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DELLA ROBBIAS IN AMERICA

Princeton Monographs in Art and Archaeology I

DELLA ROBBIAS IN AMERICA

BY
ALLAN MARQUAND
PROFESSOR OF ART AND ARCHAEOLOGY IN PRINCETON UNIVERSITY

PRINCETON UNIVERSITY PRESS
PRINCETON
LONDON : HENRY FROWDE
OXFORD UNIVERSITY PRESS
1912

Copyright, 1912, by Princeton University Press,
for the United States of America

Printed by Princeton University Press,
Princeton, N. J., U.S.A.
Published October, 1912

TO
Dr. Wilhelm Bode
the pioneer in robbia studies

PREFACE
When Cavallucci and Molinier published in 1884 a catalogue of all the
then known works of the Della Robbias, four hundred and eighty-one in
number, they knew of only one in America. By 1902, when Miss Crutt-
well's book on Luca and Andrea della Robbia appeared, the total list had
been increased to nearly eleven hundred. Of these only ten were in this
country. At the present time America is known to possess more than
seventy examples of Delia Robbia work.
As I have in mind some day to publish a general catalogue of all the
known works of the Robbia School, I might well defer until that day the
publication of those which have reached this country. But as new examples
are constantly arriving from Europe, in many cases improperly attributed
and offered at enormous prices, I have persuaded myself that the present
publication may be of service to collectors in this very special field of art.
It is my hope also that some reader of this volume may in turn render me
a service and direct my attention to Robbias still unknown to me. I take
this opportunity of thanking Dr. W. R. Valentiner of the Metropolitan
Museum of Art for directing my attention to various examples in private
collections.

CONTENTS
I. LUCA DELLA ROBBIA . . I
II. Andrea della Robbia  29
III. Giovanni della Robbia  105
IV. Miscellaneous Robbia Works . . . 135

ILLUSTRATIONS
i. Madonna. Altman Collection, New York.
2. Madonna and Angels. Museo Nazionale, Florence.
3. Madonna. Bliss Collection, New York.
4. Madonna. E. Simon Collection, Berlin.
5. Madonna. Shaw Collection, Jamaica Plain.
6. Nativity. Museum of Fine Arts, Boston.
7. Nativity. Otto H. Kahn Collection, New York.
8. Madonna and Angels. J. P. Morgan Collection, New York.
9. Madonna. Shaw Collection, Jamaica Plain.
10. Monk Reading. Victoria and Albert Museum, London.
ii. Madonna. Mrs. O. H. P. Belmont Collection, Newport.
12. Madonna. S. Gaetano, Florence.
13. Madonna. S. Egidio, Florence.
14. Madonna. Shaw Collection, Jamaica Plain.
15. Madonna. Canessa Galleries, New York.
16. Madonna. Canessa Galleries, New York.
17. Madonna. W. C. Endicott, Jr. Collection, Boston.
18. Madonna. J. S. Bache Collection, New York.
19. Madonna. Museum of Fine Arts, Boston.
20. Madonna. Piazza dell' Unita Italiana, Florence.
21. Madonna. Art Museum, Princeton University.
22. Madonna. Prince Liechtenstein Collection, Vienna.
23. Madonna. Mrs. Vanderbilt Collection, New York.
24. Madonna. Museo Nazionale, Florence.
25. Madonna. Chapel at Baragazza.
26. Madonna. R. S. Minturn Collection, New York.
27. Adoration. " La Verna.

ILLUSTRATIONS
28. Adoration. Walters' Collection, Baltimore.
29. Adoration, M. A. Ryerson Collection, Chicago.
30. Adoration. S. Untermyer Collection, Yonkers.
31. Adoration. E. J. Berwind Collection, Newport.
32. Assumption and Saints. Metropolitan Museum, New York.
33. Madonna della Cintola. Foiano.
34. Fragment of Angel. Museum of Fine Arts, Boston.
35. Cherub Head. E. J. Berwind Collection, Newport.
36. Nativity. Metropolitan Museum, New York.
37. Head of Young Man. Metropolitan Museum, New York.
38. Boy with a Dolphin. E. C. Hoyt Collection, New York.
39. Ciborium. SS. Apostoli, Florence.
40. Ciborium. Mrs. J. L. Gardner Collection, Boston.
41. Ciborium. M. A. Ryerson Collection, Chicago.
42. Kneeling Madonna. Metropolitan Museum, New York.
43. Madonna and Angels. S. Maria Novella, Florence.
44. Resurrection. Brooklyn Institute.
45. The Temptation. Walters' Collection, Baltimore.
46. Bust of a Young Saint. Worcester Art Museum.
47. Head of Christ. Museum of Fine Arts, Boston.
48. Lamentation. Mrs. J. L. Gardner Collection, Boston.
49. Lamentation. Museo Nazionale, Florence.
50. Lamentation. Bonaventure Gallery, New York.
51. La Maddalena. Museum of Fine Arts, Boston.
52. Madonna. E. J. Berwind Collection, Newport.
53. Madonna and Saints. S. Jacopo di Ripoli, Florence.
54. Vase and Fruit. P. M. Lydig Collection, New York.
55. Madonna. Goldschmidt Galleries, New York.
56. Madonna and Saints. S. Maria della Quercia, Viterbo.
57. Adoration. P. M. Lydig Collection, New York.
58. Nativity. E. Bradley Collection, Washington.
59. Holy Family. C. P. Taft Collection, Cincinnati.
60. Nativity. Museum of Fine Arts, Boston.
61. Nativity and Saints. Museo Nazionale, Florence.

ILLUSTRATIONS
62. Head of a Child. C. P. Taft Collection, Cincinnati.
63. Madonna. C. P. Taft Collection, Cincinnati.
64. Madonna. P. M. Lydig Collection, New York.
65. Madonna. Walters' Collection, Baltimore.
66. Madonna. P. M. Lydig Collection, New York.
67. Madonna and Saints. Metropolitan Museum, New York.
68. Madonna and Saints. Innocenti Hospital, Florence.
69. Madonna and Angels. Walters' Collection, Baltimore.
70. Madonna. Walters' Collection, Baltimore.
71. Madonna. Walters' Collection, Baltimore.
72. Madonna. Walters' Collection, Baltimore.

I
LUCA DELLA ROBBIA
i 399-1482.
The works of Luca della Robbia are almost entirely confined to Flor
ence, and one who has not studied them in the Cathedral and the Opera del
Duomo, at Or San Michele and in the Pazzi Chapel, at S. Miniato and
S. Trinita, and the collection gathered in the Museo Nazionale, can hardly
expect to understand his spirit and the quality of his work. The limited
area of his activity is the more remarkable when we consider the centrifugal
character of the Florentine school of his day. Outside of Florence when
we have mentioned the lunette at Urbino, the tabernacles at Impruneta and
Peretola, the altarpiece at Pescia, and perhaps the vaulted ceiling at S.
Giobbe, Venice, we have about exhausted the list of Luca della Robbia's
works to be found in Italy. Vasari's statement that he executed com
missions for the Duke of Calabria has yet to be verified. Outside of Italy
a few works by Luca della Robbia have drifted to Berlin, London, Paris,
Vienna and Copenhagen, and it is fortunate for us that several have found
their way to America.
1. Madonna and Child with a Scroll (Figs. 1-2).
Fortunate is the country which possesses so characteristic an example
of Luca della Robbia's work as the Madonna which has recently enriched
the collection of Mr. Benjamin Altman of New York (Fig. 1). It was for
merly in the collection of Count Leonello di Nobili, Florence, but was put
on sale in Paris and London for several years before a purchaser was
found.1 1 Bode, Zeitschrift, fwr bildende Kunst, xxi (1910), p. 306.

2 DELLA ROBBIAS IN AMERICA
The Madonna is erect in pose, reminding us of Luca's lunette composi
tions in which she appears between two angels or saints. Of these lunettes
none is more beautiful than the one formerly in the Via dell' Agnolo and
now in the Museo Nazionale, Florence.2 The Altman Madonna has no
background, but is set upon a low base and might well have been placed in
a niche. The base is a rich blue in colour and has its corners cut away,
as is the case with several of Luca's Madonnas. Our Lady is represented in
life size and three quarter length. The type with oval head, broad fore
head, gray eyes,3 straight nose, small half opened mouth, and pointed chin
may be paralleled by several of Luca's Madonnas, but by none more closely
than by the Via dell' Agnolo Madonna (Fig. 2). It was probably inspired
by the same model.
We may notice that she wears a kerchief falling to her shoulders and a
cloak fastened by cords. The kerchief occurs in a number of Luca's Ma
donnas of his best period. In the present instance it has a fluted border.
The cloak is drawn together at the neck by two cords, each of which is
provided with two tassels. Luca was evidently charmed by this method of
fastening the cloak, for in the medallion of S. Jacopo Minore in the Pazzi
Chapel, and in that of Temperance in the Cluny Museum, he makes use of
a button and a tassel ; and in the Madonna of the Bronze Doors he uses a
single cord with a pair of tassels. In the present example the fastening is
at once more complex and more charming, and the cloak with its simple
folds has attained the height of naturalism. The Child is firmly held on his
mother's left arm, and, like the Child of the Bronze Doors,4 is lightly
draped, blesses with his right hand, and holds in his left a scroll inscribed
EGO SVM LVX MVNDI.
On three other occasions did Luca della Robbia make a Madonna with
the Child holding a scroll similarly inscribed — in the lunette from the Via
dell' Agnolo, in that of S. Domenico at Urbino, and in the Madonna in the
Innocenti Hospital, Florence. In none of these instances is the scroll as
graceful as it is in the Altman Madonna.5 The lettering in this inscription
"Bode, Denkmaler der Renaissance-Sculptur Toscanas, Taf. 208; Florentine Sculptors
of the Renaissance, PI. 39; Cruttwell, Luca and Andrea della Robbia, p. 125; Marcel
Reymond, Les Della Robbia, p. 105 ; Schubring, Luca della Robbia, Abb. 71.
" The eyes have slightly greenish gray irises, as in the Frescobaldi Madonna in the
Berlin Museum (No. 116N.).
4 Bode, Denkmaler, Taf. 214; Florentine Sculptors, PI. 36; Cruttwell, op. cit., pp. 80-88;
Marcel Reymond, op. cit., pp. 36-38; Schubring, op. cit., Abb. 47-51.
6 A similar scroll of double curvature may be seen in the predella of Luca's Altar of the
Holy Cross at Impruneta.

Figure i. — Madonna. Altman Collection, New York.

Figure 2. — Madonna and Angels. Museo Nazionale, Florence.

LUCA DELLA ROBBIA 7
is very close in style to that in the Via dell' Agnolo lunette. The Altman
Madonna was made by Luca della Robbia at a time when a woman of a
shy, youthful type still made a strong appeal to him, and when gracefulness
of line, modelling, and detail received more than usual care. Its date can
not be far removed from that of the Via dell' Agnolo lunette.6
2. The Madonna of the Niche (Figs. 3-4).
Another monument in this country which, without hesitation, may be
attributed to Luca della Robbia is the Madonna in the collection of Mrs.
George T. Bliss of New York (Fig. 3). This relief passed from the col
lection of M. fimile Gavet of Paris into that of the late Henry G. Mar-
quand of New York, and was purchased by Mrs. Bliss at the sale of the
Marquand collection in 1903. The Madonna is one of unusual charm,
even when brought into comparison with other Madonnas by Luca della
Robbia. She is figured in a niche capped by a semi-dome. The Madonna
and Child are white, the niche, semi-dome, and frame, a turquoise blue
enamel. Gold lines divide the dome and niche into a series of panellings,
and rich floral scrolls with two coats of arms are gilded on the outer borders
of the relief. All this decoration is painted, not enamelled.
The niche is an unusual feature in Robbia works. Its ribbed char
acter may have been suggested to Luca's mind by the forms of Gothic
architecture, such as the ribbed niches on the Campanile, or by the shell
capped niches on Ghiberti's second Baptistery Gates. The turquoise blue
is also an unusual feature. We find Luca experimenting with different
shades of blue on the well known Madonna of the Apple in the Museo
Nazionale. His sense for quality of colour seems to have developed
slowly but surely, and is finely illustrated in the Medallion of the Stone
Masons, and in the Medallion of the Merchants, on the exterior of Or San
Michele. No other member of the Robbia school possessed such a colour
sense. It is possible that the gilded floral scroll on the frame is a recent
addition, but it follows well known motives exhibited elsewhere on Luca's
works. He was not blind to the charm of Byzantine and Gothic floriated
patterns. When we examine the figures, we find here also the type with
which we are so familiar in his representations of the Virgin: her oval
' Marcel Reymond assigns this lunette to the decade 1450-1460 ; Venturi to about 1450 ;
Bode to before 1443; in the American Journal of Archaeology, ix (1894), pp. 2, 12, I
assigned it to the decade 1430- 1440.

