The illumination of a church was an important architectural considera-
tion. Gothic builders had sought to fill their churches with plenty of light
by designing enormous windows filled with stained glass, but the merits of
light' or 'dark' churches were matters of considerable debate during the
Renaissance. Alberti, for example, argued that churches should be dark
inside, lit only by candles and lamps. But Giovanni's complaint about the
murkiness of Santa Maria del Fiore was to be echoed over a century later
in Rome when Michelangelo, taking over the construction of St Peter's,
criticised the previous capomaestro, Antonio da Sangallo, for designing a
dome that would render the cathedral so dark inside that nuns would be
raped and criminals concealed.