Filippo Brunelleschi, (1377 - 1446), was the first great Florentine architect of the Italian Renaissance. His most famous works are all in Florence. His masterpiece is the high, octagonal-ribbed dome of the Duomo (cathedral of Santa Maria del Fiore), completed in 1434, the first notable dome erected in Italy since antiquity.

Brunelleschi was trained as a sculptor in a Florentine workshop and was a member of the goldsmiths' guild. In the competition for the second set of doors for the Florentine Baptistry, he virtually tied with Ghiberti, who executed the famous "Doors of Paradise." He may have worked in Rome with his friend Donatello. His interests extended to mathematics and engineering and the study of ancient monuments. He made early experiments with perspective in painting, and invented hydraulic machinery and elaborate clockwork, none of which survives. Above all Brunelleschi is remembered as an architect who established new classic canons of serene rhythms, clear geometry, and symmetry, often using the simplest materials: grey pietra serena and whitewashed plaster.