8 DELLA ROBBIAS IN AMERICA
face with gray blue eyes, the partially opened mouth, her waving hair
covered by a light veil, her plain gown and mantle falling in naturalistic
folds, from which, however, Gothic conventions are not wholly gone.
The nude Child and his mother form a compact group, a marked pyramidal
composition. It may be observed that if we read the group from left to
right, the Madonna is figured first, then the Child. Such is the case al
most invariably with Luca's Madonnas. His nephew Andrea- reversed the
position, and, with few exceptions, placed the Child to the left and the
mother to the right. The pyramidal character and the compactness of the
composition is also more characteristic of Luca. Andrea's effort to empha
size the Child was often effected at the expense of the composition.
There are two Madonna types, generally admitted to be Luca's, with
which the Bliss Madonna has strong affinities. One is the Madonna of the
Apple, in the Museo Nazionale, of which there is an interesting variant in
the Berlin Museum. In these the Madonna, the Child, and the treatment
of the drapery, are closely analogous to those of the Bliss Madonna, al
though as a whole severer, less human, and less maternal. The other type is
the Madonna with a draped, standing child. Of this there are several ex
amples, two in Berlin, one in Vienna, and one in the Florence Museum. Dr.
Bode has published a very instructive, comparative study of them in the
Milnchener Jahrbuch der bildenden Kunst, I (1906), pp. 28-32. The best,
which we reproduce here (Fig. 4), is in the collection of Dr. Eduard Simon
in Berlin.
5. Another Madonna of the Niche (Fig.$).
There is also in this country a replica of the Bliss Madonna, in the
collection of Mrs. Quincy A. Shaw, Jamaica Plain, Mass. This is
about the same size as the Bliss Madonna and is slightly inferior to it
in modelling. It may be observed, for example, that the fingers of the
Child's right hand, clearly visible in the Bliss Madonna, are here indis
tinctly indicated. It is probable that this example was a second cast from
the same mould. Besides the difference in modelling, other variations
may be noticed. The Child here is entirely nude and the Virgin's mantle
serves more completely as a background for the lower part of his body.
The niche also has been modified. It has fewer panellings. These are blue
in colour, and are separated by ribs of turquoise blue. In the spandrels of
the face of the frame, green is introduced, and the circular disks, which may

Figure 3. — Madonna. Bliss Collection, New York.

Figure 4. — Madonna. E. Simon Collection, Berlin.

Figure 5. — Madonna. Shaw Collection, Jamaica Plain.

LUCA DELLA ROBBIA 15
once have been ornamented with coats of arms, are now empty. Much of
the ancient gilding has disappeared, but traces of it are found in the hair
of both Virgin and Child, on the girdle and on the borders of the Virgin's
mantle, and at various places on the niche and frame. On the whole this
is not quite so fine an example of Luca's handiwork as the Bliss Madonna.
Some critics would be satisfied with saying that it is a copy of the other
and hence to be relegated to the unattributed limbo of the Robbia School.
But in my judgment it is a replica made in Luca's atelier under his super
vision, and if signatures had been customary in such works it would have
borne Luca's signature.
In assigning a date to the Bliss Madonna, I once put it as in the decade
from 1 430- 1 440. 7 Possibly this is too early and Dr. Bode may be wiser
in assigning it to about 1450. Certainly M. Marcel Reymond is wrong
in assigning it to the early years of the sixteenth century and in attributing
it to Andrea della Robbia.8 Andrea's Madonnas of the years 1489, 1505
and 1509 are well known to us by documented examples still existing in
the Opera del Duomo in Florence, over the entrance of the Duomo at
Pistoia, and over the portal of Santa Maria della Quercia at Viterbo (Fig.
56). These show to us that Andrea's Madonnas, especially in the early
years of the sixteenth century, were far removed in type from the Bliss and
Shaw Madonnas.
4. The Nativity with Gloria in Excelsis (Fig.6).
In the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, may be seen a Nativity, loaned
by Mrs. Quincy A. Shaw, which reflects the style of Luca della Robbia.
We may notice that four adoring angels appear in the sky. This is not an
uncommon feature in Luca's works. Adoring angels occur in the predella
of the Tabernacle of the Holy Cross at Impruneta,9 and in a very beautiful
Adoration in the collection of M. Foulc, Paris.10 The angels in the Shaw
Nativity bear a general resemblance to the Impruneta angels and are sing
ing the Gloria in Excelsis. The Madonna and S. Giuseppe recall Luca della
Robbia types. The head of the Virgin is modelled along the same lines as
''American Journal of Archaeology, ix (1894), p. 14.
'Les Delia Robbia, p. 204.
* Bode, Denkmaler der Renaissance Sculptur Toscanas, Taf. 234 ; Cruttwell, Luca
und Andrea della Robbia, p. 113; Marcel Reymond, Les Della Robbia, pp. 78-79; Schu
bring, Luca della Robbia, Abb. 56.
lq Bode, Denkmaler, Taf. 231 ; Schubring, op. cit., Abb. 96.

i6

DELLA ROBBIAS IN AMERICA

the Prudence in the ceiling of the Portogallo Chapel at San Miniato. But
the poses of the Virgin and S. Giuseppe are somewhat unstable, and the
sculptor has not clearly expressed the basket or manger. We must ac
cordingly assign this relief to some worker in Luca's atelier rather than to
the master himself. The same pupil's hand may be recognized in two re
liefs in the Museo Nazionale (Nos. 21 and 48), another in the Palazzo
Bianco, Genoa, and still another purchased recently by Mr. Otto H. Kahn
of New York.
5. The Nativity with adoring Angels (Fig. j).
The Nativity in the collection of Mr. Otto H. Kahn, New York, is
evidently by the same hand as the preceding relief, for there is the same
blue sky, the same splashy clouds, the same mode of indicating hay and
a similar wicker basket. Here the Child is more natural and is quite charm
ing as he plays with his drapery and gazes timidly at the spectator. The
ox and ass show the same eager interest in the event. It may be noticed
that the figures are reversed, S. Giuseppe appearing to the left and the
Virgin to the right. Even the ox and ass have changed places. The four
angels are separated into groups of two, only three of whom are intently
gazing upon the Child. Dr. Bode compares this relief with the one pre
sented by Herr von Beckerath to the Museum at Krefeld,11 with which it
certainly -has much in common. The Kahn Nativity betrays a striving for
novelty. The large basket which contains the Child is set so far to the
left that scant room remains for S. Giuseppe, and it is not very clear
whether he is on his knees or standing on a lower level. His pose be
hind the crib puts him almost in a second plane of the relief. Possibly
this accounts for his being apparently shorter than the Virgin. The angels
of this relief, when compared with those on the predella of the Altar of
the Holy Cross at Impruneta, exhibit the difference between atelier work
and that which comes directly from the hand of a master. The charm
which the Kahn Nativity undoubtedly possesses reflects in great measure
the style and methods of Luca della Robbia.
6. Lunette of the Madonna and adoring Angels (Fig. 8).
As recently as the year 19 10 Mr. J. Pierpont Morgan, of New York,
brought to this country a small lunette containing a very attractive Ma-
" Zeitschrift fiir bildende Kunst, xxi (1910), p. 307.

Figure 6. — Nativity. Museum of Fine Arts, Boston.

Figure 7. — Nativity. Otto H. Kahn Collection, New York.

Figure 8. — Madonna and Angels. J. P. Morgan Collection, New York.

LUCA DELLA ROBBIA 21
¦donna and Child between two adoring angels. It belonged to the Antinori
family of Florence, and once stood above the door of the small oratory of
S. Maria della Quercia at Legnaia.12
The quiet dignity of the Madonna, the simple masses of her drapery, the
presence of adoring angels with folded arms, the fact that none of the
figures wear haloes have led even experienced critics to attribute this relief
to Luca della Robbia.13 In a general way it does recall to our minds Luca's
two lunettes in the Museo Nazionale, and the type of the Madonna is
not unlike a Madonna by Luca in the collection of Madame Andre in Paris.
Nevertheless, this attribution appears to me impossible for many reasons.
In the first place the general treatment of the theme lacks the sincerity
which characterizes all of Luca's work. This is especially evident in the
adoring angels, whose piety is that of a studied pose, not the inevitable ex
pression of pure devotion. Their draperies are arranged with obvious at
tention to the flow of line and show of limbs, not, as Luca's, composed of
natural falling folds.
Secondly the composition, a Madonna with a nude standing Child hold
ing a bird is a motive which was frequently used by Andrea della Robbia
and his followers. Several examples in America we shall consider later.
The prototype of this series appears to be, not this lunette, but Andrea's
Madonna at S. Egidio (Fig. 14), which shows the Child's head, as in some
¦of Luca's Madonnas, in close contact with that of his mother. His arm is
about her neck and yet the fingers do not show. At Stia there is a very
¦charming Madonna, made probably under Andrea's supervision, in which
the Child is given a somewhat more independent position ; a portion of the
left arm is brought into view, but still the tips of the fingers do not show.14
In the Morgan lunette the Child is still further separated from his mother,
but in spite of this his fingers, and very large ones, are plainly represented
on his mother's neck. This elongated left arm of the Child, with its enor
mous fingers, is a defect which when realized detracts considerably from the
beauty of the lunette.
We might mention further a number of qualities in which this lunette
•differs from the works of Luca della Robbia : the Child is here placed to the
a Carocci, / Dintorni di Fireme, ii, p. 392.
13 Bode, Zeitschrift fur bildende Kunst, xxi ( 1910) , p. 305.
""Schubring, Luca della Robbia, Abb. 117.

22. DELLA ROBBIAS IN AMERICA
left, as was customary with Andrea and his followers, but rare in Luca's
works: the treatment of the hair is less plastic; the Madonna's nose is
united with broad sweeps to the eyebrows in a way not to be found in
Luca's heads ; her eyes are coloured without distinction of pupil and iris, a
characteristic carelessness of the later members of the school; and her
mouth, instead of being small and open, is large and firmly closed. Hence,
until some other examples of strictly analogous character are brought to
our attention, we are inclined to attribute it vaguely to some unknown fol
lower of Luca della Robbia.
j. Seated Madonna with nude Child plucking Lilies (Fig. o).
This Madonna, in the possession of Mrs. Ouincy A. Shaw at Jamaica
Plain, Mass., is a variant of a well known type, one example of which is in
the church of S. Andrea at Rovezzarte. Other examples are in the collec
tions of Prince Liechtenstein, Vienna, Mrs. Holman Hunt, London, Dr.
Eduard Simon, Berlin, and later polychromatic variants in Herr Adolf von
Beckerath's collection, Berlin, and in the Victoria and Albert Museum, Lon
don. In the primary conception of this composition the Madonna is seated
upon a cushion, the two tassels of which are distinctly visible. These are
seen in the Rovezzano, Liechtenstein and Shaw examples. The cushion
rests on a light green sward on which are quaintly painted yellow plants or '
flowers. On the Madonna's head is a kerchief rolled and twisted so as to
resemble a turban. The Simon example is one stage removed from the
original conception. The cushion on which the Madonna is seated has lost
its tassels and appears as an unintelligible mass of white. The turban is
replaced by a veil. In the next stage, represented by the polychromatic
examples in London and Berlin, the cushion is forgotten and the Virgin is
seated on a rock.
The Shaw example has one detail lacking in the others. Three half
figures of angels with folded hands appear in the sky, some of the blue of
which is carelessly smeared across their bodies. The angels are not
modelled with the1 care we are accustomed to expect from a master hand.
When we consider further the type of the Virgin, and especially the un
skilful articulation of her right leg, we feel again that the entire production
is not quite masterly. Yet the inspiration of the relief appears to have come
from Luca himself : in composition it is not far removed from the Madonna

Figure 9. — Madonna. Shaw Collection, Jamaica Plain.

LUCA DELLA ROBBIA 25
with the Child plucking Roses in the Museo Nazionale. It may accordingly
be said to have come from Luca's atelier rather than to be the work of his
own hand, and to have been produced at a time when repetitions of his
compositions were in constant demand.
8. A Monk Reading (Fig. 10).
In the collection of Mr. John G. Johnson of Philadelphia, is an unglazed
terra-cotta plaque representing a Monk reading at his desk. It is an exact
replica of a relief in the Victoria and Albert Museum attributed to Luca
della Robbia.16 In style it reminds us strongly of the S. Girolamo of
Luca's Bronze Doors in the Cathedral at Florence. The construction of the
figure, the bench and its mouldings, and the cast of the draperies are
sufficiently like Luca's to make such an attribution appear probable. On the
other hand the London example came from the Campana collection, known
to have contained many forgeries, and the Johnson example is apparently
an exact replica cast from the same mould, without such variations in
detail which we should expect in the replicas of Luca's day. Mr. Johnson
attributes his plaque to Bastianini, a nineteenth century sculptor who de
ceived the world by his creations in fifteenth century style. This attribu
tion may be correct, though difficult to prove.

