AGOSTINO DI DUCCIO

In the Tempio Malatestiano Agostino di Duccio created a highly individual style where the Quattrocento Renaissance types of figures are wedded to swinging linear masses of linear fold patterns, spreading out over the surface of the relief. The concious unreality of these reliefs is further developed in his later work in Perugia, where in his Miracle of San Bernardino the draperies have become like ectoplasm and swirl round the figures in an unearthly symphony. Though these reliefs are among the finest products of the century they remained isolated with little or no following.

The picture shows a relief depicting playing children.

The contours are incised at right angles to the plane of the relief, and in many cases the heads are represented as perfect circles and other forms are reduced to their nearest geometrical equivalents.

The picture shows a relief depicting playing children.

The contours are incised at right angles to the plane of the relief, and in many cases the heads are represented as perfect circles and other forms are reduced to their nearest geometrical equivalents.

The picture shows a relief depicting playing children.

The contours are incised at right angles to the plane of the relief, and in many cases the heads are represented as perfect circles and other forms are reduced to their nearest geometrical equivalents.

Above a relief of playing children, the picture shows the SI monogram (from the initial of Sigismondo and Isotta’s names, or, according to others, the first two letters of the former).

The reconstruction of the church was commissioned by Sigismondo Pandolfo Malatesta from Leon Battista Alberti around 1450, and his monogram is present in numerous other places in the church.

The picture shows the Cumaean Sibyl, one of the ten Sibyls placed in the niches of the Chapel of the Martyrs.

The picture shows the Phrygian Sibyl, one of the ten Sibyls placed in the niches of the Chapel of the Martyrs.

The picture shows the Libyan Sibyl, one of the ten Sibyls placed in the niches of the Chapel of the Martyrs.

The picture shows the Hellespontine Sibyl, one of the ten Sibyls placed in the niches of the Chapel of the Martyrs.

The picture shows the Cimmerian Sibyl, one of the ten Sibyls placed in the niches of the Chapel of the Martyrs.

The picture shows the Tiburtine Sibyl, one of the ten Sibyls placed in the niches of the Chapel of the Martyrs.

The picture shows the Delphic Sibyl, one of the ten Sibyls placed in the niches of the Chapel of the Martyrs.

The picture shows one of the ten Sibyls placed in the niches of the Chapel of the Martyrs.

The picture shows the Prophet Isaiah, one of the two Prophets placed in the niches of the Chapel of the Martyrs.

The picture shows the Prophet Micah (Micheas), one of the two Prophets placed in the niches of the Chapel of the Martyrs. Micah was one of the twelve minor prophets in the Old Testament.

The Ark of the Ancestors (Arca degli Antenati) in the Chapel of the Martyrs contains the bodies of some of Malatesta’s ancestors.

The Ark of the Ancestors (Arca degli Antenati) in the Chapel of the Martyrs contains the bodies of some of Malatesta’s ancestors.

The Ark of the Ancestors (Arca degli Antenati) in the Chapel of the Martyrs contains the bodies of some of Malatesta’s ancestors.

The picture shows the relief depicting Saturn.

The picture shows the relief depicting Diana, the goddess of Moon. (That time the Sun and the Moon were thought to belong to the planets.)

Suggested listening (streaming mp3, 6 minutes):

Franz Schubert: An den Mond (To the Moon) (Goethe) D 296

The picture shows the relief depicting Mercury.

The picture shows the relief depicting Venus riding across a sea, one of the most attractive reliefs in the chapel.

The picture shows the sign of Cancer and a view of Rimini.

The picture shows the sign of Cancer and a the relief of the Moon.

The picture shows the sign of Aquarius. The firm flesh of Aquarius is treated with the same roundity and the same smooth transitions as the music-making angels in the Chapel of Isotta, and is seen in part through the transparent water and in part through striated drapery.

The picture shows the sign of Libra.

The picture shows the sign of Sagittarius.

The picture shows the sign of Taurus.

The picture shows the sign of Virgin.

