Antonio di Pietro Averlino

Antonio di Pietro Averlino (Italian pronunciation: [anˈtɔːnjo di ˈpjɛːtro averˈliːno]; c. 1400 – c. 1469), also "Averulino", known as Filarete (Italian pronunciation: [filaˈrɛːte]; from Greek: φιλάρετος, meaning "lover of excellence"), was a Florentine Renaissance architect, sculptor, medallist, and architectural theorist. He is perhaps best remembered for his design of the ideal city of Sforzinda, the first ideal city plan of the Renaissance.

Antonio di Pietro Averlino was born c. 1400 in Florence where he probably trained as a craftsman. Sources suggest that he worked in Florence under the Italian painter, architect, and biographer Lorenzo Ghiberti, who gave him his more famous name “Filarete” which means “a lover of virtue”. In the mid 15th century, Filarete was expelled from Rome after being accused of attempting to steal the head of John the Baptist and he moved to Venice and then eventually to Milan. There he became a ducal engineer and worked on a variety of architectural projects for the next fifteen years. According to his biographer, Vasari, Filarete died in Rome c. 1469.

A commission granted by Pope Eugene IV meant that Filarete, over the course of twelve years, cast the bronze central doors for Old St. Peter's Basilica in Rome, which were completed in 1445. Although they were created during the Renaissance, the doors have distinct Byzantine influences and seem tied to the Medieval era. Some critics have noted that the doors offer a glimpse into the mind of Filarete, claiming that they show his “mind of medieval complexity crammed full of exciting but not quite assimilated classical learning”.

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