Giovanni della Robbia
Giovanni della Robbia | |
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Sculptures | |
Movement | High Renaissance |
Giovanni della Robbia (1469–1529) was an
Biography
Giovanni della Robbia was the son of Andrea della Robbia (1435–1525), brother of Girolamo della Robbia (1488–1566) and grandnephew of Luca della Robbia (1399/1400–1482).
During a great part of his life he worked as assistant to his father and inherited the workshop after his father's death, enhancing the polychrome character of the glazed terracotta works. In many cases the sculpture of the two were difficult to distinguish, and a very large number of pieces of Robbia-ware which were attributed to Andrea, and even to Andrea’s uncle Luca, were really by the hand of Giovanni. Neither Luca nor Andrea was in the habit of signing his work, but Giovanni often did so, usually adding the date, probably because other potters had begun to imitate the Robbia ware.[1] Examples of these imitations are a retable in the Basilica of San Lucchese near Poggibonsi dated 1514, another of the Madonna and Saints at Monte San Savino of 1525, and a third in the Capuchin church of Arceria near Senigallia. Some of them may have been made by assistants trained in the Robbia workshops.
One of his finest works is a large retable at
Giovanni not only copied the work of Luca and Andrea, but even reproduced in clay the marble sculpture of Antonio del Pollaiuolo, Da Settignano, Verrocchio and others. A relief by him, evidently taken from Mino da Fiesole, exists in the Palazzo Castracane Staccoli. Among the numerous other works of Giovanni are a relief in the wall of a suppressed convent in the Via Nazionale at Florence, and two reliefs in the Bargello dated 1521 and 1522. That dated 1521 is a many-coloured relief of the Nativity, and was taken from the church of San Girolamo in Florence. Its predella has a small relief of the Adoration of the Magi, and is inscribed "Hoc opus fecit Ioaes Andee de Robia, ac a posuit hoc in tempore die ultima lulli ANO. DNI. M.D. XXI." At Pisa in the Campo Santo is a relief in Giovanni's later manner dated 1520; it is a Madonna surrounded by angels, with saints below the whole overcrowded with figures and ornaments.[1]
A large octagonal font of enamelled clay, with pilasters at the angles and panels between them with scenes from the life of John the Baptist, in the church of San Leonardo at Cerreto Guidi, is a work of the school of Giovanni; the reliefs are pictorial in style and coarse in execution. Giovanni's chief pupil was a man named Benedetto Buglioni (1461–1521), and his nephew Santi Buglioni (b. 1494), entered the Robbia workshops in 1521, and assisted in the later works of Giovanni.[1]
Notes
- ^ a b c d e f public domain: Middleton, John Henry; Burton, William (1911). "Della Robbia s.v. Giovanni della Robbia". In Chisholm, Hugh (ed.). Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 7 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. pp. 968–969. One or more of the preceding sentences incorporates text from a publication now in the
- ^ Milanesi (1878). Le Vite scritte da Vasari. Vol. ii. Florence. p. 193.
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References
- Ybl, Ervin (1962). Robbia. Budapest: Képzőművészeti Alap Kiadóvállalata.
External links
- European sculpture and metalwork, a collection catalog from The Metropolitan Museum of Art Libraries (fully available online as PDF), which contains material on Giovanni della Robbia (see index)