The picture shows Rhetoric, one of the seven Liberal Arts.

The picture shows the relief depicting Ethics.

The picture shows the relief depicting Agriculture.

The picture shows Grammar, one of the seven Liberal Arts.

The picture shows the relief depicting Philosophy.

The picture shows Logic, one of the seven Liberal Arts.

The picture shows Astronomy, one of the seven Liberal Arts.

The picture shows Music, one of the seven Liberal Arts.

The picture shows Arithmetic, one of the seven Liberal Arts.

The picture shows Geometry, one of the seven Liberal Arts.

The picture shows the Muse of Dance.

The picture shows the Muse of Poetry (Apollo).

The picture shows the Muse of History.

The picture shows the Muse of Poetry (Apollo).

Above a relief of angels, the picture shows the SI monogram (from the initial of Sigismondo and Isotta’s names, or, according to others, the first two letters of the former).

The reconstruction of the church was commissioned by Sigismondo Pandolfo Malatesta from Leon Battista Alberti around 1450, and his monogram is present in numerous other places in the church.

The picture shows a relief depicting music-making angels.

The picture shows a relief depicting music-making angels.

The picture shows curtain-drawing angels in the Chapel of St Sigismund.

The picture shows curtain-drawing angels in the Chapel of St Sigismund.

The picture shows a curtain-drawing angel in the Chapel of St Sigismund.

The picture shows an angel holding the curtain in the Chapel of St Sigismund.

The picture shows Hope, one of the Virtues seated in niches between pilasters in the Chapel of St Sigismund.

The picture shows Prudence, one of the Virtues seated in niches between pilasters in the Chapel of St Sigismund.

The picture shows Charity, one of the Virtues seated in niches between pilasters in the Chapel of St Sigismund.

The picture shows Faith, one of the Virtues seated in niches between pilasters in the Chapel of St Sigismund.

The picture shows Fortitude, one of the Virtues seated in niches between pilasters in the Chapel of St Sigismund.

The picture shows Temperance, one of the Virtues seated in niches between pilasters in the Chapel of St Sigismund.

In Perugia, Agostino also carved a large stone and terracotta dossal (dismantled and reconstituted in 1484) for the altar of San Lorenzo, in the church of San Domenico, for the heirs of Lorenzo di Ser Giovanni. The altar is in the Chapel of San Lorenzo, a votive chapel in the right aisle. In its architectural structure the dossal recalls fa�ade of the Oratory of San Bernardino in Perugia.

The detail shows the Archangel Gabriel, a figure of the Annunciation.

The detail shows the Virgin Annunciate.

The detail shows the statue of St John the Baptist.

The detail shows the statue of St Lawrence.

Sigismondo Pandolfo Malatesta (1417-1468) decided to renovate the old church of San Francesco (Tempio Malatestiano) in Rimini, the traditional burial place of the Malatesta lords. He contracted Leon Battista Alberti for the design but entrusted the supervision of the construction to the builder and artist Matteo de’ Pasti. Alberti’s solution was to wrap the entire existing Gothic church in a marble classical skin, articulated with arches.

The interior of the church was designed by Agostino di Duccio, who from 1449 to 1456 was in Rimini, employed by Sigismondo Pandolfo Malatesta for the decoration. There Agostino supervised a large group of sculptors working on the most richly sculptured Renaissance building in Italy. He was probably personally responsible for all the major figural carving in the six chapels that were built in the church.

Whereas Alberti had concealed the Gothic elements of the pre-existing church with a classical skin, Agostino, like most of his contemporaries, preferred to apply classical vocabulary over and around Gothic structure, retaining pointed arches and framing double tiers of Gothic window tracery with classical rinceaux. Agostino’s manner is lavish, enhanced by polychromy and the recurrent appearance of coats of arms, chivalric helmets, and such exotic motifs as elephants, the Malatesta family emblem.

