Cincinnatus at the Plough, mid-15th century
Il Filarete (Antonio di Pietro Averlino) (Italian, ca. 1400–ca. 1469)
Italy (Rome)
Bronze
Artist Biography
Technical Glossary
Il Filarete (Antonio di Pietro Averlino) (Italian, ca. 1400–ca. 1469)
Italy (Rome)
Bronze
2 1/2 x 5 5/16 in. (6.4 x 13.6 cm)
Edith Perry Chapman Fund, 1996 (1996.116)
Filarete was the earliest Renaissance maker of bronze plaquettes after his own designs, byproducts of his work on the bronze double door of Saint Peter's Basilica in Rome (ca. 1433–45). The door's main reliefs have Christian subjects, but its borders contain figures and myths from classical antiquity. This energetic scene shows the reluctant Roman dictator Cincinnatus, who preferred the rewards of farming to the highest state honors. Only two other examples are known (Staatliche Münzsammlung, Berlin, and Musée du Louvre, Paris).
Related
Index Terms
Artist
Geography/Place
Material and Technique
- Metalwork, Bronze
- Metalwork, Bronze, Europe
- Sculpture, In the Round, Europe
- Sculpture, in the Round, Europe, Italian Peninsula
