Filarete, Antonio

(Antonio Averlino; c. 1400-1469)

   Florentine architect and sculptor who began his career in Rome. There, Filarete executed the bronze doors of Old St. Peter's, a commission that proved to be a major fiasco, forcing him to leave the city. He arrived in Milan in 1456 where he immediately set out to work on the design of the Ospedale Maggiore, until recently the city's principal hospital. In 1461-1464, Filarete wrote a treatise in which he described an imaginary city called Sforzinda in honor of his patrons, the Sforza rulers of Milan. Filarete based the social structure of Sforzinda, where some vices are tolerated and harmony resides, on Plato's descriptions in the Laws of every aspect of city and suburban life. Giorgio Vasari qualified Filarete's treatise as the most ridiculous book ever written. Regardless of his assessment, the text is of significance to the history of architecture as it exerted great influence on the architectural experiments with centrally planned structures of Leonardo da Vinci and Donato Bramante, also employed by the Sfoza in Milan. It also provides insight into Renaissance attitudes toward urban planning.