Agostino di Duccio

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 (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 (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.