22 Facts About Michelozzo

Michelozzo was a pupil of Lorenzo Ghiberti in his early years, and later collaborated with Donatello.

Michelozzo was the son of Bartolomeo di Gherardo Borgognone and Antonia.

Michelozzo gained immense precision of hand and a mastery of sculptural design in miniature.

Michelozzo later served as one of the consuls of the Guild in 1430.

Michelozzo's father died sometime before 1427, and his mother passed sometime between 1433 and 1442.

Michelozzo retained the family residence on Via Larga, which was near the Medici Palace and next door to the humanist Bartolomeo Scala.

Michelozzo became the partner responsible for the architectural frames of Donatello's sculptures such as the funerary monument of Antipope John XXIII.

In 1428, together with Donatello, Michelozzo erected an open-air pulpit at an angle of the Cathedral of St Stephen at Prato, designed for the regular public displays of their famous relic, the Girdle of Thomas.

Michelozzo enjoyed a close relationship to Cosimo de' Medici throughout his life, and according to Giorgio Vasari in The Lives of the Most Excellent Painters, Sculptors, and Architects, from Cimabue to Our Times, was motivated by his great love and fidelity for Cosimo to accompany him into exile in Venice from 1433 to 1434.

Vasari claimed that Michelozzo built the library of San Giorgio Monastery in 1434 for Cosimo, though this claim contradicts the original description and documents of the library, which indicate that although the library's construction was started by Cosimo, it was largely built under the direction of Medici bank manager Giovanni d'Orino Lanfredini between 1467 and 1478, which was well after Michelozzo's departure from Venice.

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 the church.

In 1441, Michelozzo launched a legal complaint to remove himself from the responsibility of his two older brothers' debts.

Andrea di Benozo, representative for Giovanni, Zanobi, and Michelozzo, elected arbitrators to weigh the complaints.

Michelozzo excelled in literature and philosophy, and he later became secretary to Piero di Cosimo and continued in the post under Piero di Lorenzo.

Brunelleschi's influence on Michelozzo is evident in the palazzo's design, especially in the late-medieval bifora windows, the symmetry and the dominance of the entrance axis, and the combination of traditional and progressive elements.

Unlike Brunelleschi, Michelozzo was able to finish what he started, largely due to Michelozzo's efficiency and due to the availability of adequate financing from Cosimo throughout the campaign.

In designing the Santissima Annunziata, Michelozzo followed the model of the Minerva Medica in Rome, making the inner plan round, creating a dome that was as hemispheric the Pantheon, and detailing it with a ten-sided exterior with deep, over-semicircular chapels.

Michelozzo opted for a drum and a dome without ribs.

Michelozzo is buried in the monastery of San Marco, Florence.

One of the most influential, yet unknown, architects of the Early Renaissance, Michelozzo's designs paved the way for the rapid development of the Central Italian Palazzo type.

Michelozzo developed the aisleless church and became the pioneer of a plan-type of sacred building, which is the most important in modern times.

Michelozzo transformed secular building and his adaptability in use of traditional forms enabled him to evolve good compromise solutions for distant regions, such as Lombardy and Dalmatia.