippo and asked him to come up with a solution.

The time came soon. On one occasion Filippo had been engaged to repair the dome of the Santa Maria del Fiore cathedral in Florence. The commission was important and prestigious. Filippo suggested that he would not mind another artist helping him. So the city officials hired a second man, Lorenzo Ghiberti, to work with Brunelleschi. The plan was working. Filippo knew that Ghiberti had gotten the job through his connections and that he would do none of the work and get half the credit. At a critical moment of the construction, then, Brunelleschi suddenly developed a mysterious illness. He had to stop work, but pointed out to city officials that they had hired Ghiberti, who should have been able to continue the work on his own. Soon it became clear that Ghiberti was useless and the officials came begging to Brunelleschi. He ignored them, insisting that Ghiberti should finish the project, until finally they realized the problem: They fired Ghiberti.

Brunelleschi came back and finished the project in no time with utmost precision. He also mandated the city officials to hire artists as per their merit and talent and not connections.

Author unknown