Jacopo della Quercia

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Jacopo della Quercia
Born
Jacopo di Pietro d'Agnolo di Guarnieri

c. 1374
Quercegrossa near Siena, Republic of Siena
Died20 October 1438(1438-10-20) (aged 63–64)
Siena, Republic of Siena
NationalityItalian
Known forSculpture
Notable workThe Tomb of Ilaria del Carretto
MovementEarly Renaissance

Jacopo della Quercia (/ˌdɛlə ˈkwɛərtʃə/,[1] Italian: [ˈjaːkopo della ˈkwɛrtʃa]; c. 1374 – 20 October 1438), also known as Jacopo di Pietro d'Agnolo di Guarnieri, was an Italian sculptor of the Renaissance, a contemporary of Brunelleschi, Ghiberti and Donatello. He is considered a precursor of Michelangelo.

Biography

Madonna of humility, marble, c. 1400[2]

Jacopo della Quercia takes his name from Quercia Grossa (now

the cathedral of Siena
and this must have influenced him. His first work may have been at the age of sixteen, an equestrian wooden statue for the funeral of Azzo Ubaldini. In 1386 he and his father moved to Lucca, owing to party strife and disturbances.

It is likely that della Quercia studied the huge collection of Roman sculptures and sarcophagi in the

Gothic style to that of the Italian Renaissance. As in the case of Ghiberti, this development probably results from exposure to his contemporary, Donatello
.

Della Quercia's earliest work (though this attribution is sometimes contested) appears in the Lucca cathedral: Man of Sorrows (Altar of the Sacrament) and a relief on the tomb of St. Aniello. In 1401 he entered a competition to design the bronze doors for

Baptistery
, but lost to Ghiberti. The unsuccessful entry's whereabouts are unknown.

In 1403 he sculpted the marble Virgin and Child for the Ferrara cathedral. Another (possible) work from his period in Ferrara is the statuette of St. Maurelius (both on in display in the Museo del Duomo).

Back again in Lucca in 1406, he received the commission from the city's ruler,

putti
at the flanks of the tomb clearly shows the classical influence of the Roman sarcophagi at Camposanto (Pisa). This is a first, a harbinger of the incipient Renaissance.

Fonte Gaia in Siena

Fonte Gaia in Siena
Left side with Creation of Adam
Middle section
Right side

In 1406 he was asked to build a new fountain in the

Black Plague. The statue was destroyed and buried outside the city walls to avert its "evil influence". This prestigious commission shows that he was already being recognized as Siena's most prominent sculptor. The rectangular fountain, built in white marble, was dedicated to the Virgin, adorned on the three sides by many statues and multiple spouts. Because he accepted also other commissions at the same time, progress was slow. He started in 1414 and the fountain was only finished in 1419. He carved the panels in the workshop for sculptors, next to the cathedral. This workshop is now converted into the Cathedral Museum. It was called Fonte Gaia, because of the joy and the festivities when it was brought into operation. It is now a centre of attraction for many tourists. The old statues were replaced by copies in 1858 from Tito Sarrocchi and are now on display in the lower levels at Santa Maria della Scala
.

Other works

Tomb effigy of Lorenzo Trenta

In 1412, contracted by a wealthy merchant Lorenzo Trenta, he started the design of the Trenta Chapel in the

basilica of San Frediano in Lucca. In 1413 he was accused, together with his assistant Giovanni da Imola, of serious crimes: theft, as well as rape and sodomy of one Clara Sembrini.[3]
He fled to Siena (and began working on the Fonte Gaia), but his assistant was incarcerated for three years. Jacopo della Quercia only would return to Lucca in March 1416, given a letter of safe conduct. He continued at the Trenta Chapel on the marble altar and several statues of saints, contained in niches. Some work was also performed by his assistant. Jacopo also designed the tomb slabs of Lorenzo Trenta and his wife Isabetta Onesti, on the pavement in front of the altar.

