DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.57409#0139
1-23
AGOSTINO AND AGNOLO, SCULPTORS AND ARCHITECTS
OF SIENA.
[Born .... died 1350.] [Born .... died 1348.]
Among the artists who studied in the school of the sculptors
Gio anni and Niccola of Pisa, the most distinguished were
Agostino and Agnolo, of Siena, whose lives we are now
about to write, and who became very excellent masters for
those times. I find that their immediate progenitors were
both of Siena, and that their ancestors* were architects for
many generations, insomuch that the fountain called Fonte-
brandaf was erected by them in the year 1190, under the
government of the three consuls, while the custom-house and
other buildings of Siena were constructed by the same mas-
ters in the following year, and under the same consulate. It
may be truly said, that the seeds of talent in families, where
they have been long implanted, will frequently germinate and
throw out branches, which then produce better and richer
fruit than had been obtained from the parent stock. This
was the case with Agostino and Agnolo, who greatly amelior-
ated the manner of the Pisans, Giovanni and Niccola, en-
riching the art by more correct design and much improved
invention, as their works make clearly manifest. ' We are
told, that when the above-named Giovanni was returning
from Naples, in the year 1284, he remained for some time at
Siena to prepare the designs for the cathedral, and to com-
mence that fagade of the building wherein are the three prin-
cipal doors, and which was to be richly adorned with sculp-
tured marbles. At this time it was that Agostino, who was
then but fifteen years of age, attached himself to Giovanni
for the purpose of studying sculpture, of which he had
already acquired the first principles, and to which he was no
less inclined than to architecture. Under the care of this
master then, and by means of perpetual study, Agostino sur-
* Della Valle denies that Agostino and Agnolo were brothers ; and
he has been followed by other commentators, who affirm that they were
not related in any degree.
+ Of this celebrated fountain, Montani remarks, that the three lower
arches only now remain, the fabric having been ruined in the year 1802.
AGOSTINO AND AGNOLO, SCULPTORS AND ARCHITECTS
OF SIENA.
[Born .... died 1350.] [Born .... died 1348.]
Among the artists who studied in the school of the sculptors
Gio anni and Niccola of Pisa, the most distinguished were
Agostino and Agnolo, of Siena, whose lives we are now
about to write, and who became very excellent masters for
those times. I find that their immediate progenitors were
both of Siena, and that their ancestors* were architects for
many generations, insomuch that the fountain called Fonte-
brandaf was erected by them in the year 1190, under the
government of the three consuls, while the custom-house and
other buildings of Siena were constructed by the same mas-
ters in the following year, and under the same consulate. It
may be truly said, that the seeds of talent in families, where
they have been long implanted, will frequently germinate and
throw out branches, which then produce better and richer
fruit than had been obtained from the parent stock. This
was the case with Agostino and Agnolo, who greatly amelior-
ated the manner of the Pisans, Giovanni and Niccola, en-
riching the art by more correct design and much improved
invention, as their works make clearly manifest. ' We are
told, that when the above-named Giovanni was returning
from Naples, in the year 1284, he remained for some time at
Siena to prepare the designs for the cathedral, and to com-
mence that fagade of the building wherein are the three prin-
cipal doors, and which was to be richly adorned with sculp-
tured marbles. At this time it was that Agostino, who was
then but fifteen years of age, attached himself to Giovanni
for the purpose of studying sculpture, of which he had
already acquired the first principles, and to which he was no
less inclined than to architecture. Under the care of this
master then, and by means of perpetual study, Agostino sur-
* Della Valle denies that Agostino and Agnolo were brothers ; and
he has been followed by other commentators, who affirm that they were
not related in any degree.
+ Of this celebrated fountain, Montani remarks, that the three lower
arches only now remain, the fabric having been ruined in the year 1802.