St. Anthony Abbot Adored by Angels

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Abstract

This glazed terracotta lunette, originally over the door of the Oratorio di Sant'Antonio Abate in Prato, is now housed in the Museo di Palazzo Pretorio in Prato. Andrea della Robbia made many such glazed terracotta reliefs for to be placed on the exteriors of buildings. The medium was relatively inexpensive (as compared to marble), survived brilliantly outdoors, and allowed for the use of colour, here the blue behind St. Anthony and the angels, which are highlighted using the famously brilliant Della Robbia white glaze (a family secret, as were their other glaze recipes and techniques), and then a wider range of colours in the framing garland. The figures are elevated and abstracted by the all-over white glaze, and the blue behind them is broken by sculpted and glazed clouds, making Anthony and the angels seem to be a heavenly vision. Photograph(s) licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

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Museo di Palazzo Pretorio, Prato

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Giancarlo Gentilini, I Della Robbia (Florence: Cantini, 1992), I: 260.

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