Madonna and Child
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Authors
Luca della Robbia
Date
Type
image
Language
Keyword
Madonna and Child , Madonna , Child , Mary , Jesus
Alternative Title
Abstract
Luca della Robbia created this high-relief of the Madonna and Child in his pioneering technique of glazed terracotta in 1445. Scholars believe it was intended for the women's church in the Ospedale degli Innocenti, a building designed by Filippo Brunelleschi and completed in the 1440s to care for abandoned children in Florence. Here, perhaps Mary would have been interpreted by the children as an ideal mother figure, and Baby Jesus as a reflection of themselves, though the overall white glaze abstracts the figures. Many of the children in the orphanage were not light-skinned, as they were born of slaves and servants of diverse ethnicities, and so the gleaming whiteness of the sculpture would have been particularly far from their lived experience. Mary and Jesus gaze towards the viewer with pale lilac eyes framed with dark eyelashes and faint brows. These features soften the radiant white glaze that covers their flesh, as well as Mary's heavy drapery that is clasped with a delicate flower button. The reflective white glaze further heightens the luminosity of this sculpture, which is clearly articulated by the scroll Jesus points to with his left hand: EGO SUM LUX MUNDI (I am the light of the world). This inscription is incorporated in at least six other sculptures made by the Della Robbia workshop. Mary points to another message with her right finger: QUIA RESPEXIT DOMINUS HUMILITATEM ANCILLAE SUAE (for He hath regarded the lowliness of His handmaiden). This quotation from the Gospel of Luke refers to God's love for those who are humble and pious and was recited in the Marian hymn, the Magnificat. When viewed from the side, Mary's right hand and Jesus' right calf appear slightly squashed, as if these body parts are still forming or emerging in three-dimensions; this might suggest that the sculpture was meant to be viewed only from the front and displayed within a niche. In the nineteenth century, modern gilding was added to the figures but has since been removed. It is possible that the sculpture was originally gilded, similar to other Della Robbia sculptures that have lost their gilding because the gold would not have adhered well to the slick glaze. However, some scholars argue that the sculpture would have been left bare, without the gilding, because such lavish decoration would be inappropriate to an orphanage. The Madonna and Child is now displayed at the newly renovated Museo degli Innocenti in Florence, along with several other sculptures made for the children's hospital. Photograph(s) licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
Description
Museo degli Innocenti, Florence; Ospedale degli Innocenti, Florence
Citation
Allan Marquand, /The Madonna's of Luca Della Robbia,/ The American Journal of Archaeology and of the History of the Fine Arts 9, no. 1 (1894): 3, 20; Laura Cavazzini, ""Dipinti e sculture nelle chiese dell'Ospedale,"" in Lucia Sandri, ed., Gli Innocenti e Firenze nei secoli. Un ospedale, un archivio, una citte (Florence, 1996), 115-116; Stefano Filipponi, Eleonora Mazzocchi, and Ludovica Sebregondi, eds., Il mercante, l'ospedale, i fanciulli: La donazione di Francesco Datini, Santa Maria Nuova e la fondazione degli Innocenti, exh. cat. (Firenze: Nardini, 2010), p. 98-99; Catherine Kupiec, The Materiality of Luca della Robbia's Glazed Terracotta Sculptures, PhD diss., Rutgers University, 2016, 102-112.