MICHELOZZO DI BARTOLOMMEO (1391-1472?)

This article appears in Volume V18, Page 371 of the Encyclopedia Britannica.

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MICHELOZZO DI BARTOLOMMEO (1391-1472?) , Italian sculptor, was a Florentine by

birth

BIRTH (a word common in various forms to Teutonic languages from the root of the verb " to bear ")

, the son of a tailor, and in early life a pupil of Donatello. He worked in marble, bronze and silver. The statue of the

young

St John over the door of the Duomo at Florence, opposite the

Baptistery

BAPTISTERY (Baptislerium, in the Greek Church 4wrurrilpiov)

, is by him; and he also made the beautiful silver statuette of the Baptist on the altar-frontal of San Giovanni. Michelozzo's great friend and patron was Cosimo dei Medici, whom he accompanied to Venice in 1433 during his short

exile

EXILE (Lat. exsilium or exilium, from exsul or exul, which is derived from ex, out of, and the root sal, to go, seen in salire, to leap,
consul
- CONSUL
- CONSUL (in Gr. generally ihraros,ashortened form of errpavgybs 8hraeos, i.e. praetor maximus)
, &c.; the connexion with solum, soil, country is now generally considered wrong)

. While at Venice, Michelozzo built the library of San Giorgio

Maggiore

MAGGIORE, LAGO (Lacus Verbanus of the Romans; Fr. Lac Majeur; Ger. Langensee)

, and designed other buildings there. In 1428, together with Donatello, he erected an open-air pulpit at an angle of the cathedral of St Stephen at Prato. The magnificent Palazzo dei Medici at Florence built by Cosimo, was designed by him; it is one of the noblest specimens of Italian 15th-century architecture, in which the great taste and skill of the architect has combined the delicate lightness of the earlier Italian

Gothic

GOTHIC

with the massive stateliness of the classical style. With great engineering skill Michelozzo shored up, and partly rebuilt, the Palazzo Vecchio, then in a ruinous condition, and added to it many important rooms and staircases. When, in 1437, through Cosimo's liberality, the monastery of San Marco at Florence was handed over to the Dominicans of Fiesole, Michelozzo was employed to rebuild the domestic part and remodel thechurch. For Cosimo I. he designed numerous other buildings, mostly of great beauty and importance. Among these were a guest-

house

HOUSE
HOUSE (O. Eng. hiss, a word common to Teutonic languages, cf. Dut. huis, Ger. Haus; in
Gothic
- GOTHIC
it is only found in gudhiss, a temple; it may be ultimately connected with the root of " hide," conceal)

at Jerusalem for the use of Florentine pilgrims, Cosimo's summer villa at Careggi, and the strongly fortified palace of Cafagiuolo in Mugello. For Giovanni dei Medici, Cosimo's son, he built a very large and magnificent palace at Fiesole. In spite of

Vasari

VASARI, GIORGIO (1511-1571)

's statement that he died at the age of sixty-eight, he appears to have lived till 1472. He is buried in the monastery of San Marco, Florence. Though skilled both as a sculptor and engineer, his fame chiefly rests on his architectural works, which claim for him a position of very high honour even among the greatest names of the great 15th-century Florentines.
See Hans Stegmann, Michelozzo di Bartolommeo, eine kunstgeschichtliche Studie (1888) ; Fritz Wolff, Michelozzo di Bartolommeo (t9oo) ; cf. also Hans

Semper

SEMPER, GOTTFRIED (1803–1879)

, Donatello (1887).

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