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.