Michelozzo di Bartolomeo

(1396-1472)

   A follower of Filippo Brunelleschi, Michelozzo was responsible for completing the lantern that caps the dome of the Cathedral of Florence. He was the son of a tailor and began his artistic career as a sculptor. Documents indicate that he worked as Lorenzo Ghiberti's assistant in that capacity. By 1425, Michelozzo was collaborating with Donatello on several tombs, providing the architectural components and some of the sculpture. An example is the Tomb of John XXII (c. 1435) in the Baptistery of Florence to which Michelozzo contributed the Virtues at the base and the Virgin and Child on the lunette. After 1428, he became increasingly active as architect, working mainly for Cosimo de' Medici. In the late 1430s, Cosimo financed the building of the San Marco Monastery, Florence, and its adjacent church. This monastery was occupied by the Sylvestrine Order until 1436 when the monks were expelled and the facilities given instead to the Dominicans, who enjoyed Cosimo's favor. The commission included a library, the first built in the Renaissance and the most successful room in Michelozzo's design. It features a Brunelleschian repetition of arches, columns, and corbels, and two-toned embellishments on wall surfaces. Also from Cosimo came the commission for the building of the Palazzo Medici, begun in 1436 and meant as the Medici's principal residence. Michelozzo's design for this building became the prototype for Florentine palace design for the rest of the 15th century. Michelozzo is also known to have worked in Venice, Pistoia, Montepulciano, Milan, and even Dalmatia. Wherever he worked, he used the architectural innovations he had learned from Brunelleschi, thereby spreading the new Renaissance style outside of Florence.