When in 1416 Lorenzo Ghiberti was asked to design a hexagonal basin with bronze panel for the Baptistery in Siena, political infighting brought Jacopo della Quercia into the project (who had been his competitor for the bronze doors in Florence). He only completed one bronze relief The Annunciation to Zacharias because he was working at the same time on the Fonte Gaia and the Trenta Chapel. His lingering on this project brought him in legal difficulties with the authorities. Since he had been rejected in the competition for the "Doors of Paradise" in Florence, he had been reluctant to work with bronze. And when he worked on the tabernacle of the baptistery, he insisted on taking care only of the marble part.

In 1421 he carved an Annunciation, in a different style, with two wooden polychromed statues Virgin and Gabriel for the

Collegiata in San Gimignano (the polychrome finishing was done by other masters, such as Martino di Bartolomeo
). The sophistication of this group, equal to the quality of his marble statues, shows that he was also versatile in woodcarving. This led some authors to ascribe other wooden statues to him, but most are attributable to his very active workshop.

In his later years, he became even more active, working on different projects simultaneously. In 1427 he received the commission to design the upper part of the baptismal font for the Siena Baptistery. This hexagonal column, resting on a pillared base in the middle of the basin, contains five prophets situated in niches. The marble statue of St. John the Baptist, at the top of the dome above the tabernacle, is also attributed to Jacopo della Quercia.

Porta Magna in Bologna

S. Petronio, Bologna
della Quercia's Creation of Eve, the source for Michelangelo's fresco on the Sistine Chapel Ceiling

In 1425 he accepted another major commission: the design of the round-arched Porta Magna of the

San Petronio church in Bologna. It would keep him busy for a good deal of the last thirteen years of his life and it is considered his masterwork. Each side of the door is flanked, first by a colonette with a spirally wound decoration, then nine busts of prophets and at the end five scenes from the Old Testament, carved into somewhat lower relief. In the Creation of Adam, he uses the same arrangement as in the Fonte Gaia (in Siena), but in reverse order. Michelangelo, who had visited Bologna in 1494, conceded that his Genesis on the Sistine Chapel ceiling was based on these reliefs (birth of Eve shown at right). The architrave above the door contains five reliefs with representations from the New Testament. The lunette
contains three free-standing statues: Virgin and Child, Saint Petronius (with a model of Bologna in his right hand) and Saint Ambrose (carved by another sculptor Domenico Aimo in 1510). Originally this third statue had to represent the papal legate Cardinal Alemmano, but this intention was quickly abandoned after the cardinal had been evicted from Bologna. He relied heavily on the artists of his Bolognese workshop, such as Cino di Bartolo, for assistance in this project.

While working at the Porta Magna, he was asked in 1434 by the Sienese to design the Loggia di San Paolo, close to the Piazza del Campo. He was not able to finish this commission. At his death, he had only finished the capitals and six niches.

In his final years, he was awarded several honours by the Sienese. In 1435 he was knighted and given the important position of Operaio of the cathedral.

In his final years, he was also involved in the decoration of the chapel of Saint Sebastian (destroyed in 1645) for the cardinal Casini in the cathedral of Siena, but, as part of a relief of the cardinal, most works were done by his Siena workshop. This carved high relief, Cardinal Antonio Casini presented to the Virgin by St. Anthony of Egypt, is on display in the Hall of Statues in the Cathedral Museum.

Jacopo della Quercia died at Siena on 20 October 1438. He was buried in the

San Agostino
church in Siena.

He was already held in high esteem by his contemporaries, such as

Lives of the Artists
.

Main works

Cathedral of Lucca

References

  1. ^ "della Quercia, Jacopo" (US) and "della Quercia, Jacopo". Oxford Dictionaries UK English Dictionary. Oxford University Press.[dead link]
  2. ^ in the National Gallery of Art
  3. ISBN 9780231076845
    . Retrieved 2012-09-14.
  4. ^ "Il Cavaliere di San Cassiano".

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Jacopo della Quercia.
Wikisource has the text of the 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica article "Della Quercia, Jacopo".
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