The six chapels are:

1. Cappella di San Sigismondo (or Cappella delle Virtù), first chapel on the right, decorated by Virtues.

2. Cappella dei Martiri (Cappella dei Antenati), first chapel on the left, dedicated to the Martyrs and bearing figures of Prophets and Sibyls.

3. Cappella di San Michele Arcangelo (or Cappella di Isotta), second chapel on the right, decorated with with music-making cherubs.

4. Cappella San Gaudenzio (or Cappella dei Giochi Infantili), second chapel on the left, decorated with playing children.

5. Cappella dei Pianeti (or Cappella dello Zodiaco), third chapel on the right, with the Signs of the Zodiac, alluding to the perfection of the heavens.

6. Cappella di Dan Giuseppe (or Cappella delle Muse and delle Arti Liberali), third chapel on the left, featuring the Liberal Arts, referring to the earthly realm.

View the ground plan of the church.

This Madonna is part of a sculpture group from the Oratory of La Maestà delle Volte.

This relief came from the castle of Counts Spinelli in Rignano, Tuscany.

In 1463 Agostino returned to Florence and enrolled in the Arte dei Maestri di Pietra e Legname (the sculptors’ guild). The marble relief of the Virgin and Child with Angels, originally in Santa Maria del Carmine, Florence, belongs to Agostino’s Flrentine period.

In 1473 Agostino returned to Perugia as architect in charge of the design and execution of the Porta San Pietro, left unfinished at the time of his death. Among his other contemporary commissions, from small towns in Umbria and Lazio, are two Archangels for Acquapendente Cathedral (Viterbo) and two wall tombs, both originally in San Francesco, Amelia (Terni), those of Giovanni Geraldini, Bishop of Catanzaro (1476; Amelia Cathedral) and of Matteo and Elisabetta Geraldini (1477; in situ).

In 1473 Agostino returned to Perugia as architect in charge of the design and execution of the Porta San Pietro, left unfinished at the time of his death. Among his other contemporary commissions, from small towns in Umbria and Lazio, are two Archangels for Acquapendente Cathedral (Viterbo) and two wall tombs, both originally in San Francesco, Amelia (Terni), those of Giovanni Geraldini, Bishop of Catanzaro (1476; Amelia Cathedral) and of Matteo and Elisabetta Geraldini (1477; in situ).

In the Tempio Malatestiano Agostino di Duccio created a highly individual style where the Quattrocento Renaissance types of figures are wedded to swinging linear masses of linear fold patterns, spreading out over the surface of the relief.

Agostino’s first certain work, commissioned by Ludovico Forni for Modena Cathedral, was an antependium that included four relief scenes from the Life of St Geminian (1442; dismembered, statue of St Geminian in Modena Cathedral sacristy, reliefs built into the cathedral’s outer wall). The scenes are carved in high relief, the figures arranged in a stiff frieze formation.

The photo shows the high tympanum containing a relief of St Bernardino in Glory. St Bernardino of Siena is twice portrayed on the fa�ade of the Oratory: full-length on the tympanum and on the centre panel above the doorway.

The photo shows the upper pediment with God the Father.

The photo shows one of the four aedicules containing a statue.

The photo shows the double doors. The sculptured decoration above the doorway contains three narrative reliefs, including The Miracle of San Bernardino (left).

The sculptured decoration above the doorway contains three narrative reliefs. St Bernardino of Siena is twice portrayed on the fa�ade of the Oratory: full-length on the tympanum and on the centre panel above the doorway, depicting the saint leading a bonfire of the vanities.

The photo shows musical angels framing the double doors.

The photo shows a relief framing the double doors. It depicts an allegorical figure.

This relief originally embellished the predella of an altar dedicated to St Lawrence in San Domenico, Perugia. It was commissioned in 1459 from Agostino di Duccio. When the altar was refashioned in 1482, the sculptures from the altar were given to the friars of San Domenico.

Agostino may have worked in the Venice studio of Bartolomeo Bon, whose influence is apparent in the statue of St Louis of Toulouse in the church of Sant’Alvise.

