FILARETE

The bronze door was created between 1433, the year Filarete arrived in Rome an was present at the coronation of Sigismund as Holy Roman Emperor, and 1445, as can be seen from the inscription on the back of the door, which includes a representation of Filarete and his assistants. In a single work the sculptor successfully combined Christian iconography with antique decorative motifs as well as creating a record of the most significant political and ecclesiastical event of the day, the Council of Florence.

The scenes on the door include Christ the Pantocrator, the Annunciation, St Paul, and St Peter with Pope Eugenius IV. At the bottom are two scenes of martyrdom, the Beheading of St Paul, and the Crucifixion of St Peter.

Filarete is first recorded in 1433 in Rome, where he attended the coronation of the Emperor Sigismund. Presumably the same year he was commissioned by Pope Eugenius IV to design and execute the bronze door of the main porch of the old St Peter’s (inscribed and dated, 1445). The unsettled political conditions during the pontificate of Eugenius IV (1431-47) and the depiction of events during 1438-42 in the small, friezelike reliefs have led to the supposition that Filarete was not continuously engaged on the door and at one point was given a change of programme.

The two wings of the door each consist of three rectangular fields of different size with large figures; between these are smaller figural friezes. Pope Paul V later removed the doors (1619) to the central porch of the new St Peter’s, where narrow rectangular fields were added above and below. The figures portrayed in the main fields are: Christ enthroned giving his blessing (top left); Mary enthroned (top right); St Paul (middle left); St Peter with Eugenius IV kneeling at his feet being given the keys (middle right); the martyrdom of St Paul (bottom left); and the martyrdom of St Peter (bottom right). The small friezelike figures in the relief between the main fields portray events from the pontificate of Eugenius IV. Antique and contemporary portraits, mythological scenes and animals are inserted in the acanthus tendrils.

The juxtaposition of Classical and Early Christian elements is a remarkable feature of the door, which is one of the earliest examples of Roman Renaissance sculpture. The scheme is intended to portray the primacy of the Roman Catholic Church and the Papacy, with its seat in Rome, in both its spiritual and temporal aspect. Stylistically the influence of the Classical world is visible in such detailed motifs as the disciples’ clothing, the architecture and topographical reconstructions of the city of Rome, the acanthus tendrils and the profiles of Caesar and mythological scenes taken from Ovid’s Metamorphoses.

At the back of the door (bottom right) there is a strip of bronze, which depicts Filarete leading his assistants in a sort of dance. The figures are flanked by a man on a donkey and a man on a dromedary. No one has yet come up with an explanation for their presence.

The figures portrayed in the main fields are: Christ enthroned giving his blessing (top left); Mary enthroned (top right); St Paul (middle left); St Peter with Eugenius IV kneeling at his feet being given the keys (middle right); the martyrdom of St Paul (bottom left); and the martyrdom of St Peter (bottom right).

The figures portrayed in the main fields are: Christ enthroned giving his blessing (top left); Mary enthroned (top right); St Paul (middle left); St Peter with Eugenius IV kneeling at his feet being given the keys (middle right); the martyrdom of St Paul (bottom left); and the martyrdom of St Peter (bottom right).

The iconography of Christ, Mary, Peter and Paul in the principal fields follows Early Christian traditions.

The small friezelike figures in the relief between the main fields portray events from the pontificate of Eugenius IV. Antique and contemporary portraits, mythological scenes and animals are inserted in the acanthus tendrils.

The picture shows the scene of crowning Emperor Sigismund by Pope Eugenius IV in Rome on 31 May 1433.

The depiction of the crucifixion of St Peter on a mountain between two pyramids, the Castel Sant’Angelo and a tree, shows a mixture of various medieval and contemporary interpretations of the tradition of the crucifixion ‘inter duas metas’.

There was a very popular belief that lasted throughout the Middle Ages, according to which St Peter had been crucified inter duas metas, i.e. between two monuments, both of which identified as a meta. Representations of the Crucifixion of St Peter from the 13th-15th centuries illustrate this tradition, as seen from the paintings of Cimabue in the Upper Church, San Francesco, Assisi, Giotto in the Stefaneschi Triptych, Deodato di Orlandi in San Piero a Grado, Pisa, or Masaccio in the Pisa Altarpiece.

The depiction of the crucifixion of St Peter on a mountain between two pyramids, the Castel Sant’Angelo and a tree, shows a mixture of various medieval and contemporary interpretations of the tradition of the crucifixion ‘inter duas metas’.

