CIUFFAGNI, BERNARDO di PIERO DI BARTOLOME. — Sculptor, born in Florence in 1381, died there in 1457. Assistant to Ghiberti on the second door of the Baptistery, between 1410 and 1433 he carved for the façade of S. Maria del Fiore the statue of St. Matthew the Evangelist and those of David and Isaiah, now inside the church. In 1417 he also began to carve for the bell tower the statue of Joshua, later completed by Nanni di Bartolomeo known as il Rosso. From 1447 to 1450 he was in Rimini working on the Malatesta temple.
1755 CIUFFAGNI BERNARDO - CIVIDALE DEL FRIULI 1756
Ciufagni belongs to the generation of masters who mark the transition from the traditional fourteenth-century forms to those animated by the new spirit proclaimed at the dawn of the 15th century by Ghiberti and Donatello. His figures, however, although not lacking at times—such as the St. Matthew—in a certain grandeur of conception, in other cases (the Isaiah and the David) reflect the hesitations and modesty of his temperament.