Michelozzo

Michelozzo
Fra Angelico's "Deposition"
Born	Michelozzo di Bartolomeo Michelozzi c. 1396 Florence, Italy
Died	October 7, 1472 Florence, Italy
Resting place	Monastery of San Marco
Nationality	Italian
Movement	Early Renaissance
Spouse(s)	Francesca di Ambrogio Galigari

Michelozzo di Bartolomeo Michelozzi (1396–1472) was an Italian architect and sculptor. Considered one of the great pioneers of architecture during the Renaissance, Michelozzo was a favored Medici architect who was extensively employed by Cosimo de' Medici. He was a pupil of Lorenzo Ghiberti in his early years and later collaborated with Donatello.

Known primarily for designing Palazzo Medici Riccardi in Florence, he is often overshadowed by his contemporaries Donatello in sculpture and Brunelleschi in architecture. "He remained for his biographers a shadowy, active, competent, second-rate figure, circling around the glowing glory of the two dominant masters."

Michelozzo was born in Florence in 1396. He was the son of Bartolomeo di Gherardo Borgognone and Antonia. Borgognone was of French origin and arrived in Florence from Burgundy at an unknown date. Borgognone lived and worked in the Santo Croce quarter of Florence as a tailor, and was made a Florentine citizen on April 9, 1376. Michelozzo had three brothers named Leonardo (b. 1389/90), Zanobi (b. 1391), and Giovanni (b. 1403). By 1391, Michelozzo's family had moved to the San Giovanni quarter, where they continued to live throughout his life.

Little is known about Michelozzo's childhood, other than that he received a comprehensive education in reading, writing, and arithmetic, and that he began working as a die-engraver for the Florentine mint in 1410. As an engraver, Michelozzo learned how to cast, chase, and gild copper and bronze, two of the metals in which the Medieval and Renaissance goldsmith most commonly worked. He also gained immense precision of hand and a mastery of sculptural design in miniature.

Beginning in the early 1420s, Michelozzo became a member of the Arte di Maestri di Pietra e Legname, one of the Guilds of Florence that represented the master stonemasons, wood-carvers, and sculptors. He later served as one of the consuls of the Guild in 1430.