There was a very popular belief that lasted throughout the Middle Ages, according to which St Peter had been crucified inter duas metas, i.e. between two monuments, both of which identified as a meta. Representations of the Crucifixion of St Peter from the 13th-15th centuries illustrate this tradition, as seen from the paintings of Cimabue in the Upper Church, San Francesco, Assisi, Giotto in the Stefaneschi Triptych, Deodato di Orlandi in San Piero a Grado, Pisa, or Masaccio in the Pisa Altarpiece.

This bronze relief depicting the martyrdom of St Peter is on the door of St Peter’s executed by Filarete in the style of Ghiberti.

The figures portrayed in the main fields are: Christ enthroned giving his blessing (top left); Mary enthroned (top right); St Paul (middle left); St Peter with Eugenius IV kneeling at his feet being given the keys (middle right); the martyrdom of St Paul (bottom left); and the martyrdom of St Peter (bottom right).

The iconography of Christ, Mary, Peter and Paul in the principal fields follows Early Christian traditions.

The small friezelike figures in the relief between the main fields portray events from the pontificate of Eugenius IV. Antique and contemporary portraits, mythological scenes and animals are inserted in the acanthus tendrils.

The picture shows one of the mythological scenes, the Rape of Europa.

The figures portrayed in the main fields are: Christ enthroned giving his blessing (top left); Mary enthroned (top right); St Paul (middle left); St Peter with Eugenius IV kneeling at his feet being given the keys (middle right); the martyrdom of St Paul (bottom left); and the martyrdom of St Peter (bottom right).

The iconography of Christ, Mary, Peter and Paul in the principal fields follows Early Christian traditions.

The picture shows the reliefs from the bronze doors of Old St Peter depicting St Paul and St Peter Giving the Keys to Pope Eugenius IV.

The figures portrayed in the main fields are: Christ enthroned giving his blessing (top left); Mary enthroned (top right); St Paul (middle left); St Peter with Eugenius IV kneeling at his feet being given the keys (middle right); the martyrdom of St Paul (bottom left); and the martyrdom of St Peter (bottom right).

The iconography of Christ, Mary, Peter and Paul in the principal fields follows Early Christian traditions.

The statue is a small-scale copy of the famous Roman monument.

In 1451 Filarete accepted an invitation from Duke Francesco Sforza to move to Milan, where he started a new career as architect and architectural theorist. He stayed in Milan until 1465, his most important work there being the Ospedale Maggiore, commissioned by Sforza in 1456 with the object of uniting the city’s many small hospitals into a single complex. After recurrent difficulties with the hospital management, local building workers and perhaps also with Sforza himself, Filarete resigned his post as building superintendent in 1465, when only a small part of the project had been completed. His successors, Guiniforte Solari (1429-81) and later Giovanni Antonio Amadeo, continued the construction but with a partial change of design. Further alterations in the 17th and 18th centuries mean that the only parts of the present building built to Filarete’s design are the south cross-shaped hall with its four courts and accompanying fa�ades.

However, in his Trattato, Filarete gave detailed information about his project. His planned layout was completely axio-symmetrical: two large, cruciform halls, each embraced by four small courts, would have flanked a central court, with a church in the middle. The cruciform halls were to contain the beds, located according to the patients’ illness and sex, all with a direct view of the altar, which was to stand under the domed crossing of the four arms.

The photo shows the central courtyard (Cortile della Speziera).

View the ground plan of Ospedale Maggiore, Milan.

In 1451 Filarete accepted an invitation from Duke Francesco Sforza to move to Milan, where he started a new career as architect and architectural theorist. He stayed in Milan until 1465, his most important work there being the Ospedale Maggiore, commissioned by Sforza in 1456 with the object of uniting the city’s many small hospitals into a single complex. After recurrent difficulties with the hospital management, local building workers and perhaps also with Sforza himself, Filarete resigned his post as building superintendent in 1465, when only a small part of the project had been completed. His successors, Guiniforte Solari (1429-81) and later Giovanni Antonio Amadeo, continued the construction but with a partial change of design. Further alterations in the 17th and 18th centuries mean that the only parts of the present building built to Filarete’s design are the south cross-shaped hall with its four courts and accompanying fa�ades.

However, in his Trattato, Filarete gave detailed information about his project. His planned layout was completely axio-symmetrical: two large, cruciform halls, each embraced by four small courts, would have flanked a central court, with a church in the middle. The cruciform halls were to contain the beds, located according to the patients’ illness and sex, all with a direct view of the altar, which was to stand under the domed crossing of the four arms.

