(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.)

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.

[Illustration: FIG. 82.--RELIEF BY JACOPO DELLA QUERCIA. _Bologna._]

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
w