(b Borgo a Buggiano, Pistoia, 1412; d Florence, 21 Feb 1461/2). Italian decorator and sculptor. He was the son of Lazzaro Cavalcanti but was adopted at the age of seven by Filippo Brunelleschi and lived with him near S Michele Berteldi, where from an early age Brunelleschi put him to work at the cathedral in nearby Florence. As an apprentice he carved the marble cornices for the windows of the tribunes (1429). Two years later he worked on the sacristy chapel of Cosimo de' Medici (the Old Sacristy) in S Lorenzo, Florence, where he executed the marble altar, which is decorated with three panels, separated with marble semi-colonettes, one of which includes figures of the Virgin and Child. In the same chapel he executed the tomb of Cosimo's father, Giovanni di Averardo, which takes the form of an antique sarcophagus decorated with garlands and groups of putti carrying scrolls. In 1433 Buggiano fled to Naples with his payment for this work, which had been withheld by Brunelleschi, and met up with some Florentine sculptors from the circle of Donatello. Through the intervention of Pope Eugene IV and Giovanna II, Queen of Naples, Brunelleschi resolved the matter within a year. By 1438 Buggiano was back in Florence working on a marble lavabo in the Sagrestia delle Messe in the cathedral, a commission that had been given to Brunelleschi in 1432. This work, conceived as a Classical aedicula surrounding two putti in low relief sitting on a cushion and surmounted with a triangular pediment, was completed in 1440. In 1442 Buggiano began work on a similar marble lavabo for the Sagrestia dei Canonici of the cathedral. This version is more lively, both in its subject-matter and decoration, while the handling shows the influence of Donatello. In the same period, Buggiano carved other works in marble for the cathedral, including a tabernacle of Corpus Christi (1443), eventually placed in the lateral tribune on the north side; the fluted columns and cornice of the altar of the SS Sacramento (1446), based on a design by Michelozzo di Bartolommeo and located in the same tribune; and the funerary monument to Filippo Brunelleschi (see fig.), consisting of a tondo containing his bust (1447-8). The features of the bust repeat those of the plaster death mask (Florence, Mus. Opera Duomo), which may have been made by Buggiano.
See the Abbreviations for further details.
