This important drawing is related to one of Siena’s most famous monuments, the marble fountain known as the Fonte Gaia (now disassembled). Commissioned from the local sculptor Jacopo della Quercia in 1408, the work was a major artistic undertaking and the crowning feature of the advanced network of subterranean aqueducts that brought public waters to the heart of the city, a marvel of hydraulic engineering. For this emblem of civic pride, Jacopo conceived a large rectangular basin adorned with figural sculptures celebrating the ideals of Siena’s republican government, including allegories of Christian virtues and allusions to the city’s mythical Roman origins. The present sheet was probably made when designs for the fountain were revised in 1415–16, allowing Jacopo’s patrons, the magistrates of Siena, to assess the state of the project, which was finally completed in 1419.
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Title:Design Fragment for the Left Side of the 'Fonte Gaia' in Siena
Artist:Jacopo della Quercia (Jacopo di Pietro d’Angelo di Guarnieri) (Italian, Siena 1374?–1438 Siena)
Date:1415–16
Medium:Pen and medium brown ink, brush and brown wash, over traces of leadpoint and ruling, on vellum, glued onto secondary paper support
Dimensions:7-13/16 x 8-7/16 in. (20.1 x 21.4 cm)
Classification:Drawings
Credit Line:Harris Brisbane Dick Fund, 1949
Object Number:49.141
Marking: On secondary paper support, ink label, upper right: No. 48. The ex libris with the Milford coat of arms and motto "Ducit Amor Patriae" (Lugt Suppl. 2687) was pasted by the collector.
Possibly Giorgio Vasari (Italian); Erasmus Philipps (British); Sir Richard Philipps, 7th Baronet (British); Sir John Philipps, Baronet
New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "Drawings and Prints: Selections from the Permanent Collection," April 17–August 20, 1995.
Cooper-Hewitt, National Design Museum, New York. "Fountains: Splash and Spectacles. Water and Design from the Renaissance to the Present," June 9, 1998–October 11, 1998.
Santa Maria della Scala, Siena. "Da Jacopo della Quercia a Donatello: Le arti a Siena nel primo Rinascimento," March 26, 2010–July 11, 2010.
Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, Boston. "Donatello, Michelangelo, Cellini: Sculptors' Drawings from Renaissance Italy," October 8, 2014–January 19, 2015.
The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "Innocence and Experience: Selections from the Department of Drawings and Prints," February 9, 2023–May 16, 2023.
Luigi Biagi Jacopo della Quercia. Florence, 1946, pp. 63-65 (summary of the history of the fountain), pl. 10 (ill. of Victoria and Albert Museum drawing), pl. 11-24 (photographs of fountain)., fig. no. pp. 63-65, p. 10, ill.
"The Picture Galley and the Print Room." A Report to the Trustees on the Buildings and Growth of the Collections. The Metropolitan Museum of Art Bulletin. The Metropolitan Museum of Art, n.s. vol. 8, no. 10, New York, June 1950, p. 130.
Richard Krautheimer "A Drawing for the Fonte Gaia in Siena." The Metropolitan Museu of Art Bulletin. The Metropolitan Museum of Art, vol. 10, no. 10, New York, June 1952, p. 266 (ill.), p. 272 (ill. detail)., pp. 265-274.
Sir John Pope-Hennessy "Recent Research." Burlington Magazine. vol. 95, 1953, p. 278.
Sir John Pope-Hennessy Italian Gothic Sculpture. London, 1955, p. 214.
Jacob Bean 100 European Drawings in the Metropolitan Museum of Art. New York: New York Graphic Society, 1964, cat. no. 1, fig. no. 1, ill.
Anne Coffin Hanson Jacopo della Quercia's Fonte Gaia. Oxford, 1965, pp. 22-34; pl. 4, pp. 11-14, ill.
James H. Beck "Jacopo della Quercia’s Fonte Gaia by Anne Coffin Hanson.”" The Art Bulletin. Vol. 48, no. 1, March, 1966, pp. 114-15.
Enzo Carli "Jacopo della Quercia’s Fonte Gaia by Anne Coffin Hanson." Renaissance News. Vol. 19, no. 1, Spring 1966, p. 21.
Bernhard Degenhart, Annegrit Schmitt Corpus der Italienischen Zeichnungen 1300-1450: Teil I: Süd-und Mittelitalien. Vol. 1 of 4, Berlin, 1968, Vol. 1, cat. no. 112; Vol. 3, pl. 161a.
Charles Seymour Jr. "‘Fatto di sua mano’: Another Look at the Fonte Gaia Drawing Fragments in London and New York." Festschrift Ulrich Middeldorf. Vol. 1, Berlin, 1968, fig. no. 46, 48, pp. 93-105, ill.
Carlo del Bravo Scultura senese del Quattrocento. Florence, 1970, pp. 24-25, 34, fig. 65, ill.