There are a number of works of sculpture in this country attributed to
Luca della Robbia, but having no relation to his style.
One of these is a beautiful bust in the collection of Mrs. John L. Gardner,
Boston, labelled " Bust of Marietta Strozzi by Desiderio da Settignano, glazed
by Luca della Robbia." That the bust represents Marietta Strozzi may be ac
cepted from the resemblance to the two busts of her which came from the
Strozzi palace and are now in the Berlin Museum and in the library of Mr.
J. Pierpont Morgan, New York. I find it, however, difficult to believe that
Desiderio himself should have made a bust of this form, pointed at the base
and set on a pedestal. Florentine busts of the fifteenth century were termi
nated with a horizontal section broad enough to rest without a special support
or pedestal. Nor can I believe that this bust was glazed by Luca della Robbia.
The enamel is composed of too finely ground material, is too vitreous in surface,
and too milky white in colour. Nor would Luca have left the eyes uncoloured.
Another work is an unglazed Madonna in a niche, published by Paul
Schubring17 as belonging to Bardini, Florence, and attributed to Luca della
Robbia ( ?). His attribution and its query we believe may be removed. The
Madonna exhibits none of Luca's specific characteristics, although it may well
be by some Florentine sculptor of the Renaissance period. The Madonna is
now in the collection of Mr. Charles W. Gould of New York.
18 Robinson, Italian Sculpture in the South Kensington Museum, p. 54. Cavallucci and
Molinier, Les della Robbia, p. 264.
"Luca della Robbia, Abb. 92.

Figure io. — Monk Reading.
Victoria and Albert Museum, London.

II
ANDREA DELLA ROBBIA
I435"IS25
Andrea della Robbia extended the work of his uncle in various direc
tions. Luca worked chiefly for Florence, while the works of Andrea were
widely distributed. In Florence we obtain a very inadequate notion of the
capabilities of Andrea della Robbia. We must visit an almost subterranean
shrine in San Gaetano and the church of the hospital of Santa Maria Nuova
to find adequate examples of his Madonnas. To be sure Andrea is charm
ingly represented in Florence by the bambini of the Innocenti Hospital, but
to know him at his best we must visit Prato and Siena, Montepulciano,
Foiano, and Arezzo, and above all climb to the summit of La Verna, where
we find his masterpieces in a series of splendid altarpieces. Luca's work
was in great measure concerned with the decoration of lunettes, vaults, and
of exterior walls. Andrea continued this work but more frequently was
called upon to supply altarpieces, large and small, reliefs for wayside shrines
and for private chapels. Luca made few statues in the round; these are
more frequently represented in the work of Andrea. Among the most
beautiful of Luca's works are his Madonnas, timid and shy, but true to his
lofty ideal of womanhood. Andrea was eminently qualified to follow in
this line, and his reliefs rank with the most beautiful of all representations
of the Madonna. Our Lady, however, is no longer representative of the
plain people. She is seated on a more or less elaborately carved chair.
She wears garments of finer material, sometimes highly decorated with
floral ornament. The backgrounds vividly suggest an open sky with clouds
in which appear the Sacred Dove or adoring angels. Cherub heads are
introduced into the frames and the garlands of fruit and flowers are con-

3Q DELLA ROBBIAS IN AMERICA
ventionalized into a more stereotyped system of decoration. Such char
acteristics will appear more clearly as we consider his works in detail.
p. Seated Madonna with draped Child blessing (Figs. 11-12).
A very beautiful Madonna is in the collection of Mrs. O. H. P. Belmont
in Newport, R. I., having been purchased from M. Smile Gavet, Paris
(Fig. 11). As with the best of Andrea's works the figures are white
against a characteristic blue ground. A little black is used for the shadows
of the clouds, blue for the eyebrows and eyelids, and yellow for the irises.
Otherwise we have only white and blue, although the border of the Virgin's
mantle and her girdle were once ornamented with gold.
It may be noticed that in reading the relief from left to right, the
Child is portrayed first, then the Virgin, as is characteristic of Andrea's
Madonnas. This results in giving greater emphasis to the Child. It is
evident that Andrea intended here no mere representation of motherhood.
The Child is portrayed as a young divinity conferring a blessing on the
world. Lest we fail to observe this, he is provided with a halo. His
childhood is emphasized by the swaddling clothes. The mother is no less
the divine mother and wears a halo. The doctrinal character of the com
position is still further elaborated by the representation overhead of God the
Father and the Holy Spirit, who concentrate their attention on the Child.
They are surrounded by a glory of cherubs.
This relief is closely related to a very beautiful Madonna in Florence
in the church of S. Gaetano (Fig. 12). The Florentine example is prob
ably slightly earlier in date, and is less elaborate as a composition. Only the
hands of God the Father appear in the sky, the Holy Dove is far more
prominent, and the glory of cherub heads is absent. Neither mother nor
Child wears the halo; they also vary in pose and modelling from the Bel
mont Madonna. The chair upon which the Madonna is seated is thrown
into perspective so that we may see one of its sides carved like the cushion
of an Ionic capital. In many similar cases only the rosette carved on the
chair is visible. The S. Gaetano relief is surrounded by a frame of fruit
and leaves not modelled in relief but painted on the flat, and less schematic
ally composed than was customary with Andrea. When designing this
relief, Andrea was probably still in the atelier of his uncle and strongly
influenced by him.

Figure ii. — Madonna.
Mrs. O. H. P. Belmont Collection, Newport.

\

Figure 12. — Madonna. S. Gaetano, Florence.

ANDREA DELLA ROBBIA

35

Madonna with nude, standing Child holding a Bird (Nos. 10-12 J.
In S. Egidio, the church connected with the hospital of Santa Maria
Nuova, Florence, there is a fine relief by Andrea della Robbia (Fig. 13),
from which are derived three examples in America. The S. Egidio Ma
donna is not far removed in style from that in S. Gaetano ; the Dove, though
smaller, is still prominent ; even the end of the chair is similarly represented
in perspective. Here, however, a new motive appears : the Child carries a
bird in his right hand. He has cast aside the swaddling clothes and is
completely nude. It may be further observed that the clouds are more
realistically represented; also that the Dove, Madonna, and Child all wear
haloes. This is, therefore, slightly later in date than the S. Gaetano relief.
Derivatives from this type are not uncommon, and in some cases are
quite far in quality from their prototype. The Dove is sometimes replaced
by two or three cherub heads, the Madonna is deprived of her chair, and the
Child stands not on his mother's lap but on an ill defined support, which may
represent a balustrade.
10. An excellent example of a Madonna of this type is found in the
collection of Mrs. Quincy A. Shaw at Jamaica Plain (Fig. 14). The Ma
donna is not seated, but stands behind a table, or balustrade. The Child's
left arm is still about his mother's neck, but her left hand has fallen and
grasps the Child's left ankle. This relief is not of the same quality as the
S. Egidio Madonna. It is the product of the workshop, not by the master
hand. It belongs to a period when the Robbia works were in great de
mand, for replicas of this type exist in the Castello di Lari; at Bardini's,
Florence; in the Louvre; in the Victoria and Albert Museum; at Donald
son's London, and there is an excellent example at Rickmansworth.
Baldinucci,1 who was an enthusiastic admirer of the Madonna in the Cas
tello di Lari, attributes it to Giovanni della Robbia, and tells us that it was
made on an order from Alessandro di Pietro Segni, who was Vicario at
Lari in 1524. His attribution does not carry much weight, inasmuch as
the Madonna does not resemble Giovanni's well known types, but Alessan
dro di Pietro Segni was Vicario at Lari2 from the 25th of September, 1524
until March 25, 1525. And this Madonna bears the Segni coat of arms.
The court yard at Lari contains several coats of arms from the years 1523,
xNotizie de' Professori del Disegno (Milano, 1808-1812), vi, pp. 17-18.
3 Repetti, Disionario geografico, fisico, storico, della Toscana, s. v. Lari, p. 646.

36

DELLA ROBBIAS IN AMERICA

1524 and 1525, and the style of the garlands makes it certain that the Lari
Madonna was executed at the same time. At this period Andrea della Rob
bia can no longer have had an active share in the direction of the atelier, as
he was in his eighty-ninth year in 1524 and died Aug. 4, 1525. It is his
influence and his types, not his handiwork, that we see in these reliefs.
11. From the Ferroni Sale at Rome in 1909, there was brought to
this country another variant of this type, which for a while was on exhi
bition in the galleries of Messrs. C. and E. Canessa, New York (Fig. 15).
The cherub heads- have been omitted ; the Child's left arm is no longer
around his mother's neck, and his right arm is slightly raised ; the Madonna's
left hand has shifted from the Child's left ankle to his foot. We may
still recognize in this relief a strong influence from Andrea,, but little or
nothing of his personal handiwork. Its date is probably not far from 1525.
12. The same firm have in their possession a Madonna and Child with
a Bird, somewhat like the Ferroni example but lacking a background (Fig.
16). This is not so close to Andrea's type, but shows somewhat the in
fluence of Giovanni.
jj. Madonna with nude, standing Child blessing (Fig. if) .
This relief, now in the possession of Mr. W. C. Endicott, Jr., Boston,
was formerly owned by Mr. Thomas W. Ward, New York, who inherited
it from his father Mr. Samuel G. Ward of Washington.
The motive of the Madonna with the Child blessing occurs in some of
Luca's works, with the Child, draped or nude, seated on his mother's lap.
With Andrea della Robbia almost without exception, the Child is nude and
standing to the left.
In the Campo Santo at Arezzo there is an altarpiece by Andrea, where
the Madonna, an entire figure, is seated on a bench or throne, holding on
her lap the nude, standing Child in the act of blessing. Again at Arezzo, in
the Cathedral, in the predella of Andrea's splendid altarpiece of the Trinity,
the same motive occurs, the Madonna being, however, in half figure and
seated on a chair.3 This latter composition was destined to become a
favorite one and was repeated many times. There is another rectangular
relief, very similar to this, in the collection of Prince Liechtenstein, Vienna;
a round-headed replica is figured in Bardini's sale catalogue of 1902 (No.
3 Marcel Reymond, Les Delia Robbia, p. 177; Schubring, Luca della Robbia, Abb. 114.

Figure 13. — Madonna. S. Egidio, Florence.

Figure 14. — Madonna.
Shaw Collection, Jamaica Plain.

Figure 15.— Madonna. Canessa Galleries, New York.

Figure 16. — Madonna. Canessa Galleries, New York.

ANDREA DELLA ROBBIA 45
512) ; while the tondo with a polychromatic fruit frame in the Berlin
Museum (No. 124) shows slight variations in treatment and a tendency to
transform the seated into a standing Madonna. 1
14-15. Madonna with nude, standing Child holding Drapery (Fig. 18).
In the collection of Mr. J. S. Bache, New York (Fig. 18), and of Mr.
Henry Walters, Baltimore, may be found medallions representing the Ma
donna with the nude, standing Child holding a bit of her mantle in his
right hand and grasping her thumb in his left. On either side is a cherub
head. This is a composition of which there are several excellent examples.
Perhaps the most charming and the most characteristic of Andrea is the
tondo surrounded by a frieze of cherub heads and an outer garland of roses
in the collection of M. Foulc in Paris.4 Although there is no indica
tion of a chair, we feel that the Madonna is seated and that the Child
stands upon her lap. At Santa Maria della Scala at Messina there was a
repetition of this composition of slightly inferior quality, and in the Ru-
dolfinum at Prague a fine example in which the Madonna's mantle is en
riched with borders in relief. In both cases the frames have the cherub
frieze and outer garland. There is an excellent example, framed in wood
in the Victoria and Albert Museum (No. 5633 '59), and others in the collec
tion of Marchese Canigiani, Florence, and M. Gustave Dreyfus, Paris. In
the Museo Nazionale (No. 30), Florence, there is an example in which the
Madonna is more heavily veiled. The type appears to have been copied, by
some sculptor outside of the Robbia School, in a very decorative tondo in
the collection of the Marchese Mazzarosa, at Lucca.5 Here the bit of mantle
held by the child has evidently been mistaken for a bird, which, though fre
quently represented in Robbia reliefs, was nevertheless indicated in a differ
ent manner. In the Museum at Sevres the same composition, without the
cherub heads, is seen against a splashed background — evidently a modern
reproduction. In many of these replicas it may be observed that the original compo
sition — that of a seated Madonna — is forgotten. The Madonna may be
thought of either as seated or as standing. In the latter case the ground
4 Bode, Denkmaler der Renaissance Sculptur Toscana's, Taf. 269.
" Alinari photograph, No. 8513.

