Jacopo della Quercia, a Sienese, must have seen the works of Nicola Pisano and Arnolfo di Cambio on the pulpit in the cathedral of Siena and this must have influenced him.

These and later influences made him a transitional figure in the history of European art; his work shows a pronounced mid-career shift from the Gothic style to that of the Italian Renaissance.

Della Quercia's earliest work (though this attribution is sometimes contested) appears in the Lucca cathedral: Man of Sorrows (Altar of the Sacrament) and a relief on the tomb of St. Aniello.

The richly dressed woman rests on top of the sarcophagus, delicately portrayed in a Gothic fashion, with her dog, a symbol of conjugate fidelity, at her feet.

But his use of several nude putti at the flanks of the tomb clearly shows the classical influence of the Roman sarcophagi at Camposanto (Pisa).

The rectangular fountain, built in white marble, was dedicated to the Virgin, adorned on the three sides by many statues and multiple spouts.

The old statues were replaced by copies in 1858 from Tito Sarrocchi and are now on display in the lower levels at Santa Maria della Scala.

Jacopo also designed the tomb slabs of Lorenzo Trenta and his wife Isabetta Onesti, on the pavement in front of the altar.

He only completed one bronze relief The Annunciation to Zacharias because he was working at the same time on the Fonte Gaia and the Trenta Chapel.

The marble statue of St. John the Baptist, at the top of the dome above the tabernacle, is also attributed to Jacopo della Quercia.

Each side of the door is flanked, first by a colonette with a spirally wound decoration, then nine busts of prophets and at the end five scenes from the Old Testament, carved into somewhat lower relief.

Michelangelo, who had visited Bologna in 1494, conceded that his Genesis on the Sistine Chapel ceiling was based on these reliefs (birth of Eve shown at right).

While working at the Porta Magna, he was asked in 1434 by the Sienese to design the Loggia di San Paolo, close to the Piazza del Campo.

This carved high relief, Cardinal Antonio Casini presented to the Virgin by St. Anthony of Egypt, is on display in the Hall of Statues in the Cathedral Museum.