CALLISTO FINE ARTS

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Jacopo della Quercia (Quercegrossa, c.1372 – , 1438) Warrior Saint c.1426-1430

Marble 53x23x14 cm

Bibliography:

Casciaro, Raffaele, “Celsis Florentia nota tropheis”, in Raffaele Casciaro e Paola Di Girolami, a cura di, Jacopo della Quercia ospite a Ripatransone, Tracce di scultura toscana tra Emilia e Marche. Ripatransone, Firenze, 2008, pp. 21-39

Custoza, Gian Camillo, con prefazione di Giancarlo Gentilini, “Jacopo della Quercia. San Paolo”, Venezia, 2011

Gentilini, Giancarlo, introduzione di, David Lucidi, con la collaborazione di, “Scultura italiana del Rinascimento”, Firenze, 2013, pp. 13-15 CALLISTO FINE ARTS

17 Georgian House 10 Bury Street London SW1Y 6AA +44 (0)207 8397037 [email protected] www.callistoart.com

Gentilini, Giancarlo, scheda, in Massimo Pulini, a cura di, “Lo Studiolo di Baratti”, Cesena, 2010, cat. 1, pp. 30-33

Ortenzi, Francesco, in “Lo Studiolo di Baratti”, catalogo della mostra (Cesena 2010), a cura di M. Pulini, Cesena 2010, pp. 30-33 n. 1;

Ortenzi, Francesco, scheda, in Raffaele Casciaro e Paola Di Girolami, a cura di, “Jacopo Della Quercia ospite a Ripatransone. Tracce di scultura toscana tra Emilia e Marche”. Ripatransone, Firenze, 2008, cat. 5, pp. 64-68

Exhibitions:

“Scultura italiana del Rinascimento”, a cura di Giancarlo Gentilini e David Lucidi, Firenze, The Westin Excelsior, 5-9 ottobre 2013

“Lo Studiolo di Baratti”, a cura di Massimo Pulini, Cesena, Galleria Comunale d’Arte, 6 febbraio – 11 aprile 2010

“Jacopo della Quercia ospite a Ripatransone. Tracce di scultura toscana tra Emilia e Marche”, a cura di Raffaele Casciaro e Paola Di Girolami, Ripatransone, Chiesa di Sant’Agostino, 28 giugno – 14 settembre 2008

This marvellous work has been attributed to Jacopo della Quercia by Francesco Ortenzi in 2008 and by Giancarlo Gentilini in 2011. Both Ortenzi and Gentilini believe that this work belongs to the artist’s late activity (c. 1430), when Della Quercia was involved in the project for the main portal of the Basilica of Saint Petronius in (started in 1425). In Raffaele Casciaro’s opinion, this marble clearly shows a harmonious juxtaposition of Jacopo’s style and technique, hence supporting the attribution of the Saint Warrior to this artist. Giancarlo Gentilini stressed again Jacopo della Quercia’s paternity to this work in an oral communication, underlining its noteworthy quality notwithstanding the head’s mutilation. Moreover, Laura Cavazzini and Gabriele Fattorini both examined some photographs of our work. In 2017, the former supported the attribution to Jacopo della Quercia’s late activity particularly for its complex and tortuous drapery which is comparable to the Sienese artist’s late works and especially to its on the main portal of Saint Petronius in Bologna (e.g. the Prophets, completed by 1428, the Stories of Christ’s Youth on the architrave and the two mighty Saints Ambrosius and Petronius on the lunette above). The latter specified that the work was made between 1426 and c.1430, grounding his opinion on the style of the work. Fattorini believes that Jacopo della Quercia’s workshop, with Bolognese and Sienese pupils, was involved in the creation of our Saint Warrior. This hypothesis is mainly grounded on the simplified characters of the armour (cf. the Massacre of the Innocents in the architrave of Saint Petronius) and on the Gothic footwear on the Saint’s right foot, which does not correspond to Jacopo della Quercia’s predilection developed from the 1420s on for naked feet or all’antica footwear. Another CALLISTO FINE ARTS

17 Georgian House 10 Bury Street London SW1Y 6AA +44 (0)207 8397037 [email protected] www.callistoart.com

example of this Gothic pointy footwear is given by the wooden Saint Bishop in the Museo Civico di Siena attributed by Aldo Galli to Jacopo’s workshop around 1430 (in “Da Jacopo della Quercia a ”, pp. 102-103, n.A.32). Among the most beautiful parts of our Saint Warrior, Fattorini underlines the folds of the drapery around the foot and the lower part of the right leg, which present a Gothic verve comparable to the first works at Saint Petronius between 1426 and 1428, which are close to the results of the Trenta altar in , completed in 1422. Our marble is hence a rare testimony of the production of Jacopo della Quercia’s inner circle.

Moreover, Fattorini pointed out that the was created for a niche of either a monument or an altar for the unfinished character of its verso. Francesco Ortenzi thinks that the whole work, now acephalous, was sculpted from a particularly thin marble sheet in stiacciato technique and yet aiming to a tutto tondo final effect. Gabriele Fattorini denotes a powerful Gothic touch and angularity in the three-quarter views, while frontally the sculpture appears bi-dimensional and rigid. Additionally, Fattorini believes that the head could have not been sculpted from a different piece of marble for the small dimensions of the work and he supposes that the metallic pivot positioned at the height of the neck’s break was probably once used to repair a previous break and to reattach the head, eventually lost. Overall, the marble presents a beautiful patina and shows some signs of its unknown past vicissitudes – the base is damaged and presents a small fissure which creates some stability problems which are solved by the introduction of a small metallic beam fixed on a modern pedestal.

This precious Warrior Saint is enveloped by a wide cape which partly unveils an armour. The sword in the right hand leaning against the shoulder is the attribute of the soldier. According to the iconographical identification, Gian Camillo Custoza hypothesised that our work might represent Saint Paul as ‘Miles Christi’, discerning a letter under the Saint’s left hand. Laura Cavazzini and Gabriele Fattorini, however, do not agree with this interpretation, grounding their dissensus on Saint Paul’s iconography that does never include an armour. Therefore, the figure must have been a knight and, in particular, Ortenzi talks about the Saints venerated in Bologna, such as Proculus, Agricola and Florian – preferring the first one to the others. Finally, Fattorini reminds Saint Vittore, one of the patrons of Siena, usually depicted with his armour, large cape and sword (cf. Sassetta’s Saint Vittore with sword and cape in a small section of the altarpiece for the Arte della Lana, completed around 1423-1424; and the marble interpretation by the sculptor Antonio Federighi, one of the pupils of Jacopo della Quercia, for the Loggia della Mercanzia in 1459). Anyhow, the missing detail of the head makes it impossible to give a more precise definition of the identity of our Saint Warrior.