Page 1, Panel 1:
     “...early 1400’s...” – The exact date is uncertain, most claiming it was likely around 1425. [King, 34] states that it must have been earlier, because de Prato in 1413 refers to “the perspective expert, ingenious man, Filippo di Ser Brunellesco, remarkable for skill and fame,” and [Holmes, 215] says that a small marble relief Donatello made about 1415-17 is the first application of Brunelleschi’s teachings.
     “...a goldsmith...” – Most of the artists of the time began as goldsmiths. Brunelleschi and Lorenzo Ghiberti took part in a heated contest to cast the Baptistry doors. Brunelleschi narrowly lost, leaving him time for other projects and he and Ghiberti bitter enemies.
     “25,000 tons” – [Battisti, 114]
     “accurately portray architecture” – “although Brunelleschi’s linear perspective method was eventually adopted by painters and sculptors, it was ‘devoted to the representation of architecture’ when it was invented and...Brunelleschi had ‘proceeded along lines strictly architectural in thought.’ ” [Hyman, 19-20, quotes Krautheimer]
Page 1, Panel 2:
     The fixed eyepiece (discussed next) has been removed here for clarity. Brunelleschi’s appearance is based on [Battisti 16, 17]. As the first “artist-celebrity,” Brunelleschi was fortunate enough to have several pictures of himself painted, and a sculpture done by his adopted son (which is what I based his garb on, although it is unlikely that he actually wore anything like this Roman-type outfit). It is also unlikely that he looked anything like Elmer Fudd, despite what my poor drawings seem to attest.
Page 2, Panel 1:
     Although my reconstruction of Brunelleschi’s experiment is primarily based on [Edgerton] and [Manetti], I have added two important features. First, I have the panel and mirror set at a definate place, rather than held in the hand (the lead mirrors of the Middle Ages would have been quite heavy to hold with one hand). Second, I have Brunelleschi look through a small eyepiece, similar to in Dürer’s woodcuts, to keep the viewpoint steady.
Page 3, Panel 2:
     Because I have Brunelleschi take a more experimental approach, unlike [Damisch], I do not believe that Brunelleschi would have immediately discovered a vanishing point in either this panel or the next one, of the piazza of the Palazzo dei Signori. Instead, he probably was only able to show that all lines receding into the distance approach the horizon line. There is a good chance, however, that Brunelleschi knew exactly what he was looking for, thanks in part to his friend and famed mathematician Toscanelli (1397-1482).
Page 4, Panel 2:
     The wooden panel was half a braccia square, a braccia being a unit of measurement about one third of a man’s height. This put the panel at about 27 cm wide by 31 cm high. [Battisti, 104] I used exactly this ratio for the panels on page 5 and 7.
Page 6, Panel 5:
     The viewer/friend here is based on [Dürer, 189]. Although I am exaggerating Brunelleschi’s stature here, he was rather short: 5’4” [Battisti, 16], as Vasari relates: “It frequently happens that men of insignificant appearance posses great generosity of spirit...This appears in Filippo di ser Brunellesco...who [was] of mean appearance.” [Hyman 72]
     Unrelated, many authors persist (to this day) in pointing out that Brunelleschi had above average cranial capacity, a fact which means absolutetly nothing unless you are a damned phrenologist. For instance, [King] and [Battisti] mention it as if were important knowledge about Brunelleschi rather than the meaningless blather it is.
     The panel and the mirror would actually have been a bit closer than shown here. Page 6, Panel 6:
     “And he placed burnished silver where the sky had to be represented, that is to say, where the buildings of the painting were free in the air, so that the real air and atmosphere were reflected in it, and thus the clouds seen in the silver are carried along by the wind as it blows.” [Hyman, 66, quoting from Manetti] This is all the more reason for a fixed mirror and panel; if the mirror and panel were not held perfectly perpindicular to each other, especially angled in slightly, then you would lose completely the effect on page 7.
     Furthermore, some claim “that Brunelleschi assumed that the sky simply could not be represented because it could not be geometrized.” [Perez-Gomez, 25, paraphrasing Damisch]
Page 7:
     The appearance of the panel is based on [Anthony], [Battisti, 102-109], [Damisch, 92-111], and Edgerton [144-149]
Page 8, Panel 1:
     “The hole was as tiny as a lentil bean on the painted side and it widened conically like a woman’s straw hat to about the circumfrence of a ducat, or a bit more, on the reverse side.” [Manetti, 44]
Page 8, Panel 3:
     Brunelleschi was not known for suffering fools. [Manetti] and [Vasari] are particularly good sources for (likely apocryphal) stories about his practical jokes and sarcastic responses. There are maybe two remarks that can be attributed first-hand to Filippo. The longest is in response to a sonnet written by Acquettini, attacking Brunelleschi as a “pit of ignorance...miserable beast and imbecile” for designing a ship to travel the Arno carrying supplies to Florence for the ongoing S. Maria del Fiore dome. Brunelleschi responded (in part): “When hope is given us by Heaven / O you ridiculous looking beast / We rise above corruptible matter / And gain the strength of clearest sight...” [Hyman 32, 33] Acquettini was right in one respect, however: Brunelleschi’s monstrous ship was a giant failure for everyone concerned.
     The Baptistry appears stretched out here for no reason other than poor draftsmanship on my part.
     Shortly after this experiment, which Brunelleschi likely showed to all of his friends and artists in Florence (unfortunately the panel he painted is no longer extant), every noteworthy artist in Florence began painting into their pictures elaborate architectural details in perspective. Masaccio’s The Trinity (1426-27) is the most often sited example of succesful application of Brunelleschi’s perspective for architecture and composition.

