Madonna and Child
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Authors
Giovanni della Robbia
Date
Type
image
Language
Keyword
Madonna , Virgin , Mary , Child , Christ , Jesus
Alternative Title
Abstract
Giovanni della Robbia made this glazed terracotta sculpture on the façade of San Barnaba in Florence in 1528-9 at the behest of the guild of physicians and apothecaries (Arte dei Medici e Speziali), a guild with which artists were also affiliated, because paints (and presumably the ingredients for glazes) were sold at apothecary shops. It offered Giovanni an opportunity to compede with the Madonna on the exterior of Orsanmichele made by his great uncle, Luca della Robbia, for the same guild. Like his earlier model, Giovanni uses a rangle of colours, including flesh tones, has the baby standing, frames the figures with an arch supported with columns, and sets the figures in front of a patterned backdrop (like tiling or a patterned cloth). Giovanni competes by making the throne and patterned backdrop more elaborately detailed and framing the figures with spiral columns and faux rusticated stones, glazed deep purple to imitate porphyry. His Madonna and child are more formal and frontal than Luca's figures, which twist to the side, looking down at passersby on the street below. Photograph(s) licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
Description
San Barnaba, Florence
Citation
Giancarlo Gentilini, I Della Robbia (Florence: Cantini, 1992), II: 325; http://www.sbap-fi.beniculturali.it/index.php?it/203/chiesa-di-san-barnaba