Luca della Robbia | Italian
Renaissance Workshop With A Secret
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Cappuccini
Tondo by Luca dell
Robbia
Colored, glazed terracotta
Bargello Museum, Florence, Italy
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Luca
della Robbia (1399-1482) is the most well-known member of
his artistic family due to his development of colored, glazed
terracotta sculptures using his own secret workshop formula. An
Early Italian
Renaissance artist, his sculpture has been compared to that
of Donatello and Ghiberti and to
Masaccio in painting,. Luca dell
Robbia is mostly known for his Madonna and Child figures
on a blue background. The first time he is documented is in his
creation of a Cantoria (singing gallery) ca.
1431-38 for Florence Cathedral.
Luca ran a thriving family workshop which often turned out
works in popular roundel style, many of which were
incorporated as architectural decoration by architects like
Brunelleschi. The
workshop was eventually taken over by Andrea
della Robbia, Luca's nephew, and his five sons who carried on
the family tradition. The Della Robbia family continued to
keep the Luca della Robbia's secret technical
formula for the production of colored terracotta
works.
Brenda Harness, Art Historian
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