Jacopo della Quercia

Jacopo della Quercia (, ; 20 October 1438), also known as Jacopo di Pietro d'Agnolo di Guarnieri, was an Italian sculptor of the Renaissance, a contemporary of Brunelleschi, Ghiberti and Donatello. He is considered a precursor of Michelangelo. Biography Jacopo della Quercia takes his name from Quercia Grossa (now Quercegrossa), a place near Siena, Tuscany, where he was born in 1374. He received his early training from his father, Piero d'Angelo, a woodcarver and goldsmith. Jacopo della Quercia, a Sienese, must have seen the works of Nicola Pisano and Arnolfo di Cambio on the pulpit in the cathedral of Siena and this must have influenced him. His first work may have been at the age of sixteen, an equestrian wooden statue for the funeral of Azzo Ubaldini. In 1386 he and his father moved to Lucca, owing to party strife and disturbances. It is likely that della Quercia studied the huge collection of Roman sculptures and sarcophagi in the Camposanto in Pisa. These and later influences made him a transitional figure in the history of European art; his work shows a pronounced mid-career shift from the Gothic style to that of the Italian Renaissance. As in the case of Ghiberti, this development probably results from exposure to his contemporary, Donatello.