Jacopo della Quercia takes his name from…

Jacopo della Quercia takes his name from Quercia Grossa (now Quercegrossa), a place near Siena, where he was born in 1374.

He had received his early training from his father, Piero d'Angelo, a woodcarver and goldsmith.

As a Sienese, Jacopo della Quercia 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.

He may have produced his first work, an equestrian wooden statue for the funeral of Azzo Ubaldini, at the age of sixteen.

He left with his father for Lucca, owing to party strife and disturbances.

Della Quercia had likely studied the huge collection of Roman sculptures and sarcophagi in the Camposanto in Pisa.

These and later influences make 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 is probably the result of exposure to his contemporary, Donatello.

Della Quercia's earliest work (though this attribution is sometimes contested) appears in the Lucca cathedral: Man of Sorrows (Altar of the Sacrament) and a relief on the tomb of St. Aniello.

In 1401, he had entered a competition to design the bronze doors for Florence's Baptistery, but lost to Ghiberti.

The unsuccessful entry's whereabouts are unknown.

He had sculpted the marble Virgin and Child for the Ferrara cathedral in 1402.

Another (possible) work from his period in Ferrara is the statuette of St. Maurelius (both on in display in the Museo del Duomo).

Back again in Lucca in 1406, he had received the commission from the city's ruler, Paolo Guinigi, to begin work at the tomb of his second wife Ilaria del Carretto in the Lucca cathedral.

The richly dressed woman rests on top of the sarcophagus, delicately portrayed in a Gothic fashion, with her dog, symbol of conjugate fidelity, at her feet.

But his use of several nude putti at the flanks of the tomb clearly shows the classical influence of the Roman sarcophagi at Camposanto (Pisa).

This is a first, a harbinger of the incipient Renaissance.

Contracted in 1412 by wealthy merchant Lorenzo Trenta, he had started the design of the Trenta Chapel in the basilica of San Frediano in Lucca.

He had been accused in 1413, together with his assistant Giovanni da Imola, of serious crimes: theft, as well as rape and sodomy of one Clara Sembrini.

He had fled to Siena (and began working on the Fonte Gaia), but his assistant had been incarcerated for three years.

Jacopo della Quercia only returns to Lucca in March 1416, after being given a letter of safe conduct.

He continues at the Trenta Chapel on the marble altar and several statues of saints, contained in niches.

Some work is also performed by his assistant.

Jacopo also designs the tomb slabs of Lorenzo Trenta and his wife Isabetta Onesti, on the pavement in front of the altar.