| This dissertation provides a major reexamination of the sculpture of Antonio Averlino, called Filarete (c. 1400--c. 1469), focusing on the approximately twenty years he spent in Rome. During this period, Filarete produced his most important sculptural commission, the bronze doors of St. Peter's in the Vatican, as well as a number of innovative small works. In twelve chapters, grouped in four parts, the dissertation discusses these and selected later sculptures from various perspectives.;Part one considers the historiography of the doors of St. Peter's, tracing several distinct traditions of discourse: the negative response of Vasari and subsequent authors who adopted his teleological account of stylistic development, the positive reception in the writings of Filarete's contemporaries and the later guidebook and topographical literature, and the emphasis on iconographic interpretation in the modern scholarship. Part two addresses the question of Filarete's undocumented background and training as a sculptor in Florence. Based on archival research and circumstantial evidence, I argue that Filarete left Florence for Rome earlier than has been assumed. Two of Filarete's small works are assigned to his early years in Rome, while several Florentine sculptures previously attributed to Filarete are removed from his oeuvre.;Part three examines the doors of St. Peter's, clarifying the complex history of the project and the contexts in which it was planned and carried out. I identify the ceremonial role played by the doors' site, the central portal of St. Peter's, as Filarete's primary concern in designing the work and provide new readings of the principal iconographic program and many other features, including the unusual relief on the reverse of the left door depicting Filarete and his assistants celebrating their achievement. The fourth and final part of the dissertation examines Filarete's medals, plaquettes, and statuettes with antique subjects, which are among the earliest examples of their respective genres. I argue that Filarete designed these works to function as all'antica exempla for contemporary princes and trace how his experimentation with this concept engendered a particularly imaginative use of ancient models and led him to create new types of objects. |
