The son of a member of the Wool-combers Guild, Donatello di Niccolò di Betto Bardi was trained in the respectable art of Goldsmithing. During his younger years he hung out with a shy but funny self-taught engineer by the name of Filippo Brunelleschi. Both curious about the tales of fantastic buildings and statues created by the ancient Romans and Greeks from 1,000 years before, they spent several years in Rome passing every waking hour gazing at and studying the ancient buildings such as the Pantheon, the original St. Peter’s Basilica and the Colosseum. Wanting to know every single crack and crevice of these buildings, they were seen laying on the ground drawing images in the dirt and discussing for all hours of the night. Donatello studied them from an artistic perspective, and Brunelleschi, from an architectural point of view. Properly inspired by the ancients, they returned to Florence. Brunelleschi was ready to take on the architectural problems of the Duomo that had plagued the city for over 125 years, and of course Donatello went on to become known as the only sculptor “that could compete with Michelangelo.”