46

DELLA ROBBIAS IN AMERICA

upon which the Child stands is left quite ambiguous. This ambiguity oc
curs sometimes in painting, as for example in the very beautiful Madonna
by Baldovinetti in the Louvre, where the Child reclines upon a balcony rail,
and the Madonna's chair, for all we can see, rests upon empty space. In
Andrea's Madonnas the beauty of the composition sometimes makes it
superfluous to inquire whether all the accessories of time and space are
accurately indicated.
16. Madonna with nude, standing Child embracing her (Figs. 10-20).
To the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, the late Mr. Charles C. Perkins
presented a Madonna holding a nude, standing Child, who has his left arm
thrown about her neck (Fig. 19). It is not of the finest workmanship, but
reflects a type established by Andrea della Robbia, and may be assigned to
his atelier. It may be noticed that it had no background, the ground
against which it now stands being of wood painted blue. Reliefs without
backgrounds were not infrequently made by the Robbias. One resembling
closely the Boston Madonna, also without a background, is set up in a street
corner tabernacle in the Via della Scala, Florence.6 The Florentine ex
ample is set upon a low pedestal bearing the arms of some branch of the
Medici family. There is a finer reproduction of the same composition by
another hand in the Piazza dell' Unita Italiana (Fig. 20). This was origi
nally a tondo, but is now set in a niche. The adaptation of this composition
to the tondo was only partially successful, as it leaves the standing ground
of the Child quite undefined. In the Boston example, and in that in the
Via della Scala, the Child stands upon a ledge or pedestal which supplies
a sufficient support. This type of Madonna we need not hesitate to assign
to Andrea della Robbia, for he received pay for a very similar Madonna, set
between two angels, still existing in the Museo dell' Opera del Duomo at
Florence.7 The date of payment was Sept. 12, 1489, which gives us an
approximate date for the Boston relief. It happens, however, that at this
date Andrea was engaged upon the very beautiful lunette which stands
over the entrance to the Cathedral at Prato. The fine quality of that relief
is proof that these secondary works were executed by his assistants or
followers, but under his direction and control.
' Brogi, photograph No. 4729.
'Cruttwell, Luca and Andrea della Robbia, p. 179; M. Reymond, Les Della Robbia,
P- 143.

Figure 17. — Madonna. W. C. Endicott, Jr. Collection, Boston.

Figure 18. — Madonna. J. S. Balhe C.-llchon, New York

Figure 19. — Madonna. Museum of Fine Arts, Boston.

Figure 20.— Madonna. Piazza dell' Unita Italiana, Florence.

ANDREA DELLA ROBBIA 53
if. The Madonna seated on clouds with nude, seated Child (Figs. 21-22).
In the Art Museum of Princeton University, there is a rectangular re
lief presented by the late William C. Prime (Fig. 21). It represents a
seated Madonna carrying a nude Child. It may be observed that she is
seated upon blue clouds. The Madonna's face and the affectionate attitude
of the Child are reminiscent of Luca; the composition is also possibly de
rived from Luca, but the spirit of both Mother and Child comes from
Andrea. In the Museo Nazionale, Florence, there is a replica of the Princeton
Madonna, which was formerly in the gallery of the Hospital of S. Maria
Nuova. A slightly elaborated example may be seen in the Petit Palais,
Paris, in the Dutuit collection. The Madonna is still seated on clouds,
but at either side of her are adoring cherubs, above is the Heavenly Dove,
and her head is covered by a veil. The same subject is treated, with greater
sweetness and charm, by Andrea himself, in a round-headed relief in the
collection of Prince Liechtenstein, Vienna (Fig. 22). Here, however, the
clouds have disappeared from beneath the Madonna and she seems to be
seated on the ground. There is another charming replica at S. Stefano a.
Campoli near San Casciano. In this case the Madonna is distinctly thought
of as seated on the ground, for the space to the left is occupied by a
branching plant of annunciation lilies. In later reliefs the same composition
occurs with a more developed landscape background, as for example in two'
tondi, one formerly in the Bardini Collection, and the other in a private
collection near Florence, in which cherubs and Dove have disappeared, and
a distant tree occupies one side of the field, while S. Giovannino approaches
on the other. In one of these cases the influence of both Luca and Andrea
is still evident, in the other we recognize types introduced by Giovanni della
Robbia. 18. Seated Madonna with nude Child seated on a Cushion (Figs. 23-24) .
A large medallion with a seated Madonna belonging to the Cerchi
family in Pescia8 passed into the hands of Prince Demidoff, and was sold
in the Palazzo di San Donato Sale,9 March 15, 1880. It is now in the
" Cavallucci and Molinier, Les Della Robbia, p. 75.
' Catalogue No. 375.

c4 DELLA ROBBIAS IN AMERICA
possession of Mrs. Cornelius Vanderbilt, New York (Fig. 23). The type
is not unfamiliar to us and we may trace it in its various phases. One of
the best, and most characteristic of Andrea examples, is the round-headed
relief in the Museo Nazionale (No. 76), Florence (Fig. 24). Here the
Madonna is firmly seated in the folding chair, holding the Child with her
right hand, and with her left playing with his left foot. The Child, seated
on a cushion, plays with her right thumb, and firmly catches her veil. In the
clouds overhead are three cherub heads. The same composition recurs in
another round-headed relief in the Cathedral at Arezzo.10 The modelling
and various details have been varied, but the composition and the spirit are
the same as in the Florentine example. Again the same theme is beautifully
treated in a relief in the Museo Nazionale at Palermo,11 where the folding
chair has disappeared, or is dimly suggested beneath the mantle of the Ma
donna. The cherubs are increased to five and the Holy Dove is intro
duced. The clouds, though not in relief, are very strongly marked by wav
ing strokes of black and white. At Hamburg, in the Museum fur Kunst
und Gewerbe,12 this type of Madonna occurs in the form of a rectangular
relief. There is less space for incidentals and accordingly the Dove, cherubs,
and even the clouds, are omitted. The medallion in the Vanderbilt col
lection shows the same tendency to simplification. This was not due to any
necessity arising from the contracted form of the medallion, for at Citta
di Castello there is a medallion containing a Madonna of a closely related
type surrounded by six cherubs and the Dove.13 It was rather the general
tendency in Italian sculpture at the end of the XV century to make larger
figures and simpler compositions. The Vanderbilt Madonna is so large that
only half of her halo may be represented within the frame. The type of
the Madonna is not precisely that of the Madonna of the Cushion at Flor
ence or Palermo, but is nevertheless a type found in many of Andrea's
later works, as for example in the Madonnas at Stia, at Camaldoli, and at
Viterbo. It was this type which inspired Giovanni della Robbia, when 'in
1497 he made the Madonna in the lunette of the Lavabo in Santa Maria
Novella. The frame, with its bunches of fruit in groups of three, is constructed
"Alinari photograph, No. 9704.
"Alinari photograph, No. 19588.
MBode, Denkmaler, Taf. 256, 1; Schubring, Luca della Robbia, Abb. 119.
"Alinari, photograph, No. 4867.

Figure 21. — Madonna. Art Museum, Princeton University.

Figure 22. — Madonna. Prince Liechtenstein, Vienna.

Figure 23.— Madonna. Mrs. Vanderbilt, New York.

Figure 24. — Madonna. Museo Nazionale, Florence.

ANDREA DELLA ROBBIA 63
according to Andrea's canons. It, however, is not modelled with Andrea's
refined sense of form. We feel that some other hand than his executed the
frame, and had also a share in the central relief, for the arm of the folding
chair is not in proper perspective, and the further tassels of the cushion
are similarly unsuccessful. Andrea dell Robbia was undoubtedly respon
sible for the general conception, the composition, the specific types, and
even the mannerism of this medallion, but the execution was in a measure
left to his assistants.
10. Seated Madonna with nude Child standing on a Cushion (Figs. 25-26) .
The Madonna with a nude, standing Child, with his left arm about her
neck and his right hand resting on her breast, occurs frequently in the
works of Andrea della Robbia, notably in an altarpiece in the Berlin
Museum,14 and in the lunette over the portal of the Cathedral at Pistoia,
for which Andrea received payment on the 26th of August 1505.15 In the
former case the Madonna is represented in full figure seated upon the
clouds ; in the latter she is represented in three quarter figure and standing.
For smaller monuments the half figure was more popular and the Madonna
was seated upon the folding chair. A good example of such a Madonna
is found in a small chapel at Baragazza (Fig. 25). Here the type of the
Madonna and of the Child, the cherubs and Dove, all indicate authorship
by Andrea della Robbia. The end of the chair is fully exhibited, the knees
of the Madonna are in evidence, and the Child rests his left foot gently on
his mother's hand, while his right foot is caught between her caressing
fingers. This motive, so charming in its details, was repeated with variations by
several members of Andrea's atelier. In the Pinacoteca at Citta di Castello
there is a tondo, possibly an early work of Giovanni della Robbia, in which
the same motive recurs ; but there is no indication of the chair, nor of the
girdle, nor of the cushion, and to better fill the space there are six cherubs
instead of four.16
The collection of Mr. Robert S. Minturn, New York, contains a small
predella tondo in which Andrea's composition has been still further modi-
14 Bode, Denkmaler, Taf. 271 ; Schubring, Luca della Robbia, Abb. 103.
15 M. Reymond, Les Delia Robbia, p. 201.
15 Carocci, Arte Italiana Decorativa e Industriale, v (1896), p. 30.

64

DELLA ROBBIAS IN AMERICA

fied by one of his followers (Fig. 26). The Madonna's halo, by its oval
form, suggests the tilted halo — a very unusual form in works of the Della
Robbia school. In adapting the composition to the circular form the sculp
tor has omitted the Madonna's knees, and posed the Child upon a cushion.
The Madonna's left hand shows a reminiscence of Andrea's original mo
tive by its two extended fingers, but here they are stretched in a purpose
less manner. Her right hand does not satisfactorily support the Child. It
may be noted that the Madonna's arm is not covered, as is the case with
Andrea's Madonnas, but is bare half way to the elbow. There is also a
vague treatment of the hair, and the veil is tied as if the sculptor could not
well express a knot. The background, though injured and repaired in
part, is a beautiful blue, and the relief, as a whole, has picturesque charm.
Two medallions in the Museo Nazionale. (No. 2 and No. 5), Florence,
and one at Arsoli repeat this composition with slight variations, and are
evidently by the same hand. It is almost an exact replica of a predella
tondo in a large altarpiece in the Stadel Institut at Frankfurt a/M.17
Madonna adoring the Child (Nos. 20-25).
No subject was treated more sympathetically by Andrea della Robbia
than the Adoration of the Child. As a composition it may be considered an
abbreviated Nativity, in which Joseph, the stable with the ox, ass, and
the shepherds are omitted, and only Mary remains on her knees before the
Child. The Madonna adoring the Child was nowhere so fully and beauti
fully expressed by Andrea as in the altarpiece set up at La Verna about the
year 1479 (Fig. 27). Here the lovely mother kneels before the divine
Child, who is resting comfortably on a bed of hay. Above her is God the
Father, in a halo of cherubs, holding up both hands in admiration. The
Holy Dove is also gazing upon the Child, and the heavenly hosts are rep
resented by eight angels in adoring attitude, two of them bearing a scroll
inscribed Gloria in Excelsis Deo.
If we think of all these figures as in the same plane, the composition
appears over crowded and top heavy ; but if we conceive of all' the heavenly
beings as in the sky and thus separated from the Madonna and Child, the
composition becomes one of great beauty. No wonder that it was selected
for frequent repetition.
17 Benkard, Zcitschrift fiir bildende Kunst, xxi (1910), p. no.

Figure 25. — Madonna. Chapel at Baragazza.

Figure 26. — Madonna. R. S. Minturn Collection. New York.

