The Early Renaissance


 

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.

Fountain
c. 1417
Marble with bronze reliefs
Baptistry, Siena