Jacopo della Quercia
(b Siena, ?1374; d Siena, 20 Oct 1438).
Italian sculptor, sienese school.
He was the most significant non-Florentine sculptor of the 15th century: a
transitional figure in the development of Italian Renaissance sculpture, who
infused the Late Gothic art of Nicola Pisano with a new appreciation of
antiquity, paving the way for such later artists as Antonio Federighi and
Francesco di Giorgio in Siena, Niccolo dell’Arca in Bologna and, most notably,
Michelangelo. He worked for a wide spectrum of patrons—the papal states, noble
and mercantile families and the cities of Siena and Florence—and was the only
Sienese artist of his century to achieve a truly national reputation.