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References: Primary Sources

Alberti, Leon Battista. On Painting. Translated by John R. Spencer. New Haven; Yale University Press, 1966.
Battisti, Eugenio. Filippo Brunelleschi: The Complete Work. Translated by Robert Erich Wolf. New York; Rizzoli, 1981.
Borsi, Franco. Leon Battista Alberti. Translated by Rudolf G. Carpanini. New York; Harper & Row, 1977.
Damisch, Hubert. The Origin of Perspective. Translated by John Goodman. Cambridge, Mass; MIT Press, 1994.
Edgerton, Samuel Y. The Renaissance Rediscovery of Linear Perspective. New York; Basic Books, 1975.
Hyman, Isabelle, comp. Brunelleschi in Perspective. Englewood Cliffs, N.J.; Prentice-Hall, 1974.
King, Ross. Brunelleschi’s Dome. New York; Penguin, 2001.
Manetti, Antonia di Tuccio. The Life of Brunelleschi. Introduction and critical notes by Howard Saalman, translated by Catherine Enggass. University Park, Pennsylvania; The Pennsylvania State University Press, 1970.
Panofsky, Erwin. Renaissance and Renascences in Western Art. Stockholm; Almqvist & Wiksell, 1965.

Other Sources:

Anthony, Edgar Waterman. Early Florentine Architecture and Decoration. New York; Hacker arts Books, 1975.
Brucker, Gene A. Renaissance Florence. New York; John Wiley Sons, 1969.
Dürer, Albrecht. The Complete Woodcuts of Albrecht Dürer. Edited by Willi Kurth. New York; Dover Publications, 1963.
Field, Judith Veronica. The Invention of Infinity: Mathematics and Art in the Renaissance. Oxford, Oxford University Press, 1997.
Holmes, George. The Florentine Enlightenment 1400-50. New York; Pegasus, 1969.
Ivins, William Mills. On The Rationalization of Sight, with an Examination of Three Renaissance Texts on Perspective by Viator. New York; Da Capo Press, 1973.
Lane, Frederic Chapin. Venetian Ships and Shipbuilders of the Renaissance. Baltimore; Johns Hopkins Press, 1934.
Perez-Gomez, Alberto. Architectural Representation and the Perspective Hinge. Cambridge, Mass.; MIT Press, 1997.
Rivoira, Giovanni Teresio. Roman Architecture. Translated by G. McN. Rushforth. New York; Hacker Arts Books, 1972.

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