Claim: Renaissance art involved Brunelleschi.

Filippo Brunelleschi -LRB- -LSB- fiˈlippo brunelˈleski -RSB- ; 1377 -- April 15 , 1446 -RRB- was an Italian designer and a key figure in architecture , recognised to be the first modern engineer , planner and sole construction supervisor .  He was one of the founding fathers of the Renaissance . He is generally well known for developing a technique for linear perspective in art and for building the dome of the Florence Cathedral . Heavily dependent on mirrors and geometry , to `` reinforce Christian spiritual reality '' , his formulation of linear perspective governed pictorial depiction of space until the late 19th century . It also had the most profound -- and quite unanticipated -- influence on the rise of modern science . His accomplishments also include other architectural works , sculpture , mathematics , engineering , and ship design . His principal surviving works are to be found in Florence , Italy . Unfortunately , his two original linear perspective panels have been lost .   Brunelleschi was born in Florence , Italy . Little is known about his early life , the only sources being Antonio Manetti and Giorgio Vasari . According to these sources , Filippo 's father was Brunellesco di Lippo , a notary , and his mother was Giuliana Spini . Filippo was the middle of their three children . The young Filippo was given a literary and mathematical education intended to enable him to follow in the footsteps of his father , a civil servant . Being artistically inclined , however , Filippo enrolled in the Arte della Seta , the silk merchants ' Guild , which also included goldsmiths , metalworkers , and bronze workers . He became a master goldsmith in 1398 . It was thus not a coincidence that his first important building commission , the Ospedale degli Innocenti , came from the guild to which he belonged .   In 1401 , Brunelleschi entered a competition to design a new set of bronze doors for the Florence Baptistery . Seven competitors each produced a gilded bronze panel , depicting the Sacrifice of Isaac . Brunelleschi 's entry , which , with that of Lorenzo Ghiberti , is one of only two to have survived , made reference to the Greco-Roman Boy with Thorn . Brunelleschi 's panel consists of several pieces bolted to the back plate .