Sir John Pope-Hennessy Italian Gothic Sculpture. London and New York, 1972, p. 213.
Charles Seymour Jr. Jacopo della Quercia, Sculptor. New Haven, Connecticut and London, 1973, fig. no. 40, p. 45.
Licia Ragghianti Collobi Il libro de' disegni del Vasari. 2 vols., Florence, 1974, Vol. 1, p. 43; vol. 2, fig. 52.
Jacopo della Quercia nell'arte del suo tempo. Mostra didattica. Exh. cat., Palazzo Pubblico, Siena (24 May - 12 October, 1975). Ed. by Giovanni Previtali, and Giulietta Chelazzi Dini, Introd. by Cesare Brandi, Florence, 1975, p. 107, 110, fig. XIII.2.
Fabio Bisogni Jacopo della Quercia fra gotico e rinascimento. Atti del convegno di studi.. Florence, 1977, fig. no. 12.1, 12.2, pp. 109-114.
Luciano Bellosi I disegni antichi degli Uffizi: i tempi del Ghiberti. Exh. cat., Gabinetto Disegni e Stampe degli Uffizi, Florence. Florence, 1978, p. xx.
Peter Ward-Jackson Italian Drawings, Volume One: 14th - 16th Centruy. Vol. 1, London, 1979, cat. no. 17, pp. 21-24.
Alessandro Conti "Un libro di disegni della bottega del Ghiberti." Lorenzo Ghiberti nel suo tempo. Atti del convegno internazionale di studi (Firenze, 18-21 ottobre 1978). Istituto Nazionale di Studi sul Rinascimento, Vol. 1, Florence, 1980, p. 148.
Francis Ames-Lewis Drawing in Early Renaissance Italy. New Haven and London, 1981, pp. 128, 130., ill.
Jacob Bean, Lawrence Turčić 15th and 16th Century Italian Drawings in the Metropolitan Museum of Art. The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, 1982, pp. 210-11, no. 209, fig. 209, ill.
Francis Ames-Lewis, Joanne Wright Drawing in the Italian Renaissance Workshop. Exh. cat., University Art Gallery, Nottingham (12 February to 12 March 1983), Victoria and Albert Museum, London (30 March to May 15). London, 1983, pp. 224-27, under no. 46, ill.
Carl Brandon Strehlke in Painting in Renaissance Siena, 1420-1500. Exh. cat., The Metropolitan Museum of Art. Ed. by Keith Christiansen et al., New York, 1988, fig. no. 2, p. 38.
George R. Goldner "A Drawing by Desiderio da Settignano." The Burlington Magazine. Vol. 131, no. 1036, July 1989, p. 469.
Anna Forlani Tempesti Metropolitan Museum of Art: The Robert Lehman Collection. Italian fifteenth-to seventeenth-century drawings. Princeton and New York, 1991, p. 169 n. 9.
Marilyn Symmes Fountains: Splash and Spectacles. Water and Design form the Renaissance to the Present Exh. cat., Cooper-Hewitt, National Design Museum (June 9 - October 11, 1998). New York, 1998, fig. no. 56, pp. 34-35, ill.
Marilyn Symmes "Fountains: Designing for the Rise and Fall of Water" Drawing. The international Review published by the Drawing Society. Vol. 20, no. 1, 1998, pp. 2-3, fig. 2.
Luciano Bellosi "La “Porta Magna” di Jacopo della Quercia." Come un prato fiorito: studi sull’arte gotica. Rome, 2000, p. 144 (reprint of the article originally published in "La Basilica di San Petronio", Silvana Editoriale, Milan 1983, pp. 163-212).
Marilena Caciorgna Moduli antichi e tradizione classica nel programma della Fonte Gaia di Jacopo della Quercia in Fontes. nos. IV-V, 2001, fig. no. 1, 71ff., ill.
Carmen C. Bambach Renaissance Drawings: Material and Function Heilbrunn Timeline of Art History. New York, October 2002.
Marilena Caciorgna in Siena e Roma. Raffaello, Caravaggio e i protagonisti di un legame antico. Exh. cat. Santa Maria della Scala and Palazzo Squarcialupi, Siena. Ed. by Claudio Strinati, and Bruno Santi, Milan, 2005, p. 144.
Da Jacopo della Quercia a Donatello: le arti a Siena nel primo Rinascimento. Exh. cat., Santa Maria della Scala, Siena. Ed. by Max Seidel, Andrea De Marchi , et al., Milan, 2010, pp. 68-70, no. A18, fig. A (entry by Federica Siddi).
Michael Cole, Davide Gasparotto, Oliver Tostmann et al. Donatello, Michelangelo, Cellini: Sculptor's Drawings from Renaissance Italy Exh. cat. Boston, Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum. Boston and London, 2014, pp. 124-28, no. 2, repr. (entry by Carmen C. Bambach, see here Catalogue Entry).
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