ANDREA DELLA ROBBIA 67
20. In the collection of Mr. Henry Walters, Baltimore, there is an im
portant altarpiece representing the Madonna adoring the Child (Fig. 28).
It bears the combined arms of the Buondelmonti and Pazzi families. Inter
marriages between these two families occurred twice about the middle
of the sixteenth century, and once earlier, in 1483. The latter date alone
interests us. It was then that Alessandra, daughter of Guglielmo Pazzi
and of Bianca di Petro Medici, who was a sister of Lorenzo II Magnifico,
became the wife of Bartolomeo di Rosso Buondelmonti.18 This couple
left no descendants, so an altarpiece of a Madonna adoring her Child may
have had to them a pathetic meaning. The altarpiece is said to have found
lodgment in the eighteenth century in the Riccardi palace, and in recent
years to have been the property of the Marchese Massimiliano Strozzi,
Florence. The date of the marriage suggests that the altarpiece was
ordered after the year 1483. This is confirmed by its style.
The outer frame consists of hanging garlands of fruit. The fruit con
sists of pine cones, apples, cucumbers, oranges, pears, chestnuts, poppies,
and grapes, selected more or less at random and painted with distinguishing
colours. The fruit is arranged in Andrea's stereotyped groups of three,
separated by simple cross bands. This method of arranging fruit is dis
tinctly conventional, unlike Luca's asymmetrical grouping. The bunches
are not detached from each other, as in some of Andrea's earlier altar-
pieces, but are more continuous, as in his marble altarpiece at Santa Maria
¦delle Grazie at Arezzo. The inner frieze of cherub heads is most charac
teristic of Andrea's style. It appears in his lunettes at Prato (1489) and
Pistoia (1505) as well as in many other works.19
The central relief is a combination of three motives, the Gloria in Ex
celsis, the Coronation, and the Adoration. The Gloria in Excelsis, here
represented by a simple angel bearing the scroll, was suitably introduced
into scenes of the Nativity.20 When this subject was reduced to the Ma
donna adoring the Child, the Gloria in Excelsis was usually omitted. Ador
ing angels were sometimes retained, as in a medallion in the Cluny Museum,
but the La Verna and Walters Adorations are perhaps the only examples
among Andrea's many repetitions of the subject where the Gloria in
Excelsis is explicitly introduced.. The omission of this accessory was clue
"Litta, Famiglie celebri, viii, s. v. Pazzi, Tav. 9.
" See Marcel Reymond, Les Della Robbia, pp. 167, 168, 17s, 177-179, 186, 193, 198, 201.
20 S. Luke, ii, 13-14.

gg DELLA ROBBIAS IN AMERICA
to the reduced size of the reliefs together with a desire to retain as more
important the figures of God the Father and the Holy Spirit. The in
scription on the scroll, which appears in the La Verna altarpiece as
GLORIA IN EXCELSIS DEO is here written Gloria in eccelsis deo et in
terra pas om(nibus), the spelling of which was apparently left to some
illiterate assistant.
The Coronation as an event was beautifully depicted by Andrea della
Robbia in the Osservanza at Siena. In the Walters altarpiece two angels
hold a crown above the Madonna's head as a symbol of her future coro
nation. This symbol occurs in many of Andrea's altarpieces, especially in
his later works, and in those of his followers.21 Below the crown, hang
ing from the wrists of the angels, is an embroidered band, possibly the
cintola or girdle introduced to suggest the Assumption of the Madonna.22
The Madonna adoring the Child- was frequently represented by Andrea
della Robbia and has been reproduced in many modern copies. The altar-
piece recently acquired by Mr. Henry Walters is of unusual importance be
cause of its close resemblance to one of Andrea's masterpieces — the Ador
ation of the Child at La Verna.
21. In adjusting this theme to small round-headed reliefs, the acces
sory figures were necessarily omitted or reduced in number. Thus at
Palermo, in the church of S. Niccolo in Gurgo, and in the Victoria and
Albert Museum (No. 7596), the Gloria in Excelsis is omitted, but God the
Father crowned, surrounded by six cherubs, and the Holy Dove are re
tained. The Child here also rests on green hay.
In the collection of Mr. Martin A. Ryerson, Chicago (Fig. 29), there
is a round-headed relief of slightly different character. The Divine Father
wears no crown, but he is still surrounded by six cherubs, the Dove also is
retained, but the Child rests not on hay, but on clouds. Possibly 'this type
goes back to an original still earlier than the La Verna altarpiece. There
are many ¦ replicas of it familiar to those who have visited the Museo
Nazionale, Florence, the Victoria and Albert Museum, London, and the
Museo Industriale, Rome. Others are found in various private collections
in Europe.
21 See Marcel Reymond, op. cit., pp. 171, 199, 201, 211, 213, 233, 234, 242, 255, 257.
23 Andrea's angels often carry scrolls or kerchiefs without symbolic significance. In
the altarpiece of the Medici Chapel of Santa Croce, Florence, they hold a long ribbon,
and at Gallicano a long scarf, suggesting possibly the cintola (Reymond, op, cit., pp. 171,
234).

Figure 27. — Adoration. La Verna.

Figure 28. — Adoration. Walters' Collection, Baltimore.

Figure 29. — Adoration.
M. A. Ryerson Collection, Chicago.

Figure 30. — Adoration.
S. Untermyer Collection, Yonkers,

ANDREA DELLA ROBBIA yy
22. In the collection of Mr. Samuel Untermyer at Yonkers (Fig. 30)
may be seen an Adoration similar to that owned by Mr. Ryerson.
23. A very beautiful example of the Adoration of the Child was
formerly set in a wayside shrine at S. Maria della Palma, near Florence.
It represented the unusual arrangement of the Madonna to the left with the
Child on clouds to the right. God the Father, wearing a simple triangular
coronal, similar to those used by Luca della Robbia, and surrounded by
six cherubs, makes the composition top heavy. Possibly this was a youthful
work by Andrea,, based in part on the methods of his uncle. In the Ash-
molean Museum, Oxford, there is another round-headed relief in which the
Madonna and Child are similarly posed, and where are figured also God
the Father, the Holy Dove, four cherubs, and two angels. The disadvant
age of crowding so many figures at the top was recognized in the course of
time, and one by one the heavenly accessories disappear.
A round-headed relief of this type in the collection of Mr. Stanley
Mortimer at Roslyn may be assigned to Andrea's atelier. The base is care
lessly inscribed AVE MARIA GRAZIA PLENA. The composition of the
accessories is also somewhat crude. Above the Madonna's head is the
Dove, and on either side inordinately large cherub heads. Andrea himself
would have given us a more evenly balanced composition. Around the
relief is a frieze of cherub heads, and beyond this a closely composed
garland of fruit and flowers, both inspired by Andrea's models. The
console contains the arms of the Del Pugliese family. Francesco del
Pugliese was one of the Priori of Florence in 1490 and again in 1499. It
is possible that he may have given the commission for this charming shrine.
24. In the collection of Mr. Mortimer L. Schiff, New York, there is
a small medallion, somewhat concave, with a suspiciously vitreous glaze.
The Child, to the left, rests on thick green hay, his left arm on his
breast and his right along his side. Between him and his adoring mother
are the heads of the ass and the ox, borrowed from more complete
representations of the Nativity. The Madonna's head is covered by a veil
which falls over her shoulders. In type she resembles the Madonnas made
by Andrea late in life or by Giovanni della Robbia in his early works. In
the heavens are two relatively large cherub heads.
25. In the collection of Mr. Edward J. Berwind, Newport, there is a
rectangular relief which may be roughly classed as of the school of

78

DELLA ROBBIAS IN AMERICA

Andrea (Fig. 31). It was purchased at the Ferroni sale — Rome, 1909.
Here the Madonna, with unusually large halo, kneels in adoration of the
Child, who is made comfortable by a pillow for his head, while he plays
with the end of his mother's mantle. There is no suggestion of landscape,
except that S. Giovannino with folded hands and bearing a cross rushes
from the background toward the Child. The vacant spaces above are filled
with two half figures of adoring angels. This composition was repeated
almost without variation in a painted stucco relief in the collection of M.
fimile Gavet, Paris, and may have been derived from a lost work by
Andrea della Robbia. A fragmentary composition in the Cathedral at
Arezzo has a somewhat similar, but not precisely the same, character.
26. Altarpiece representing the Assumption of the Virgin, with Saints
(Fig. 32).
This altarpiece, in the Metropolitan Museum, New York, came from the
mortuary chapel of the Prince of Piombino. At one time it suffered con
siderable damage and was crudely restored. The head of the Virgin is
modern. Of the four standing saints only one, the Bishop S. Donato, is
intact; the three to the right have modern heads. At least one of the
cherub heads has been renewed. These restorations detract considerably
from the beauty of the altarpiece. Had the restorer reproduced the heads
of the Virgin, of S. Francesco, of S. Bernardino and of the praying Saint
(Bonaventura?) from other well known types by Andrea della Robbia, the
impression produced by this altarpiece would have been vastly improved.23
However these very restorations helped me to observe some of Andrea's
distinguishing characteristics. The modern heads have a very white,
vitreous glaze, which reflects light to a degree which interferes with our
appreciation of form. Andrea's use of glaze varied considerably. It was
sometimes moderately thick and again very thin, sometimes clean and pure
and at times gritty and full of sand. But it seldom exhibited anything like
the sheen of these modern heads. Again the eyes of the modern heads have
dark blue linear eyebrows and dark blue massive pupils with no indication
of irises, whereas the eyes of the Bishop S. Donato are here represented
in a way which is repeated again and again in Andrea's work. The eye
brows and eyelids are indicated by many short strokes and dots of blue,
the pupils are almost black, and the irises are the colour of copper.
¦" See American Journal of Archaeology, vii (1891), 422-431, Pis. 22-23.

Figure 31.— Adoration. E. J. Berwind Collection, New York.

Figure 32. — Assumption and Saints. Metropolitan Museum, New York.

Figure 33. — Madonna della cintola. Foiano.

ANDREA DELLA ROBBiA §5
In Luca's Madonnas the eyes are usually represented with gray blue
irises. Andrea's figures of both men and women have almost uniformly
copper-coloured or yellow irises. The inference from this is clear, Luca's
ideal lady had light blue eyes, Andrea's had hazel eyes. This distinction is
almost as valuable as would be the signing of their names to their works.
There are, however, many other indications of Andrea's authorship dis
played in this altarpiece.
One of the most striking is the frieze of cherub heads, the types of
which recall the bambini of the Innocenti Hospital attributed by Vasari to
Andrea della Robbia. The Madonna in a mandorla, or almond shaped
glory, with cherub heads, occurs in many of Andrea's altarpieces. One of
these, from Foiano, we publish here (Fig. 33) because of the striking simi
larity of the cherubs and of the angels and of the lily-laden sarcophagus
with porphyry panelling. Even closer in type, so far as the Madonna is
concerned, is Andrea's relief of the Virgin in a mandorla, in the Cathedral
at Arezzo. In several of Andrea's Assumptions angels uphold the man
dorla, as in the altarpiece at Foiano. Elsewhere, as in the Coronations of
the Virgin in the Osservanza at Siena, and in the splendid altarpiece at
Aquila, musical angels, as here, celebrate the presence of the Virgin in the
heavens. S. Francesco was represented by Andrea della Robbia at La Verna
in precisely the same attitude as here ; but with a head of far greater pathos
than the modern restorer has given him. S. Bernardino also, with his
modern head is not impressive, but if he had been restored from the S.
Bernardino of the altar of the Madonna enthroned with attendant Saints
in the Cathedral at Arezzo, he would have been represented with some
thing of his original power. The same is true of the remaining Franciscan
Saint. In spite of all defects we can obtain from this monument some notion
of Andrea's composition and of his charm as a sculptor. Its date cannot be
very far removed from that at Foiano, which bears an inscription of the
year 1502. -,.,„ ,
2f. Fragment of an Angel (Fig. 34).
In the store rooms of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, there is the
head of an angel, loaned by Mrs. T. O. Richardson. It is only a fragment,
and has been painted white. If the paint were to be removed the original

g6 DELLA ROBBIAS IN AMERICA
charm of this angel head would be apparent, and we should probably find
also some trace of a wing now broken away. In Andrea's representations
of the Assumption of the Madonna, the mandorla in which she is seated is
upheld by four or six angels. This fragment may well have come from a
lost Assumption by Andrea himself.
28. Cherub head (Fig. 35).
Cherub heads were often used by Andrea della Robbia, in the glories
which surround the Divine Father or the risen Madonna, or independently
as symbols of Heaven. Frequently also they are mere decoration, used in
friezes, frames, or consoles. This triple winged cherub, formerly in -the
collection of M. Smile Gavet, Paris, is now in the possession of Mr. E. J.
Berwind, Newport. It forms a rectangular plaque large enough to have
been used in a small frieze, like that in the Collegiata at Montevarchi.
There is a series of plaques of similar character in the Louvre, some with a
single cherub head, others with two heads, and others with flying angels.
Possibly this belonged to the same series and originally adorned the walls
of some church or chapel. Tlfis head is well enough modelled to have
been produced under the immediate supervision of Andrea himself.
29. Predella piece representing the Nativity (Fig. 36").
Andrea della Robbia represented the Nativity, in his large altarpieces,
in two ways : either as taking place before a cave or as under the roof of a
stable.24 This subject was also frequently treated in the predellas of his
altarpieces, when it occurs in two types : either before a cave or as in an
open landscape.25 The Nativities of the cave type are usually of better
workmanship and are more likely to have come from the master hand.
The predella piece in the Metropolitan Museum was not made by Andrea
himself, but was probably made in his atelier and for one of the altarpieces
of his later period. It resembles most a predella Nativity in the highly
polychromatic altarpiece of the Madonna enthroned with Saints, in the
21 A good example of the cave type may be seen at S. Lorenzo, Bibbiena, and of the
stable type at S. Chiara, Borgo S. Sepolcro.
25 Cave nativities may be seen at Assisi, S. Fiora, and Siena ; landscape nativities at
Aquila, Arezzo, Foiano, Florence (Misericordia), Montepulciano, and in Berlin (Varra-
mista altarpiece).

