Jacopo Della Quercia

Jacopo della Quercia

 orig. Jacopo di Piero di Angelo

(born c. 1374, Siena—died Oct. 20, 1438, Bologna, Papal States) Italian sculptor active in Siena. He was the son of a goldsmith and wood carver. His earliest major work is the tomb of Ilaria del Carretto in Lucca Cathedral (c. 1406–08). His most important commission for Siena was the fountain known as Fonte Gaia (1408–19) in the Piazza del Campo. He worked with Donatello and Lorenzo Ghiberti on reliefs for the baptismal font in the Baptistery in Siena (1417–30). His last and greatest work was the sculptural reliefs around the portal of San Petronio in Bologna (1425–30). In 1435 he was appointed supervising architect of Siena Cathedral. He elevated Sienese sculpture to a place of prominence and influenced subsequent Sienese painters. The greatest non-Florentine sculptor of the 15th century, he was a major influence on the young Michelangelo.

---

Quercia, Jacopo Della 

Born circa 1374 in Siena; died there Oct. 20, 1438. Italian sculptor. Representative of the Early Renaissance.

In 1401, Quercia took part in the competition for executing reliefs on the northern doors of the Baptistery in Florence. He was active in Siena and Bologna; he also worked in Lucca in 1406 and Ferrara in 1408.

Quercia was influenced by the tradition of Nicola and Giovanni Pisano and by northern Italian sculpture of the turn of the 15th century. The influence of the French Gothic is seen in many of his works, such as the tomb of Ilaria del Carretto in the cathedral of Lucca (1406) and the Trenta Altar in the San Frediano Church in Lucca (1416–22). To a large extent he went beyond the Late Gothic in such later works as the austere and heroic reliefs on the portal of the San Petronio Church in Bologna (Istrian stone, 1425–38).

The dramatic and monumental qualities embodied in the powerful, laconic figures of Quercia’s best works exerted a considerable influence on Michelangelo.

REFERENCES

Libman, M. lakopo della Kvercha. Moscow, 1960.
Seymour, C. Jacopo della Quercia, Sculptor. New Haven-London, 1973.
Jacopo della Quercia nell’arte del suo tempo (exhibit catalog). Florence, 1975.