This is one of the late works of the master, executed in the style of his statues made for the San Bernardino Chapel in Perugia. It was originally part of an Annunciation group.

The Chapel of the Infant Games, the second chapel on the left-hand side, was presumably designed to correspond with the Chapel of Isotta, since its piers are decorated with three tiers of playing children. But these children lack the surface modelling of the children in the chapel opposite, their movement and their fluent line. The contours are incised at right angles to the plane of the relief, and in many cases the heads are represented as perfect circles and other forms are reduced to their nearest geometrical equivalents.

There is some formal correspondence between the first chapel of the left-hand side (the Chapel of the Martyrs) and the first chapel on the right-hand side (the Chapel of St Sigismund). The niches used in the Chapel of St Sigismund, containing the Virtues, are concave, while those repeated on the opposite side of the church in the Chapel of the Martyrs, are flat. Here the figures of the Sibyls are for the most part posed on a single plane and do not protrude from the surface of the wall.

The Chapel of the Planets features the reliefs depicting the Planets and the Signs of the Zodiac. It is perhaps the greatest single achievement in the Tempio Malatestiano. On a formal plane the carvings in this chapel provide some of the most felicitous and appealing schemes in the whole of Italian relief sculpture. Especially notable are the landscapes which proceed from the International Gothic landscapes found in the first half of the fifteenth century throughout North Italy.

The Chapel of the Liberal Arts features reliefs of Muses and the seven Liberal Arts (comprising the Trivium: Grammar, Rhetoric, Logic and the Quadrivium: Geometry, Arithmetic, Music and Astronomy).

The carvings are closely related to the Planet reliefs, but tends towards visual patterns of a rather different kind. Instead of a design which fills the whole area of the relief, they contain figures drawn in upon themselves and isolated on their flat grounds.

The Chapel of Isotta houses the tomb of Isotta degli Atti, Pandolfo Malatesta’s lover and later his wife. The chapel is decorated with reliefs of music-making angels. The reliefs are controlled by a subtle sense for placing the image in its frame. Animated figures are shown in motion.

This chapel also houses Giotto’s Crucifix painted during his sojourn in Rimini.

In the Chapel of St Sigismund (the Chapel of Virtues) the deeply carved figures of the Virtues are seated in niches between pilasters. The treatment of the drapery recalls that of the Virtues on Isaia da Pisa’s Chiaves monument in St John Lateran and may also have its source in Filarete, who visited Rimini about 1448 after abandoning work on the Chiaves tomb. In the postures, however, there is a residue of Venetian Gothic style.

There is some formal correspondence between the first chapel of the left-hand side (the Chapel of the Martyrs) and the first chapel on the right-hand side (the Chapel of St Sigismund). The niches used in the Chapel of St Sigismund, containing the Virtues, are concave, while those repeated on the opposite side of the church in the Chapel of the Martyrs, are flat. Here the figures of the Sibyls are for the most part posed on a single plane and do not protrude from the surface of the wall.

Between 1457 and 1461 Agostino was working on the fa�ade of the oratory of San Bernardino, Perugia. Although the architectural framework of the fa�ade recalls Alberti’s design for San Francesco in Rimini, the sculpture, originally highly polychromed, is rich and intricate, emphasizing line and movement. Above a double door framed by reliefs of angels, a high tympanum contains a relief of St Bernardino in Glory. God the Father appears in the upper pediment, and four aedicules contain statues.

The style of this relief resembles sculptures in the Tempio Malatestiano at Rimini in Italy. Agostino di Duccio was responsible for much of the sculptural decoration there from 1449 until 1457. The attendant angels of the relief are particularly close in style to the Playing Children in the Chapel of the Infant Games in the Tempio, that were also probably carved by Agostino.

This highly wrought marble relief of the Virgin and Child, is known as the d’Auvillers Madonna. It was executed for Piero di Cosimo de’ Medici (the Gouty, in Italian “il Gottoso”). It was donated by the Bonni�res de Wierre family to the church at Auvillers (Oise)