The photo shows the central courtyard (Cortile della Speziera).

View the ground plan of Ospedale Maggiore, Milan.

The Ospedale Maggiore, traditionally named Ca’ Granda (i.e. Big House), is a building in the centre of Milan. It was constructed to house one of the first community hospitals, the largest such undertaking of the fifteenth century. Commissioned by Francesco Sforza in 1456 and designed by Filarete it is among the first examples of Renaissance architecture in Lombardy.

The old buildings of the Ospedale Maggiore host today the State University of Milan.

The photo shows the central courtyard (Cortile della Speziera).

Between 1460 and 1464 Filarete wrote his famed Trattato d’architettura (Treatise on Architecture). The Trattato was the first Renaissance architectural treatise to be written in vernacular Italian and illustrated with drawings and was an important work in the development of Renaissance architectural theory. (An English translation by John R. Spencer was published in two volumes in 1965.)

Filarete’s most significant contribution to Renaissance architectural theory lies in his remarks on the origin of architecture and its anthropomorphic proportions, planning stage method and finally in his project for the ideal town of Sforzinda. Like Vitruvius, Filarete traced the origin of architecture to primordial dwellings, but he gave the analysis a Christian slant by identifying Adam as the first architect. As the prototype of humanity, Adam is also seen as originating the proportions of columns. The proportions of the vertical supports in the first human habitation, which were subsequently developed into columns, therefore already correspond to those of the human body, and the anthropomorphic proportions of architecture are established in the first human dwelling. The human head becomes the basic unit for all measurements.

Inspired by Leon Battista Alberti’s treatise De re aedificatoria, Filarete’s work describes a model city called Sforzinda, the first ideal town of the Renaissance to be planned and illustrated in detail. Sforzinda is planned as an octagonal central town with a radial network of streets, in the middle of which is the principal square with the cathedral, the Palazzo Signorile and adjoining markets. Two further squares with public and commercial buildings adjoin the central square. The parish churches and monastery churches are placed in the main thoroughfares.

Among the projects he envisioned for this ideal Renaissance city was the tower of Vice and Virtue - a 10-story structure with a brothel on the first floor and an astronomical observatory on the 10th. Sforzinda was unusual for its time in providing for long-term imprisonment, since in the imagined community there was to be no death penalty.

The drawing is from Filarete’s Trattato d’architettura.

Early on, Filarete showed an interest in self-commemoration by including two self-portraits on the bronze doors that he made for St. Peter’s Basilica in Rome. On the obverse of the present medal, the presentation of the portrait bust facing to the right is essentially the same as on the front of the doors of the basilica, although he looks older. On the reverse, he appears much as on the back of the basilica doors, full-length, wearing the same kind of clothing and hat, and similarly active. Here he wields chisel and hammer as he makes an opening in a laurel tree from which the honey in a hive streams down the trunk, forming a great pool. The scene is filled with Filarete’s beloved bees, in all different sizes, hovering about, while a sun, complete with a benign face, seems to perch on the tree, bestowing its beneficent rays upon the whole operation.

Filarete is indebted to Alberti in the oval form and in the inclusion of the artist’s personal device on the obverse.

In 1456, the duke Francesco Sforza and Bianca Maria Visconti, his wife as well as staunch backer of the Sforza’s policy in providing assistance, laid the foundation stone of the hospitale grando, the “big hospital,” that by incorporating the administration of sixteen hospitals operating at that time in the city earned the appellation of maggiore, or “major.” Thanks not only to the quality of the services it provided to patients from all extractions and provenance, including non-residents and foreigners, but also to its ability to attract voluntary workers as well as donations from benefactors, the hospital was soon being acknowledged as the Ca’ Granda de’ Milanesi, the “Big House of the Milanese”.

The project was initially entrusted to Filarete, who sought inspiration from the potent symbol of the cross. The layout involved two crossbars, one for men and the other for female patients, developing within a square, each defining four square-shaped inner courtyards. The two larger blocks were thus connected by a large rectangular courtyard at the centre of which stood a church. The project underwent significant changes as the original architectural solutions had to be adapted to the rigours of the local climate and also scaled down as a consequence of the chronic lack of funds, that slowed down work to such an extent that construction was terminated but a few centuries later.

The engraving showing the view of the Ca’ Granda is by the German draftsman and engraver Friedrich Bernhard Werner (1690-1778).

View the ground plan and fa�ade of the building, from the book of Filarete.