QUERCIA, Jacopo della
(b. ca. 1367, Quercia Grossa, d. 1438, Siena)

Main Portal: St Petronius

1425-30
Istrian stone
San Petronio, Bologna

The main sculptural features of the portal are three figures in the lunette above the entrance (of which only two, the Virgin and Child and St Petronius, are by Quercia, the third free-standing figure, St Ambrose, was carved in 1510 by Domenico Aimo), five upright scenes from the Genesis on each of the lateral supports, and five oblong scenes from the life of Christ running across the architrave.

St Petronius is a powerful figure, the expressive quality of his face heightened by the nervous chisel strokes of his short, cropped beard. As befits the city's patron saint, he holds a model of Bologna, complete with its huge towers, in his right hand.




© Web Gallery of Art, created by Emil Krén and Daniel Marx.