Filippo Brunelleschi

Filippo di ser Brunellesco di Lippo Lapi (1377 – 15 April 1446), commonly known as Filippo Brunelleschi (ˌbruːnəˈlɛski , fiˈlippo brunelˈleski) and also nicknamed Pippo by Leon Battista Alberti, was an Italian architect, designer, goldsmith and sculptor. He is considered to be a founding father of Renaissance architecture. He is recognized as the first modern engineer, planner, and sole construction supervisor. In 1421, Brunelleschi became the first person to receive a patent in the Western world. He is most famous for designing the dome of the Florence Cathedral, and for the mathematical technique of linear perspective in art which governed pictorial depictions of space until the late 19th century and influenced the rise of modern science. His accomplishments also include other architectural works, sculpture, mathematics, engineering, and ship design. Most surviving works can be found in Florence. Brunelleschi was born in Florence, Italy, in 1377. His father was Brunellesco di Lippo (born 1331), a notary and civil servant. His mother was Giuliana Spini; he had two brothers. The family was well-off; the palace of the Spini family still exists, across from the Church of the Trinità in Florence. The young Filippo was given a literary and mathematical education to enable him to follow the father's career. Being artistically inclined, however, Filippo, at the age of fifteen, was apprenticed at the Arte della Seta, the silk merchants' guild, the wealthiest and most prestigious guild in the city, which also included jewellers and metal craftsmen. In December 1398, he became a master goldsmith and a sculptor working with cast bronze. Brunelleschi's earliest surviving sculptures are two small bronze statues of evangelists and saints (1399–1400) made for the altar of the Crucifix Chapel Pistoia Cathedral. He paused this project in 1400, when he was chosen to simultaneously serve two representative councils of the Florentine government for about four months. Around the end of 1400, the city of Florence decided to create new sculpted and gilded bronze doors for the Florence Baptistery.