Figure 34. — Fragment of Angel. Museum of Fine Arts, Boston.

Figure 33. — Cherub Head. E. J. Berwind Collection, Newport.

ANDREA DELLA ROBBIA 89
Cathedral at Arezzo. This has been attributed to Giovanni della Robbia,26
but is in Andrea's style. Giovanni seldom represented the Nativity, and
when he did so, as in the altarpiece in the Seminario at Fiesole,27 he
modified Andrea's types.
30. Head of a Young Man (Fig. 3f).
The Metropolitan Museum possesses another relief which may be at
tributed to Andrea della Robbia, a medallion representing the head of a
young man. It was purchased at the Henry G. Marquand sale in 1 903, and
was previously in the collection of Count G. Stroganoff, Rome. Busts of
a somewhat similar character are found in the Berlin Museum and in the
collection of Prince Liechtenstein, Vienna; another was in the Spitzer
collection in Paris, and still another on sale at Simonetti's in Rome. Of
these the Berlin bust is the best, and is attributed to Luca della Robbia.
The Liechtenstein bust is surrounded by a garland like those of Andrea
della Robbia, and the young man's eyes have his copper coloured irises.
In the Metropolitan Museum example the frame has only a single file of
pine cones, fruit, and leaves ; the youth's eyebrows and lashes are blue and
the eyes have yellow irises. Who the young man may be is not easy to
determine. Miss Cruttwell tells us that it was probably intended for S.
Ansano or some other Boy Saint,28 Dr. Bode considers it a portrait bust.29
We cannot settle the matter, but venture to suggest that it may be the young
David, who was frequently represented in the XV century and possibly
by Luca himself in the framework of his Bronze Doors.
The date of this medallion cannot be far from 1475, as a single file
garland composed in like manner of pine cones alternating with fruit sur
rounds the stemma of Antonio di Lorenzo Buondelmonti on the Palazzo
Pretorio at S. Giovanni in Valdarno, indicating that he held the office of
Vicario during the years 1474 and 1475.
3 1. Boy with a Dolphin (Fig. 38).
This statuette has the same recent history as the medallion just described.
It passed from the collection of Count Stroganoff into that of the late
28 M. Reymond, Les Della Robbia, p. 253 ; Cruttwell, Luca and Andrea della Robbia,
p. 221.
27 Alinari photo. No. 3292 ; Brogi, photo. No. 9862.
"Luca and Andrea della Robbia, p. 89.
"Florentine Sculptors of the Renaissance, p. up.

gQ DELLA ROBBIAS IN AMERICA
Henry G. Marquand and is now owned by Mrs. Edwin C. Hoyt of New
York. The greenish blue dolphin, the white enamel of the boy, and the
bright green of the palmette make interesting colour contrasts. In type
the boy is a brother of the charming Boy with a squirrel, in the Liechtenstein
collection, Vienna,30 and is almost a replica of one of Andrea's putti holding
a garland, now in the pinacoteca at Citta di Castello. This statuette may
well have been designed as a fountain figure made about the same time as
Verrocchio's more active, but less beautiful, Boy with a Dolphin, made for
Lorenzo de' Medici's Villa at Careggi between the years 1476 and 1480.
A light green copy or replica of this statuette appears to have been sold
in the Castellani sale in 1884.
Ciboria (Nos. 32-33).
After Luca della Robbia had made his beautiful tabernacles for the
church at Impruneta, glazed terracotta was frequently employed for taber
nacles, or ciboria, in Florentine and country churches. These were princi
pally for the preservation of the Sacred Host, sometimes .inscribed HIC
EST PANIS VIVVS QVI DE CELO DESCENDIT; but ciboria for
Holy Oil were also made, with or without the inscription OLEVM IN-
FIRMORVM. An imposing example, made in the atelier of Andrea
della Robbia in the closing years of the 15th century, may be seen in the
church of the SS. Apostoli in Florence (Fig. 39). Here we may observe
the emphasis laid by Andrea on the idea of the Trinity. The Divine Father,
blessing, appea-rs in the lunette, the Holy Dove is below, while the emblems
of the Son are represented on the predella. The sacred emblems are sup
posed to be stored at the end of a vaulted nave, on either side of which are
two adoring angels. Outside of the framed tabernacle are two large an
gels drawing back the veil of the temple.
32. In the collection of Mrs. John L. Gardner, Boston, is the central
relief of one of these ciboria from Andrea's atelier (Fig. 40). It was
formerly in the collection of M. fimile Gavet, Paris. In comparing it with
the ciborium at SS. Apostoli we can see its abbreviated character. The
vaults of the nave show two rows of cofferings instead of four, and the
columns are omitted. From either side a single angel rushes forth in
adoration, but each is of considerable size compared with the diminutive
80 Venturi, Storia dell' arte italiana, vi, fig. 405.

Figure 36.— Nativity. Metropoutan Museum, New York.

Figure 37.— Head of Young Man. Metropolitan Museum, New York.

Figure 38. — Boy with a Dolphin. E. C- Hoyt Collection, New York,

Figure 39. — Ciborium, SS, Apostoli, Florence.

Figure 40.— Ciborium, Mrs. J. L. Gardner Collection, Boston.

ANDREA DELLA ROBBIA 99
angels at SS. Apostoli. The curtain is here represented within the central
relief, but the symbols of the Father and the Holy Spirit are omitted, or
perhaps relegated to the frame. Even the symbols of the Sacred Host
are absent, unless the disk beneath the door be intended to suggest the
wafer. It may be observed also that in the spandrels above the vault are
disks imitating red porphyry against verde antico, and verde antico against
red porphyry. This fondness of Andrea's for reproducing porphyry and
verde antico, we have already noticed in the altarpiece in the Metropolitan
Museum. In reducing the vault from four rows of cofferings to two, the sculptor
has not only lost depth of perspective, but we feel that the vaulted ceiling
is not properly correlated in depth with the pavement. In the Museo
Nazionale, Florence there are two ciboria (Nbs. 26 and 33), in which
the process of abbreviation is carried a step further and only one row of
cofferings is represented. In these cases it is difficult to realize that a
vaulted ceiling had ever been in the artist's mind.
33. In the collection of Mr. Martin A. Ryerson, Chicago, there is
another central relief of a ciborium (Fig. 41). As it is in glazed terracotta
it is natural to think of this as workmanship of the Robbia School, and, on
account of its general resemblance to Mrs. Gardner's ciborium, it may be
considered here. But the resemblance is very general, and consists chiefly
in the adoring angels issuing from the sides of a vaulted hall. This com
position occurs in ciboria attributed to Buggiano, to Desiderio, to Mino da
Fiesole, and others. It is by no means confined to the Delia Robbias. The
sculptor of this relief could not have had a very thorough Florentine train
ing, as may be seen from his imperfect grasp of perspective. In spite of
the fact that his ceiling has a certain amount of real depth, he has un-
skillfully counteracted the effect of this by representing all the rosettes in
the cofferings as if they stood in a vertical plane facing the spectator. This
flattens out the entire vaulted ceiling and makes it look like a fan. In the
SS. Apostoli tabernacle, and in Mrs. Gardner's, the floor is represented as
if laid in flat tiles, whereas here it is indented, so as to give the appearance
of a rough grill work. A somewhat similar pavement is shown in a
marble ciborium, dated 1491, and attributed to the school of Mino da
Fiesole, in the Cathedral at Cortona. The draperies of the two angels
cannot be said to have been executed under Andrea's influence. Hence this

106 DELLA ROBBIAS IN AMERICA
relief may be assigned to the Robbia School only by courtesy, although it
is not impossible that it may have been executed by one of Andrea's many
sons, who had lost, or never shared, his father's inspiration.
Arms of the Salviati, Dei, and Frescobaldi families (Nos. 34-36).
Stemmi, or coats of arms, were made by all members of the Robbia
School. Luca della Robbia made a very notable medallion with the arms
of Rene d'Anjou, and others for the Pazzi, Serristori, and other families.
These were sometimes of considerable size, some six feet in" diameter, and
employed for the decoration of palaces, courts, or gardens. But more fre
quently stemmi were used to commemorate the holding of some office,
were of smaller size, and accompanied by an inscription. As these inscrip
tions are usually dated the coats of arms are helpful in the classification of
other similarly decorated, but undated monuments. During the time. when
Andrea della Robbia was in control of the atelier many of these stemmi
were produced.
34. Three of these products of Andrea's work are now in the collection
of Mr. Stanley Mortimer at Roslyn, L. I. One contains the arms of the
Salviati family and is set in a wreath. of pine cones, quinces, grapes, and
other fruit. The arms of the Salviati family are : argent, two bends
bretisse gules. The silver ground is here represented by white and the red
bands are violet — it being impossible for the Robbias to secure, after
baking, a red enamel. The Salviati family were patrons of the Robbias.
Another medallion with these arms may be seen on the Palazzo Pretorio at
San Giovanni Valdarno, set up in 1484 by Bernardo, son of Marco Salviati,
a knight. The same arms appear on a Robbia altarpiece in Mr. Henry
Walters' collection in Baltimore, and on the Lavabo in S. Niccolo da
Tolentino at Prato.31 There is also a document which informs us that a
Fra Roberto Salviati contributed and raised funds for the Presepio by
Andrea della Robbia set up in the little church of S. Maria Maddalena in
Pian di Mugnone in the year 1515.32
35. A second medallion with a similarly constructed garland and with
the escutcheon set upon a white fluted background, contains the arms of the
31Carotti, A/rchivio Storico dell' Arte, vi (1891), pp. 112-116; M. Reymond, op. cit., p.
237- 82 Cruttwell, Luca and Andrea della Robbia, p. 312.

Q^hmMJjLih d JMM£8$

Figure 41.— Ciborium. M. A. Ryerson Collection, Chicago.

ANDREA DELLA ROBBIA 103
Dei family, which consists of a golden bend and three golden fleur-de-lys on
a blue background. It is surrounded by a polychome frame of fruit, ar
ranged in groups of three, according to Andrea's favorite method, the
bunches of fruit being separated by a fluted band.
36. The third medallion shows the arms of the Frescobaldi family.
Stated in heraldic terminology these are: gules, three chess-rooks argent,
a chief or. Here the chief, or upper horizontal section of the escutcheon,
is covered with a yellow enamel, for gold; the chess-rooks are white, for
silver; and the ground against which the rooks appear is violet, for red.
It would be interesting to discover the extent to which the Frescobaldi
family were patrons of the Robbias. Their patronage probably began in
Luca's lifetime, as the Berlin Museum contains a Madonna by Luca della
Robbia which came from the Frescobaldi palace in Florence. A few years
ago I counted in that palace alone nearly fifty examples of Robbia ware of
different periods. A dozen of them were coats of arms. In the Stanley
Mortimer example the escutcheon is set upon a blue fluted disk and is
surrounded by a white frame ornamented by a green wreath of laurel.
On several occasions did Andrea employ laurel as a decorative motive : on
the console which supports the statue of S. Benedetto in the Duomo at
Borgo San Sepolcro, on the console of the relief of the Adoration in the
Bardini sale of 1902, and on that of an Adoration in the Victoria and
Albert Museum.

