Quercia, Jacopo della ....................... Q
(1374–1438)
Italian sculptor who was born in the town
of Quercia Grossa and trained in the
workshop of his father Piero d’Angelo, a
skilled goldsmith and wood-carver. Quer-
cia assisted Nicola Pisano in carving the
pulpit of the Cathedral of Siena. As a
young artist he was strongly influenced by
contemporaries from Florence, including
the architect Brunelleschi and the sculptor
Donatello (Quercia took part in the com-
petition to design the Baptistery doors but
lost this prize commission to Lorenzo
Ghiberti). Although trained in the Gothic
style of carving, Quercia’s study of Roman
artifacts and sculpture in the town of Pisa
had a strong effect on his methods and his
style, and early in his life he began incor-
porating Roman motifs and figures from
pagan mythology in his work. One of his
first important commissions was the carv-
ing of a monumental tomb for Ilaria del
Carretto, the wife of the ruler of Lucca.
This work combines Gothic style with ele-
ments borrowed from stone sarcophagi
dating to Roman times—some of the ear-
liest classical references of the Renaissance.
For the cathedral of Lucca he also carved
a famous altarpiece known as theMan of
Sorrows; another important work is the
Seated Madonna(also known as theMa-
donna of the Pomegranate) that he carved
for the Cathedral of Ferrara.
In 1408 Quercia was commissioned by
the city of Siena to design a fountain for
the Piazza del Campo. The old fountain in
this central square was being demolished,
after drawing public superstition for its
use of a figure of the pagan goddess Ve-
nus. Quercia designed a magnificent rect-
angular structure in marble, adorned with
dozens of figures and scenes, with the Vir-
gin Mary, the patron saint of the city, tak-
ing a prominent part. In this work Quer-
cia abandoned the stiff poses that were
traditional of Gothic sculpture, and carved
his figures with strength, movement and
liveliness. The fountain, known as the
Fonte Gaia, took the artist more than five
years to complete and remains one of the
most prominent Renaissance artifacts of
Siena. The wide public admiration for the
fountain earned another commission from
the Sienese, who asked Quercia, Donatello,
and Ghiberti to create reliefs for the bap-
tismal font in the baptistery of the Siena
cathedral.
He was commissioned to design an al-
tar for the Trenta Chapel of the Church of
San Frediano inLucca, but had to halt
work when he was accused of various
crimes of immorality in 1413 and forced
to leave the city. His fame as a carver in
marble as well as wood survived this set-
back, however. For the Collegiata in San
Gimignano he carved wooden statues of
the Virgin and the angel Gabriel. His most
famous work was the design of Porta Ma-
gna, a main entrance of the Church of San
Petronio in Bologna. The doorway is deco-
rated with ten elaborate sculptural reliefs
of biblical prophets and scenes, including
the creation of Adam, the story of Cain
and Abel, and the temptation of Eve. This