JACOPO DELLA QUERCIA, Jacopo. – Sculptor, born in Quercia, a castle near Siena, probably in 1367, died there on 20 Oct. 1438. Nothing precise is known about his training except that, like many other sculptors, he began as a goldsmith. It may, however, be admitted that he was remotely descended from Giovanni Pisano. In 1401 he took part in the competition for the second door of the Baptistery of Florence together with Brunelleschi and Ghiberti, who was the winner. Unfortunately the trial piece submitted by Jacopo has not come down to us and it is therefore impossible to compare it usefully with those of the other two competitors which have been preserved. Perhaps in 1406 he carved in the cathedral of Lucca the tomb of Ilaria del Carretto, wife of Paolo Guinigi, who had died in 1405.
The Madonna of Ferrara dates from 1408, and in the same year he was commissioned to make the fountain in Piazza in Siena, known as the Fonte Gaia. This work was not completed until 1419 and was so celebrated that it earned its author the nickname of Iacopo della Fonte. In the last century a reproduction was made which took the place of the original, while the parts of the ancient fountain were placed, for better preservation, in the Palazzo Pubblico. Between 1413 and 1422 Jacopo executed in S. Frediano in Lucca the altarpiece of the Trenta chapel, still rich in Gothic features. In 1425 he was commissioned to make the portal of S. Petronio in Bologna, which he left unfinished at his death. His last work was the altarpiece relief for the Casini chapel in the cathedral of Siena (Florence, Ojetti collection).
The tomb of Ilaria del Carretto, by its arrangement, may recall classical motifs evident in the points supporting the heavy garland. But the recumbent figure, in which, without detracting from the vigour of the planes, the line predominates, may better be understood by linking it to the taste characteristic of Gothic art.
In the Fonte Gaia he represented in various reliefs the Creation of Adam and Eve, Wisdom, Hope, Strength, Prudence, an Angel, Justice, Charity, Temperance, Faith and the Expulsion of Adam and Eve; he also carved the groups of Rea Silvia and Acca Larenzia with Romulus and Remus, allusions to the Roman derivation of Siena. In these sculptures a violent energy predominates, linking them to the formal tradition of Gothic art, the