Ill
GIOVANNI DELLA ROBBIA
1469-1529?
The work of Andrea della Robbia was carried on by several of his
sons, of whom the best known is Giovanni. In his earliest work, as for
example in the Lavabo in Sta. Maria Novella (1497), Giovanni exhibits
something of the purity and charm of his father's style; but even here
may be detected signs of decadence. He soon lost all sense for beautiful
forms and strove for gaudy, striking effects. His most characteristic
works, such as the lunette representing the Pieta in the Museo Nazionale
(1521) and the Tabernacle formerly in the Via Nazionale (1522), show but
little of his father's influence, more of the mannerisms of Verrocchio, and
an excessive reliance on colour. His work is not even redeemed by a fine
sense of colour. It has lost the variety and delicacy of Luca's and the
refinement of Andrea's polychromy. It makes its appeal not to the
aristocratic patrons of art, but to the uneducated masses.
3f. The Kneeling Madonna (Fig. 42) .
In the Metropolitan Museum, New York, there is a statuette of the
Madonna on her knees, with folded hands (Fig. 42). She wears a veil
which is glazed in white and a mantle of light blue, the superficial decora
tion of which is in gold. The remainder of the figure is unglazed. The
pose of the Madonna suggests that this statuette originally formed part of
a Presepio group, or at least of an Adoration of the Child. The type of
the Madonna has a general resemblance to that of the Vanderbilt Madonna
already described, but it is even more closely related to the Madonna in the

io6

DELLA ROBBIAS IN AMERICA

lunette of the Lavabo in the Sacristy of S. Maria Novella, made by Giovanni
della Robbia in 1497 (Fig. 43). We may note a general resemblance in
the features of both Madonnas, a similar treatment of the veil, and of
the folds of the drapery. The hands of the Madonna and her robe are
not so well modelled as the hands and robe in the lunette, suggesting the
possibility that the statuette was made by some admirer of Giovanni who
copied his mannerisms. But Giovanni himself was seldom as careful with
his modelling as when he made the Lavabo of 1497.
One peculiarity deserves consideration' — the fact that this figure is only
partially glazed. Partially glazed statues and reliefs were common in the
1 6th century, but the two busts on the Loggia di S. Paolo, as well as the
celebrated lunette representing the meeting of S. Francesco and S. Dome-
nico, represent a tendency to leave the nudes unglazed as early at least as
1495. Consequently a partially glazed statuette is quite possible in the
closing years of the 15th century.
38 Lunette representing the Resurrection (Fig. 44).
The Museum of the Brooklyn Institute has the honour of possessing the
most characteristic example of Giovanni della Robbia's work in America.
It is a lunette representing the Resurrection of Christ. Some years ago I
saw it in the chapel of the Villa Antinori at Colombali or Le Rose, a few
miles outside of the Porta Romana, Florence. This Villa formerly be
longed to the de' Rossi family, but in 1487 passed into the possession of
Niccolo di Tommaso Antinori, and has remained in the hands of the
Antinori family to this day. Niccolo's name appears amongst the Priors
of Florence in 1483. In 1514 he was both Councillor and Prior. In the
lunette we recognize a portrait of Niccolo, or perhaps of his son Alessandro
who was Prior in 1523, with folded hands, in the donor's position at the
feet of Christ. The Antinori arms, with field of yellow for gold and a
chief lozengy of four tracks azure, appear at the base of the lunette at
either end.
From the two stemmi the garland frame proceeds around the top and
across the base of the central relief. The garland consists of various fruits
and flowers and animals ; the fruit being arranged on the triple system with
little or no separation of bunches, and united at the top, and at the centre
of the base, by some invisible bond. Luca's garlands were usually asym-

Figure 42. — Kneeling Madonna.
Metropolitan Museum, New York.

Figure 43. — Madonna and Angels. S. Maria Novella, Florence.

Figure 44. — Resurrection. Brooklyn Institute.

GIOVANNI DELLA ROBBIA HI
metrical and continuous; Andrea's were more conventional and arranged
in separate bunches; Giovanni's show traces of Andrea's conventions to
gether with a disorderly continuity. We are struck by the bright colours
of the fruit and flowers amid which we discover snakes, lizards, birds, and
frogs. No appeal is made to us by crisp outlines or fine modelling.
The subject of the Resurrection had been treated in 1443 by Luca della
Robbia in a lunette over one of the sacristy doors in the Cathedral of
Florence, and later by Andrea della Robbia in a fine altarpiece in the church
of S. Bernardino at Aquila. In both cases the figures are enamelled in white
against a blue background. In the Brooklyn relief all the faces are made
to look like flesh, the hair and garments also are brilliant with colour, and
the wings of the angels are polychromatic. There is also a landscape back
ground with green trees, birds, and brightly coloured clouds. The angels
lack the seriousness of Luca's angels, the beauty of Andrea's. They look
empty minded and are awkwardly posed. The soldiers are not all quietly
asleep; three are awake and show perturbation of mind. The sarcophagus
is most crudely indicated, and the Christ, without inherent dignity or beauty,
is surrounded by a halo of forked yellow flames. We find this type of
flaming halo used by Giovanni in his Assumptions of the Virgin at Pisa
(1520), at the Ceppo Hospital at Pistoia (1525), and at San Giovanni in
Valdarno. This type of Christ he has repeated in a statuette which crowns
the altarpiece in S. Stefano at Lamporecchio. As the Lamporecchio altar-
piece was ordered in 1524, we may believe that the Brooklyn lunette is of
approximately the same date.
30. Altarpiece representing the Temptation (Fig. 45).
One of the most interesting of Robbia works in America, is an altar-
piece, representing the Temptation of Adam, in the collection of Mr. Henry
Walters, Baltimore. It came from the Lelong collection, Paris, and was
purchased in December, 1902. It consists of many parts, which have been
put together more intelligently than when in the possession of the former
owner. One cannot help feeling, however, that the altarpiece as it stands
is not as originally designed, and that it is the product of more than a
single mind. The lateral frames have neither bases nor capitals, and the
cornice is insufficient to have crowned either an architecturally constructed
or a non-architectural frame. It is, however, the frame and the predella

II2 DELLA ROBBIAS IN AMERICA
that link themselves most closely with known works of the Robbias and
particularly with those of Giovanni della Robbia. The moulding at the,
base of the predella occurs, with the same rope ornament above the leaf and
dart, in Giovanni's altarpiece of 1520, now in the Campo Santo at Pisa;
the pilasters with thick bunches of fruit rising from dolphin handled bases
are found in Giovanni's altarpiece of 1520 at the Seminario in Fiesole,
and more attractively in an earlier work, the Last Judgment altarpiece at
S. Girolamo, Volterra ; and the net work of cubes which forms the ground
for these panels is used by him in the predella of the altarpiece of the
Pulci Chapel in Santa Croce. The lateral frames of the central relief pre
sent an unusual species of decoration, but in the altarpiece at Pisa Gio
vanni della Robbia divides his pilasters into alternately long rectangles and
squares, and in his well known Tabernacolo delle Fonticine (1522), until
recently in the Via Nazionale, Florence, he arranges bunches of fruit in
rising and pendant bunches set dos-a-dos in each panel.
But while the frame and predella may be attributed to Giovanni della
Robbia, the central relief is certainly by another hand. Giovanni would
have treated the theme more pictorially with a landscape background, and
with trees lacking the crisp and plastic quality of this relief. The figures
of Adam and Eve are here modelled by some one who was alive to the
beauty of classic sculpture. Adam is like 'an Antinous and Eve like a
Venus, and both are modelled and posed with much more skill than Gio
vanni possessed. In one of the medallions at the Certosa near Florence,
made in 1522, we can see a head of Adam by Giovanni della Robbia which
shows, even at that date, no influence whatever from classic types. The
composition, with its lateral as well as central tree, shows a general resem
blance to Albrecht Diirer's well known print of the Temptation of Adam
engraved in 1504 and copied in Italy by Marcantonio in 1510 or 1512.
This date brings us very close to the date of the altarpiece itself, which
was probably made and erected in the year 1515, for it bears the inscription
LEO. X. PONT. MAX . INGRESVS . EST. FLOTIA.XXX0. Dp.
ADAM PRIMVS HOMO DANAVIT SECMVLA POMO
The first part of the inscription informs us that Leo X as Pope entered
Florence on the 30th day. This, date, St. Andrew's day, the 30th of No
vember, 1 5 15, was the occasion of a great festival to which Jacopo Sanso
vino, Andrea del Sarto, Baccio Bandinelli and others contributed ephemeral

Figure 45. — The Temptation. Walters' Collection, Baltimore.

GIOVANNI DELLA ROBBIA 775
works of art, and the memory of which was preserved by Vasari in a
series of frescoes in the Palazzo Vecchio ( See Vaughan, The Medici Popes,
pp. 143-147). In the inscription the letter D containing a P is somewhat
puzzling. It may be D(ie), in which case the P is enigmatical ; or D(ecimo)
P(rimo Mense), a possible abbreviation for the nth month; or D(onum)
P(osuit) or D(edicavit et) P(osuit), an indication that the altarpiece was
a gift or at least dedicated by Leo X; or D(omenico) P(retore) or
D(onato) P(retore), since a Domenico Alamanni and a Donato Cocchi
each held the office of Prior in 1515. The latter mode of indicating a
date is found in a Robbia monument at Empoli, although the name of the
Prior is there written out in full. Here the full expression of the date
would have left insufficient space for the succeeding couplet ADAM, etc.
This brief couplet contains two errors. The ligature is carelessly placed
over the N and the A in DANAVIT, as if the scribe did not have clearly
before his mind the word Damnavit. Then, as if conscious that he had
omitted the letter M, he recovers it and inserts it in the middle of the word
SECVLA making of it the strange word Secmula. But this is not the only
monument from the atelier of Giovanni della Robbia which indicates a
lack of accuracy in inscriptions.
The coats of arms bear also silent testimony as to the dedication of the
monument, if we can interpret them correctly. The central arms, with the
Papal tiara and keys, and the one blue and five red Medici balls
are. those of Leo himself. The arms to the right show a combination of
Leo's initials with a blue Medici ball, set above the Salviati arms. It may
be recalled that Lucrezia de' Medici, sister to the Pope, had married Jacopo
Salviati, also that her son Giovanni Salviati had been made a cardinal very
early in Leo's reign (Young, The Medici, I, p. 406). It seems likely there
fore that these arms are those of the young cardinal. The arms to the left,
a red cross on six mounts against a blue ground are those of some mem
ber of the Buondelmonti family, which I have not been able to determine,
but it may be noted that at S. Giovanni in Valdarno, there hangs on the
walls of the Palazzo Pretorio a Robbia stemma, showing the Buondelmonti
arms, set up by Antonio di Lorenzo di Messer Andrea Buondelmonti de
Montebuoni, who was Vicario at S. Giovanni in 1474 and 1475. But as
this Antonio was one of the Priors of Florence in 1467, it is more likely
that the Buondelmonti whose arms are on this altarpiece was a younger man,

n6 DELLA ROBBIAS IN AMERICA
possibly Bartolomeo di Rosso Buondelmonti who married Bianca di Pietro
Medici in 1483, or Filippo di Rosso di Messer Andrea, who occupied the
office of Prior in 1500, 1523 and 1527. It is interesting to notice that once
again the Buondelmonti and Salviati arms are found together on the same
monument: on the base of an altarpiece by Giovanni della Robbia in the
Oratorio della Madonna in San Giovanni in Valdarno, where the Pieve
constituted one of the personal benefits conferred upon Leo X when he was
still a cardinal.
Where the Walters' altarpiece was originally located is no longer known,
but it is an important record of Leo's triumphal entry into Florence set up
by two of his relatives or friends.
40. Bust of a youthful Saint (Fig. 46) .
Mrs. Olcott Perkins of New York has recently sold to the Worcester
Art Museum a round-headed relief showing the bust of a youthful saint,
possibly S. Giovanni Evangelista, S. Tommaso, or S. Ansano. It is broadly
modelled, and effective, and bears some resemblance to Giovanni's head of
S. Ansano at the Certosa, near Florence.1 It has, however, more classic
dignity, and impresses us more like a prototype than a derivative of the
Certosa head. It recalls various youthful saints by Andrea della Robbia,
and may, with good reason, be assigned to his atelier.
41. Head of Christ (Fig. 4f).
The Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, possesses a head of Christ, which we
may attribute to Giovanni della Robbia. It is glazed in white, with no indi
cation of colour, except to mark the eyes. Although in some details re^
sembling the Christ of the Antinori Resurrection, it is finer in expression
and seems to represent an earlier type. How much earlier is not easy to
determine. There is a head of Christ amongst the heads decorating the
cloister of the Certosa, of which I have no clear recollection or photograph.
But the head of S. Jacopo Maggiore in the Certosa, made by Giovanni
della Robbia in 1522, is sufficiently similar in general construction and
detail to indicate that the Boston head belongs to the same period of Gio
vanni's career. Whether it was originally part of a figure of the risen
Christ or of a Christ with the Samaritan woman is not perfectly clear.
'Marcel Reymond, op. cit., p. 226; Cruttwell, op. cit., p. 242.

Figure 46.— Bust of a Young Saint.
Worcester Art Museum.

Figure 47.— Head of Christ. Museum of Fine Arts, Boston.

