A History of Art for Beginners and Students: Painting, Sculpture, Architecture

by Clara Erskine Clement Waters

In Italy, heretofore, as we have shown, sculpture had been almost entirely separated from other arts, and stood by itself. Its works had been the smaller objects of which we have spoken; and though these were oftentimes splendid in their design and execution, they did not afford the sculptor the same broad field for his work as he has when his productions are combined with architecture. Now all this was changed. The French and German artists had brought out a style of architecture of their own, the Italians pursued another course, and went back to classic art for their teaching, and now every opportunity was given for sculpture to assume its utmost importance; and the art of ancient Greece was studied with all the enthusiasm of the Italian nature.

The masters of Florence, or, rather, of Tuscany, were of great importance in the beginning of the new movement, and I shall speak first of them. Francesco Squarcione, who lived from 1396 to 1474, was a painter, and travelled into Greece to collect antique objects, and made many drawings from the monuments which he saw. He established a school in Padua, and his museum was of advantage to sculptors as well as to painters. Other Tuscan artists who were in love with classic art wandered among its remains in Rome and other parts of Italy, and brought back to their homes a greater knowledge of sculpture, as well as the drawings which they had made; and in this part of Italy the Renaissance early made itself a living, active power.

Among the very first of these sculptors was Jacopo della Quercia (1374-1438), who was so called from the little market town of Quercia, near Siena, in which he was born. His father was a goldsmith, and instructed his son in his art; but the boy loved sculpture, and studied it under one Luca di Giovanni. When but nineteen years old he made an equestrian statue of wood, and covered it with cloth, and painted it to represent marble in a manner which proved him to be an artist. About this time he left his home, and the next that we know of him was about ten years later, when his design for the gates of the Baptistery of Florence was pronounced to be next in merit to those of Ghiberti and Brunelleschi.

In 1408 Quercia went to Ferrara, where he did several works. While there he was called by the Signory of Siena to make a new fountain in the Piazza del Campo. This was a beautiful work, and even in this century, though much injured, its remaining sculptures prove that it must have been a wonder in its day. It has been restored after the original model by Quercia, who was often called Jacopo della Fonte on account of this work. He executed some sculptures in Lucca, but his masterpiece was the decoration of the great portal of the Basilica of San Petronio, at Bologna. (Fig. 82.)

Fig. 82.—Relief by Jacopo della Quercia.
Bologna.

The fifteen reliefs here represent the history of Adam and Eve, and other stories from the creation to the deluge. They show the full freedom and power of Quercia's style, and are among the most attractive of all the Tuscan sculptures of this period. Duringd the last years of his life this artist was employed as superintendent of the works upon the Cathedral of Siena, in which city he died.

We come now to speak of the famous Lorenzo Ghiberti (1378-1455), who was born in Florence, and was both a goldsmith and sculptor; and though his fame rests upon his bas-reliefs, yet the exquisite detail and careful finish in them came from his practice of the goldsmith's art. In 1398 a plague broke out in Florence, and Ghiberti fled to Rimini for safety. While there he painted a few pictures; but his name is so linked with the splendid gates which he made for the Baptistery of Florence that it is of those that one naturally thinks when his name is heard.

We have spoken of the gates which Andrea Pisano had made to this Baptistery long before; these were for the south side; and when, in 1400, the plague again visited Florence the people believed that the wrath of Heaven should be appeased by a thank-offering. Accordingly the Guild of Wool-merchants promised to add gates on the north and east of the Baptistery of St. John the Baptist.

A time was appointed for the examination of designs, and many artists entered into the competition, and sent in their drawings and models. A great number of these represented the Sacrifice of Isaac. At length all the models were set aside but two, and these were made by Brunelleschi and Ghiberti; then the former declared that he thought his rival's design the best, thus showing a nobility of character which cannot be too much praised.