Antonio Federighi

Antonio Federighi (Siena, 1420-1425 – Siena, 1483) was an Italian sculptor and architect, considered one of the greatest artists of the Siena Renaissance and strongly inspired by ancient classical art. His training was, in all probability, in the workshop of Jacopo della Quercia.

It was probably born in Siena around 1420-1425. The first document that he mentions dates back to 1438, where the artist is mentioned in the book books of the Opera of the Duomo of Siena as a garzone, at the time when Capomastro dell’Opera was Jacopo della Quercia. The first work as an autonomous artist among those attributed and prevented to this day are the windows of the Chapel of the Carceri of Sant’Ansano in Castelvecchio (1444), chapel where Pietro del Minella worked and other artists formed in the workshop of Jacopo della Quercia, Thinking that even the Federighi had this formation. The windows show an appeal to the Renaissance square square module, thus attesting a taste of the Federighi for classical works.

Between 1445 and 1446 the artist worked in the Duomo of Siena at the tombstone of Carlo d’Agnolino Bartoli, bishop of Siena and rector of the Hospital of Santa Maria della Scala, who died in 1444. The work is however considered by Peter Of the Minella and the Federighi worked, together with others, only as a stonecutter.

In 1448, the artist purchased a portion of the house in Siena in via delle Donzelle and lived there until his death, buying the remaining portion in 1461. Also in 1448 the artist undertook a trip to Rome where he was able to consolidate his inspiration To classical art, and in 1450 came the first official statement, being elected Capomastro of the Opera of the Duomo of Siena. The staircases of access to the Duomo and the Baptistery and the outer floors of the two buildings are among the first works he coordinates.

From 1451 to 1456 the Federighi worked in Orvieto as Capomastro of the Duomo Opera of that city. It is not clear what prompted the artist to leave his hometown and agree to work in a smaller and less prestigious city, with the same charge. In Orvieto Federighi carried on the work of the facade, performing the Renaissance niches lying lined up above the rose window and later being filled with statues by other artists. He also performed a Sibilla that surmounts the left end of the façade and a beautiful water tank that is still in the church today.

In 1457 the artist returned to Siena and the following year he re-occupied the Capomastro of the Duomo, which remained until 1480. It then began the most prolific period for the artist, a period which continued until all the sixties of the century Which left us many testimonies of his activity.

In 1458-1459 he sculpted the three statues of the Loggia della Mercanzia, depicting Sant’Ansano, San Savino and San Vittore. The two statues depicting St. Peter and St. Paul were instead made by Vecchietta. The comparison between the figures of the two artists, such as the Federighi, was inspired by the mighty figures of Jacopo della Quercia and of classical art while Vecchietta, more inspired by the style of Donatello, sculpted emotionally characterized characters. The Federighi is also attributed to the marble seat which is to the right of the entrance of the same loggia, but later later, probably between 1459 and 1464 (the other was run by Urbano da Cortona).

In 1459 a payment was made for a marble floor on the floor of the Duomo of Siena, probably made in the previous two years, depicting the parable of the blind man who guards the blind, whose remains are preserved in the Museum of the Duomo Opera of the city. Also in 1459 the artist made the two bas-relief busts that are found in the Chapel of the Basilica of St. Francis in Siena, remains of the tombs of Pope Pius II (Vittoria Forteguerri and Silvio Piccolomini) and their commission. The following year, the artist continued to demonstrate his portraiture ability by sculpting a bust of Pious II, which is now preserved in the church of San Benedetto in Polirone, in the province of Mantua, and commissioned by the Abbot of St. Benedict To commemorate the Pope’s visit to that monastery in the same year 1460. At this time, two scenes depicting Sao Paulo in chains and three Roman officers, belonging to the tabernacle of Sixtus IV in the Vatican Caves, performed by Pope Pope II and hence no later than 1464, the year of the death of the pontiff.

Federighi’s activities are also important testimonies within the Duomo of Siena. Between 1458 and 1467 he carried out the two beautiful aqueducts from the allegorical complex meaning that are at the entrance of the church. In 1465-1468, however, the baptismal font is found in the Chapel of St. John the Baptist of the Cathedral. The baptismal font had been carved to bring water to the church on the holy Saturday above a moving cart and only later was given a fixed residence in the chapel. The octagonal source features six scenes from the Genesis depicting the original sin, from which baptism offers the possibility of purification. The addition on the two remaining sides of classical mythological scenes depicting two Hercules companies for the purification of his homicide to the damage of his first wife witness the profound Renaissance and classical culture of the artist. His is also the base of the right column in the entrance portal of the same chapel of St. John the Baptist. The comparison with the left, later carved by the mediocre Giovanni di Stefano, gives merit to federal art.

In the sixties there are also two shield geniuses, exhibited in the Duomo Opera Museum, and the so-called Bacco d’Elei of the Monte dei Paschi di Siena.

But it was not just the sculpture all round or bas-relief the field in which Federighi has been doing in these years. Between 1461 and 1468 the artist completed the crowning of the so-called Chapel of Piazza, which is the building located in the Piazza del Campo projecting from the Public Palace and which had been started in 1352 by the Sienese as a thanksgiving to Our Lady for being Spared by the terrible plague of 1348. In 1461-1463, Pope II Loggia was made on commission by Pope Sienese Pope, who are still at the end of via Banchi di Sotto. In 1465 the Palazzo Bandini-Piccolomini, also attributed to the artist, dates back to the same. In all these monuments is evident the artist’s antiquing taste.

In the seventies the artist’s work became much less prolific, in spite of a more fruitful family activity in which at least four children were born. It is likely that a precarious state of health is responsible for this rarefaction. In 1475 Federighi was commissioned to draw another inlay story for the floor of the cathedral depicting the seven ages of man, which was however rebuilt in the modern era. In 1480 the new Artisan Worker of the Duomo Alberto Aringhieri preferred the most mediocre John of Stephen as Capomaster. However, in 1481 he was entrusted with the execution of a new floor panel depicting the Eritrean Sibyl.

The artist died on January 15, 1483 in Siena and was buried in the Basilica of San Francesco.