Agostino di Duccio

The Italian sculptor Agostino di Duccio (1418-1481) evolved a highly personal style in relief sculpture. He executed his major works in Rimini and Perugia.

One of 10 children of a weaver, Agostino di Duccio was born in Florence. He left the city in 1433. This early departure and the style of his first independent work, an altarpiece with scenes from the life of St. Gemignano (Modena, ca. 1442), suggest that he may have studied sculpture under Jacopo della Quercia in nearby Bologna.

Agostino returned to his birthplace in 1442, but by 1446 he was forced to leave Florence for Venice because he was charged with the theft of silver from the Church of SS. Annunziata. Perhaps by 1450, and certainly by 1454, Agostino was engaged in the most important enterprise of his life: the sculptural program for the Tempio Malatestiano in Rimini. His collaborator was Matteo di Pasti.

Executed with extraordinary precision, assurance, and delicacy, the reliefs of Rimini are carved in a style so dependent on finely incised curvilinear patterns that they evoke such far-ranging analogies as Oriental calligraphy, the "Neo-Attic" style of Greco-Roman art, and the ethereal designs of Agostino's younger compatriot Sandro Botticelli.

From 1457 to 1462 Agostino was in Perugia, chiefly engaged on the facade of the small oratory of S. Bernardino. The main emphasis is on the tympanum over the entrance door; the sensitive, frail figure of the saint is framed by angels playing musical instruments, and the angels are surrounded by a ring of gay and charming cherubim heads.

In 1463 Agostino worked briefly in Bologna preparing a model for the facade of S. Petronio. That same year he received commissions for two colossal figures for the Cathedral of Florence. The first, probably executed in stucco, is lost; the second, in marble, was not finished by Agostino, and the marble block was used 40 years later by Michelangelo for his David. During the next decade Agostino completed various smaller works, including the attractive tabernacle for the Church of the Ognissanti in Florence. In 1473 he again left Florence and spent his last years in Perugia executing a series of commissions that reveal a somewhat weary repetition of his fresher and more incisive earlier works. Agostino is presumed to have died after 1481.

Further Reading

There is no adequate monograph on Agostino. Useful information and critical insights are presented in John Pope-Hennessy, The Virgin and Child by Agostino di Duccio (1952) and Italian Renaissance Sculpture (1958), and in Charles Seymour, Jr., Sculpture in Italy, 1400-1500 (1966). □

Agostino di Duccio (b Florence, c.1418; d ?Perugia, c.1481). Florentine sculptor and architect. He was an artist of distinction and originality—the only 15th-century sculptor born in Florence who owed little to Donatello or Ghiberti. His fresh and lively style was linear and graceful, with attractive swirling draperies. Agostino led a peripatetic life, working in various places in north Italy. He is first recorded as a sculptor in 1442, in Modena, and nothing is known of his training or career before this. In 1446 he fled from Florence to Venice after being accused of stealing silver from a church, and from 1449 to 1456 he worked in Rimini on his masterpiece—the sculptural decoration of the Tempio Malatestiano (see Malatesta). His other major surviving work is the series of reliefs, partly in terracotta, on the façade of the oratory of S. Bernadino at Perugia, on which he worked 1457–61, as architect as well as sculptor. Agostino also executed several delightful reliefs of the Virgin and Child. In 1464 he began a large marble sculpture for Florence Cathedral but abandoned the work; the block was later used by Michelangelo for his David. He is last documented in 1481, working as architect on the Porta S. Pietro, an ornamental gate in Perugia's town wall.

Agostino di Duccio (c.1418–c.1481). Florentine sculptor and architect. He was an artist of distinction and originality—the only 15th-century sculptor born in Florence who owed little to Donatello or Ghiberti. His fresh and lively style was linear and graceful, with attractive swirling draperies. Agostino led a peripatetic life, working in various places in north Italy. He is first recorded as a sculptor in 1442, in Modena, and nothing is known of his training or career before this. In 1446 he fled from Florence to Venice after being accused of stealing silver from a church, and from 1449 to 1456 he worked in Rimini on his masterpiece—the sculptural decoration of the Tempio Malatestiano (see Malatesta). His other major surviving work is the series of reliefs, partly in terracotta, on the façade of the Oratory of S. Bernadino at Perugia, on which he worked 1457–61, as architect as well as sculptor. Agostino also executed several delightful reliefs of the Virgin and Child. In 1464 he began a large marble sculpture for Florence Cathedral but abandoned the work; the block was later used by Michelangelo for his David.

Agostino di Duccio (1418–81). Florentine sculptor and architect, he worked (c.1450–7) on Alberti's Tempio Malatestiano at Rimini, where he created refined and original personifications of the Liberal Arts. He designed the early Renaissance façade of the Oratorio di San Bernardino at Perugia (1457–61), on which both coloured marble and terracotta are used to great effect. He was also responsible for the decorations on the monumental Porta San Pietro in the same city (1473–81).

Bibliography

S. Hesse (1992);
Heydenreich (1996);
Pope-Hennessy (1958)

Agostino di Duccio , b. 1418, d. after 1481, Florentine sculptor. Agostino worked mainly in other parts of Italy; he carved marble narrative reliefs for the facade of the cathedral at Modena, decorated portions of the so-called Tempio Malatestiana at Rimini, and worked on the facade of San Bernardino at Perugia. Somewhat awkward in his rendering of anatomy, Agostino nevertheless developed a lively style. There are numerous charming reliefs by him of the Madonna and Child (Opera del Duomo, Florence; Louvre; National Gall. of Art, Washington, D.C.).

Agostino di Duccio see Agostino di Duccio .