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| Giovanni Pisano Pulpit Support with figure of Hercules ca. 1302-1311 marble Duomo di Pisa |
"Returning then to Pisa, [Giovanni Pisano made] the great pulpit of the Duomo, which is on the right hand going towards the high altar, attached to the choir, and having made a beginning with this and with many figures in the round, three braccia high, that were to serve for it, little by little he brought them to that form that is seen today, placing the pulpit partly on the said figures and partly on some columns sustained by lions. . . . It is a pity, truly, that so great cost, so great diligence, and so great labour should not have been accompanied by good design, and should be wanting in perfection and in excellence of invention, grace, and manner, such as any work of our own times would show, even if made with much less cost and labour. None the less, it must have caused no small marvel to the men of those times, used to seeing only the rudest work."
– this and other quoted passages below from Lives of the Painters, Sculptors and Architects by Giorgio Vasari (1568), translated by Gaston du C. de Vere (1912)
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| Giovanni Pisano Capital of Central Column supporting Pulpit ca. 1298-1301 marble Pieve di Sant' Andrea, Pistoia |
"And because the people of Pistoia held in veneration the name of Niccola, father of Giovanni [Pisano], by reason of that which he had wrought in that city with his talent, they caused Giovanni himself to make a pulpit of marble for the Church of S. Andrea, like to the one which he had made in the Duomo of Siena; and this he did in order to compete with one which had been made a little before in the Church of S. Giovanni Evangelista by a German, who was therefore much praised. Giovanni, then, delivered his finished in four years . . . thinking (as was the truth, according to the knowledge of that age) that he had done a great and beautiful work."
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| Jacopo di Mazzeo St Paul with Two Angels 1302 marble overdoor façade Chiesa di San Paolo, Pistoia |
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| Jacopo di Piero Guidi Prophet ca. 1385-95 marble Museo dell' Opera del Duomo, Florence |
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| attributed to Nanni di Banco Ornamental Band with figure of Hercules ca. 1404-1409 marble relief Museo dell' Opera del Duomo, Florence |
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| Nanni di Banco Prophet ca. 1404-1409 marble Museo dell' Opera del Duomo, Florence |
"Nanni d'Antonio di Banco was not only rich enough by patrimony, but also by no means humble in origin, yet, delighting in sculpture, he was not only not ashamed to learn and practise it, but took no small pride therein, and made so much advance that his fame will ever endure; and it will be all the more celebrated in proportion as men know that he applied himself to this noble art not through necessity, but through a true love of the art itself. This man, who was one of the disciples of Donato [Donatello], although I have placed him before his master because he died long before him, was a somewhat sluggish person, but modest, humble, and kindly in his dealings."
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| Jacopo della Quercia Prophet ca. 1417 marble relief Battistero di San Giovanni, Duomo di Siena |
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| Jacopo della Quercia Prophet ca. 1417 marble relief Battistero di San Giovanni, Duomo di Siena |
"The sculptor Jacopo, son of Maestro Piero di Filippo of La Quercia, a place in the district of Siena, was the first – after Andrea Pisano, Orcagna, and the others mentioned above – who, labouring in sculpture with greater zeal and diligence, began to show that it was possible to make an approach to nature, and the first who encouraged the others to hope to be able in a certain measure to equal her. . . . Jacopo made in Siena two panels of limewood, carving the figures in them, with their beards and hair, with so great patience that it was a marvel to see. And after these panels, which were placed in the Duomo, he made some prophets in marble, of no great size, which are in the façade of the said Duomo; and he would have continued to labour at the works of this building, if plague, famine, and the discords of the citizens of Siena had not brought that city to an evil pass; for, after having many times risen in tumult, they drove out Orlando Malevolti, by whose favour Jacopo had enjoyed creditable employment in his native city."
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| Donatello Madonna Pazzi ca. 1425-30 marble relief (rilievo schiacciato) Bode Museum, Berlin |
"He [Donatello] was most liberal, gracious, and courteous, and more careful for his friends than for himself; nor did he give thought to money, but kept his in a basket suspended by a cord from the ceiling, wherefore all his workmen and friends could take what they needed without saying a word to him. He passed his old age most joyously, and, having become decrepit, he had to be succoured by Cosimo [de' Medici] and by other of his friends, being no longer able to work."
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| Michelozzo di Bartolomeo Personification of Virtue (from the Tomb of Bartolomeo Aragazzi) 1435 marble Duomo di Montepulciano |
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| Michelozzo di Bartolomeo The Deceased welcomed in Paradise (from the Tomb of Bartolomeo Aragazzi) 1435 marble relief Duomo di Montepulciano |
"If every man who lives in this world were to realize that he may have to live when he is no longer able to work, there would not be so many reduced to begging in their old age for that which they consumed without any restraint in their youth, when their large and abundant gains, blinding their true judgment, made them spend more than was necessary and much more than was expedient. For, seeing how coldly a man is looked upon who has fallen from wealth to poverty, every man should strive – honestly, however, and maintaining the proper mean – to avoid having to beg in his old age. And whosoever will act like Michelozzo – who did not imitate his master Donato [Donatello] in this respect, although he did in his virtues – will live honourably all the course of his life, and will not be forced in his last years to go about miserably hunting for the wherewithal to live."
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| Agostino di Duccio Allegorical Scene ca. 1449-57 marble relief Tempio Malatestiano, Rimini |
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| Agostino di Duccio Allegorical Scene (detail) ca. 1449-57 marble relief Tempio Malatestiano, Rimini |
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| Agostino di Duccio Portrait of Sigismondo Pandolfo Malatesta ca. 1449-57 marble relief Tempio Malatestiano, Rimini |
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| workshop of Antonio Rossellino Portrait of Cosimo I de' Medici ca. 1460 marble relief Bode Museum, Berlin |
"It has ever been a truly laudable and virtuous thing to be modest and to be adorned with that gentleness and those rare qualities that are easily recognized in the honourable actions of the sculptor Antonio Rossellino, who put so much grace into his art that he was esteemed by all who knew him as something much more than man, and adored almost as a saint, for those supreme virtues that were united to his talent. . . . He showed such sweetness and delicacy in his works, with a finish and a refinement so perfect, that his manner may be rightly called the true one and truly modern."