FEDERIGHI, Antonio
(b. ca. 1420, Siena, d. 1483)

Biography

Italian sculptor and architect. He served as capomaestro of the cathedral workshop in Siena for three decades (1450-81). During this period he was involved in almost every major public artistic enterprise undertaken in the city, which was revitalized following the election (1458) of Aeneas Silvius Piccolomini, a Sienese, as Pope Pius II. First mentioned as an apprentice in the cathedral workshop, Federighi was employed by Jacopo della Quercia in 1438 just before the latter's death. This brief association with Quercia was crucial to the development of Federighi's robust, classicizing style. He designed, and presumably executed, the pavement panels of the cathedral.

Federighi's output in the areas of sculpture and architecture was prodigious, and still today so many of the public monuments in Siena are at least in part his responsibility.