Luca della Robbia

The Florentine sculptor Luca della Robbia (1400?-1482) is usually remembered for his singularly lovely images of the Madonna and Child in glazed terra-cotta.

Luca della Robbia was praised by his compatriot Leon Battista Alberti for genius comparable to that of the sculptors Donatello and Lorenzo Ghiberti, the architect Filippo Brunelleschi, and the painter Masaccio. By ranking him with contemporary artists of this stature, Alberti reminds us of the interest and strength of Luca's work in marble and bronze, as well as in the terra-cottas always associated with his name.

There are no certain details of Luca della Robbia's youth, training, or early sculpture, and many of his most popular later works cannot be dated absolutely. He was born in Florence. His first documented commission, the marble Singing Gallery (1431-1438) for the Cathedral of Florence, proves that he must have been an accomplished artist long before joining the Sculptors' Guild in 1432. The Singing Gallery shows children singing, dancing, and making music to "praise the Lord" in the words of Psalm 150. Their figures are at once lively, finely observed, and gracefully combined in groups designed to fit the 10 panels of the gallery.

In the next 2 decades Luca executed important commissions in marble and bronze: a series of marble reliefs (1437) for the bell tower of the Cathedral of Florence; a marble and enameled terra-cotta tabernacle (1443), now in S. Maria in Peretola; bronze angels to enrich the Singing Gallery; and, in collaboration with Michelozzo, the large project of bronze doors for the Sacristy of the Cathedral. These doors were not finished until 1469; their reliance on a few figures placed in simple, orderly compositions against a flat ground contrasts sharply with the elaborate pictorial effects of Ghiberti's more famous Baptistery doors.

Although the data of Luca's first work in colored, glazed terra-cotta is not known, his control of this medium was clearly enough recognized to justify two major commissions for the Cathedral of Florence: the large reliefs Resurrection (1445) and Ascension of Christ (1446). The pliant medium of baked clay covered with a "slip" of vitrified lead and refined permitted a lustrous, polished surface capable of reflecting light and using color that was beautifully appropriate for architectural sculpture. Whether animating the vast, somber space of the Cathedral or in the series Twelve Apostles gracing the pristine surfaces of the small Pazzi Chapel (1443-1450) in Florence, Luca's reliefs in this medium achieved a perfection never before or since attained.

Working with assistants, including members of his own family, Luca produced a number of decorative reliefs and altarpieces until the end of his life. One of the finest and richest examples is the enameled terra-cotta ceiling (1466) of the Chapel of the Cardinal of Portugal in S. Miniato, Florence. Luca della Robbia died in Florence in February 1482.

Further Reading

Allan Marquand, Luca della Robbia (1914), remains the most important and readable monograph on the artist. The earliest account of Luca della Robbia, in Giorgio Vasari, Lives of the Most Eminent Painters, Sculptors and Architects, vol. 2, translated by Gaston De Vere (1914), is sympathetic but should be supplemented by Charles Seymour's more recent Sculpture in Italy, 1400-1500 (1966).

Additional Sources

Gaeta Bertela, Giovanna, Luca, Andrea, Giovanni Della Robbia, London: Constable, c. 1979.

Pope-Hennessy, John Wyndham, Sir, Luca della Robbia, Ithaca, N.Y.: Cornell University Press, 1980. □

Robbia, Luca della (b ?Florence, c.1399/1400; d Florence, 20 Feb. 1482). Florentine sculptor, the most famous member of a family of artists. Nothing is known of his early career, and he was a mature artist by the time of his first documented work—a Cantoria (Singing Gallery, 1431–8) for Florence Cathedral, now in the Cathedral Museum. It is a work of considerable originality as well as enormous charm, antedating by a year or two the companion gallery by Donatello (now also in the Cathedral Museum). Its marble reliefs of angels and children singing, dancing, and making music reflect antique prototypes, but are conceived in a more cheerful, less heroic spirit than Donatello's figures. In his own time Luca had the reputation of being one of the leaders of the modern (i.e. Renaissance) style, comparable to Donatello and Ghiberti in sculpture and Masaccio in painting, but he is now remembered mainly for his development of coloured, glazed terracotta as a sculptural medium—in particular for his highly popular invention of the type of the half-length Madonna and Child in white on a blue ground. The family workshop seems to have kept the technical formula a secret and it became the basis of a flourishing business; among the major works by Luca in the medium are the roundels of Apostles (c.1450) in Brunelleschi's Pazzi Chapel in S. Croce.

Luca's business was carried on by his nephew Andrea (1435–1525), and later by Andrea's five sons, of whom Giovanni (1469–after 1529) was the most important. The famous roundels of infants on the façade of the Foundling Hospital in Florence (1463–6) were probably made by Andrea. His successors tended to sentimentalize Luca's warm humanity, and in course of time the artists' studio became a potters' workshop-industry.

Robbia, Luca della (c.1400–82). Florentine sculptor, the most famous member of a family of artists. Nothing is known of his early career, and he was a mature artist by the time of his first documented work—a Cantoria (Singing Gallery, 1431–8) for Florence Cathedral, now in the Cathedral Museum. It is a work of considerable originality as well as enormous charm, antedating by a year or two the companion gallery by Donatello (now also in the Cathedral Museum). Its marble reliefs of angels and children singing, dancing, and making music reflect Antique prototypes, but are conceived in a more cheerful, less heroic spirit than Donatello's figures. In his own time Luca had the reputation of being one of the leaders of the modern (i.e. Renaissance) style, comparable to Donatello and Ghiberti in sculpture and Masaccio in painting, but he is now remembered mainly for his development of coloured, glazed terracotta as a sculptural medium—in particular for his highly popular invention of the type of the half-length Madonna and Child in white on a blue ground. The family workshop seems to have kept the technical formula a secret and it became the basis of a flourishing business; among the major works by Luca in the medium are the roundels of Apostles (c.1450) in Brunelleschi's Pazzi Chapel in S. Croce. Luca's business was carried on by his nephew Andrea (1435–1525), and later by Andrea's five sons, of whom Giovanni (1469–after 1529) was the most important. The famous roundels of infants on the façade of the Foundling Hospital in Florence (1463–6) were probably made by Andrea. His successors tended to sentimentalize Luca's warm humanity, and in course of time the artists' studio became a potters' workshop-industry.

della Robbia, Luca (1399/1400–1482), and Andrea (1435–1525), Florentine artists. Luca's work includes marble sculptures, the bronze north sacristy door of the cathedral at Florence, and works in enamelled terracotta. These often show white figures on a pale-blue ground, framed by borders of fruit and flowers. That of his nephew Andrea includes the series of medallions with infants for the front of the Foundling Hospital at Florence and numerous Madonnas.

Luca della Robbia. See Robbia.