GIOVANNI DELLA ROBBIA 119
42. Altarpiece representing the Lamentation over the body of Christ
(Figs. 48-49).
The collection of Mrs. John L. Gardner, Boston, contains an altarpiece
representing the Lamentation over the dead body of Christ (Fig. 48). It
was formerly in the collection of Rev. Dr. Nevin, Rome. This scene is
sometimes characterized as a Deposition. But the act of taking the body
from the Cross is not here depicted ; nor is it the placing of the body in the
tomb. It is more properly a Pieta, as it exhibits pity or sorrow for the
departed Christ. But it is still better to name it the Lamentation over the
body of Christ. This designation may be based on the text on the tablet
below, taken from the Lamentations of Jeremiah I, 12, which in the Vulgate
reads : O VOS OMNES QVI TRANSITIS PER VIAM ATTENDITE
ET VIDETE SI EST DOLOR SICVT DOLOR MEVS. These words,
which expressed the lamentation of Jerusalem over her misery, are here
ascribed to the Madonna, or to the Madonna, S. Giovanni, and La Madda-
lena as representatives of the Christian world. The same words are in
scribed on the predella of an altarpiece by Andrea della Robbia at La
Verna representing Christ on the Cross bewailed by angels and saints.
In the Museo Nazionale (No. 64), Florence, there is an altarpiece
(Fig. 49), with which the Boston altarpiece should be carefully compared.
The principal figures are similarly constructed, and there is only a slight
modification of the composition. In the Boston relief a nimbus has been
placed upon each of the heads, and the hands are posed in more expressive
attitudes. The dead Christ is now supported only on the knees of his
mother, is more relaxed, more livid in colour. But we have no difficulty in
recognizing the handiwork of Giovanni della Robbia, who signed and
dated (1521) a lunette representing the same subject, in the same style, in
the Museo Nazionale (No. 37).
The landscape backgrounds in the two altarpieces are somewhat differ
ently treated. In the Florentine example the landscape is more elaborate.
We see not only the vacant sepulchre and the stripped crosses at Golgotha,
but hosts of diminutive creatures, possibly the bodies of departed saints
(Matth. xxvii, 27, 52), and the domes and towers of Jerusalem. In the
Boston example the landscape is reduced to simpler terms. The dark purple
and yellow clouds, which appear in both altarpieces and which Miss Crutt
well aptly compares to the stripes of a tiger's back, are perhaps a crude

I2Q DELLA ROB-BIAS IN AMERICA
attempt to indicate the darkness and atmospheric disturbances connected
with the crucifixion. The cross is liere even more emphatically represented
than at Florence, and the angels bear not only the spear and the sponge
but expose to view S. Veronica's handkerchief. As in Andrea della Robbia's
crucifixion at La Verna, the sun and moon are represented above the cross
and a skull at its base.
It seems probable that some one from Giovanni's atelier assisted him in
the execution of the Boston altarpiece, for in the centre of the predella is
introduced a crude baluster, such as one finds frequently in the works of
Giovanni's followers, but is quite out of place in this monument.
43. Small relief of the Lamentation (Fig. 50).
In the art gallery of Mr. E. F. Bonaventure, New York, may be seen a
round-headed relief representing Mary holding the dead Christ in her lap.
As a group this may be considered a reduction of the larger compositions
just described. It is labelled with the same inscription from the Lamenta
tions of Jeremiah. The landscape is here reduced to its simplest elements—:
the hill of Calvary on which is planted the cross and some crudely indi
cated trees. The Madonna and the Christ are just what we might expect
from the atelier of Giovanni della Robbia.
About the relief is a fruit and flower frame, broad and heavy, not sub
divided into conventional bunches. It lacks crisp and vigorous modelling,-
but is interesting for the novelty of the fruit represented. Besides the' usual
grapes, pine cones, apples, lemons, and pomegranates, we see here a sliced
cucumber, green almonds, bean pods and walnuts. One of .Giovanni's pu
pils seems to have been stirred to extend the composition of the fruit frame
beyond the range usually exhibited in the works of his master.
44. Bust of La Maddalena (Fig. 51).
The Boston Museum of Fine Arts has had in its possession for some
years a small, unglazed half figure or bust loaned by Mr. C. C. Perkins and
labelled "St. John. Terra cotta of the XVI century." The modelling of
the breasts show that this is a woman, and we may be practically certain
that the object held in her right hand was the vase or alabaster box of oint
ment. If we compare this statuette with Giovanni della Robbia's Magda-
lens, we find a similar type of head, the same squared cut of the robe,

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Figure 48. — Lamentation. Mrs. J. L. Gardner's Collection, Boston.

Figure 49. — Lamentation. Museo Nazionale, Florence.

Figure 50. — Lamentation. Bonaventure Gallery, New York.

GIOVANNI DELLA ROBBIA l2y
and, in one instance, in the altarpiece in the Pulci Chapel of S. Croce, she
carries, as here, a book as well as a vase. The proportions, however, are
somewhat different, suggesting that the bust may be the handiwork of one
of Giovanni's assistants.
45. Statuette group of the Madonna, Child and S. Giovannino.
In the collection of Mr. Stanley Mortimer, Roslyn, there is a small
group, partly glazed, of the Madonna holding the Child on her right arm.
The Child is blessing with his right hand and holds his left to his mouth.
The young S. Giovannino to the right holds a banner inscribed SCCE
AGNV for ECCE AGNV(S DEI). The Madonna wears a blue mantle
lined green, and S. Giovannino a gray brown hair cloth. The nudes and
the Madonna's robe are unglazed. This group may be assigned to the
atelier of Giovanni della Robbia.
46. Medallion of Madonna with almost nude Child (Figs. 52-53).
In the collection of Mr. E. J. Berwind, Newport, there is a medallion,
unglazed, representing the Madonna carrying an almost nude Child, whose
right hand is extended in blessing (Fig. 53).
This medallion, formerly in the Gavet collection, Paris, is an almost
exact copy of the Madonna of S. Jacopo di Ripoli in the Via della Scala,
Florence (Fig. 54). The S. Jacopo in the lunette is a fairly close parallel to
Giovanni della Robbia's S. Giovanni Battista. at Galatrona, and at the
Certosa (1522). But the face of the Madonna, the manner in which she
holds the child, the mannered pose of her fingers and the detailed represen
tations of veins on the hands of the Saints, suggest a closer study of Ver-
rocchio than is usually exhibited in Giovanni's works. If not by Giovanni
himself, this work may be assigned to his atelier.
4f~50. Two dolphin handled vases and two bouquets of fruit (Fig. 54).
There are in various museums and private collections, vases which were
undoubtedly made in the Robbia School. Two of these in blue enamel,
with dolphin handles, a scale pattern on the shoulder, interlacings on the
body and godrons on the lower half of the vase, are in the collection of
Mr. Philip M. Lydig, New York. Almost an exact parallel to these vases
may be seen on the framework of an altarpiece at La Verna representing

128

DELLA ROBBIAS IN AMERICA

the Lamentation over the dead body of Christ. This altarpiece may be
assigned to Giovanni della Robbia. A similar representation of blue
vases with dolphin handles, scale pattern, and godrons is found on Giovan
ni's altarpiece of the Last Judgment at Volterra, which bears the date 1501.
In general, however, Giovanni does not show an independent or fine sense
of form for vases. The vases represented on the pilasters of his lavabo in
S. Maria Novella (1497) are derived from types found in the works of
Andrea. Even the dolphin handles, and the scales and godrons may be
seen in some late works by Andrea della Robbia at Arezzo.
The bunches of fruit are here made in the form of bouquets, so they
find their places in the vases as naturally as the figured bunches of fruit
rise from the figured vases upon the altar frames. The fashion for deco
rating pilasters with fruit and flowers proceeding from vases in all prob
ability crept into European art from the Orient, where such motives were
at home for many centuries.
51-54. Candelabrum bearing angels.
In the collection of Mr. J. Lindon Smith, Boston, and in that of Mr.
Thomas Shields Clarke, New York, may be seen glazed terra-cotta statuettes
representing candelabrum bearing angels. The Boston examples are glazed
white and are posed on green bases, those in New York are polychromatic.
These reflect in a measure the types, without exhibiting all the peculiarities,
of similar angels made by Giovanni della Robbia. In form, as well as in
conception, they show a considerable decline from Luca's candelabrum
bearing angels in the sacristy of the Cathedral at Florence.

Figure 51. — La Maddalena. Museum of Fine Arts, Boston.

Figure 52. — Madonna. E. J. Berwind Collection, Newport.

Figure 53. — Madonna and Saints. S. Jacopo di Ripoli, Florence.

Figure 54. — Vase and Fruit. P. M. Lydig Collection, New York.

IV
MISCELLANEOUS ROBBIA WORKS
In spite of the fact that we have authenticated works by Fra Ambrogio
della Robbia, Fra Mattia della Robbia, and by Luca di Andrea della
Robbia, it is difficult or impossible to group about them a sufficient number
of works to present a clear view of the various branches of the school.
Until more documents are found to aid us, we are likely to remain for
some time in the dark. It is, however, probably that we shall soon re
cover a general notion of the style and works of Benedetto Buglioni and
of Santi Buglioni, who were influential members of the late Robbia School.
There are many monuments, which, at the present time, we can merely
group together, without specific attribution. One of these unknown sculp
tors was strongly influenced in his types by Antonio Rossellino, another by
Benedetto da Majano, a third has a marked individuality of his own.
Works- showing the influence of Andrea della Robbia (Nos. 55-62).
The influence of Andrea della Robbia may be detected in many monu
ments by his successors. We have already noticed it in the early works of
Giovanni della Robbia. We find it also in many other products of the
Robbia School. Such influence may be recognized in a relief at Gold-
schmidt's, New York, and in medallions in the collections of Mr. Philip
M. Lydig and of Mr. Bradley and in other works.
55. Madonna with Child blessing and holding a Bird (Figs. 55-56) .
The Goldschmidt galleries, New York, have on exhibition a round-
headed relief representing the Madonna with the Child blessing and holding
a Bird (Fig. 56). It is provided with a fruit and flower frame constructed

I36 DELLA ROBBIAS IN AMERICA
according to canons not far removed from those of Andrea della Robbia,
but more commonly followed by his successors. We may observe here
chestnuts, lemons, grapes, pears, pine cones, oranges, cucumbers, quinces,
pomegranates, peaches, plums, and poppies amongst which are snails and
lizards, such as we have found in Giovanni's- lunette in Brooklyn and in
the Adam and Eve altarpiece in Baltimore. But this is not one of Gio
vanni's frames, nor does the relief indicate his handiwork. The Comptes
des Batiments du Roi, I, p. 1 12, under date of 1537, describes a large tondo,
over the entrance of the Chateau de Fontainebleau, by Girolamo della
Robbia, the garland of which exhibited " several varieties of leaves and
flowers, melons, cucumbers, pine cones, pomegranates, grapes, poppies,
artichokes, lemons, oranges, peaches, apples, frogs, lizards and snails ".1
We may, therefore, reasonably think of Girolamo della Robbia as possibly
the author of this relief, but unfortunately the Fontainebleau tondo no,
longer survives, and we have no other authenticated work, of Girolamo's,
which can be used as a standard of comparison.
The central relief was apparently made by some one who felt Andrea's.
influence during the period (1508-1510) when he made the Madonna della
Quercia at Viterbo (Fig. 57). Two angels, not so beautiful as Andrea's,
hold between them a heavy crown above the Madonna's head. They emerge
from clumsily indicated clouds. A fat Christ Child blesses with one hand
and holds a bird in the other— the same motive used by Andrea at Viterbo.
The Madonna is also derived from the same source, but is strangely corset-
ted' and betrays a less competent hand. On the whole, the central relief .is-
distinctly inferior to the frame.
56. Madonna adoring the Child supported by an Angel (Fig. 5f).
In the collection of Mr. Philip M. Lydig, of New York, there is a
medallion of the Madonna adoring the child, based' upon,, but of a different
type from, those attributed to Andrea della Robbia. It. formerly belonged
to M. Molinier and was illustrated in the frontispiece of the catalogue of
his collection. In the Vieweg collection at Braunschweig, in the Watts
collection at Guildford, and in the Museum at Berlin, there are other medal
lions by the same hand. The Berlin example retains traces of gilding on
the garments and in the background, and has a more elaborate frame.
1 Quoted by Cavallucci and Molinier, Les Della Robbia, p. 175.

Figure 55. — Madonna." Goldschmidt Galleries, New York.

Figure 56. — Madonna and Saints. S! Maria della Quercia, Viterbo.

Figure 57.— Adoration. P. M. Lydig Collection, New York.

MISCELLANIOUS ROBBIA WORKS

143

The authorities of the Museum class it as in the manner of Andrea della
Robbia,2 and certainly adorations not very unlike this were so frequently
produced in the atelier of Andrea della Robbia that this relief may be
considered as in a very general sense belonging to the same class. We
would like, however, to direct attention to an altarpiece in the church of S.
Gitnignano at Antona, near Massa Carrara. It represents the Madonna en
throned and being crowned by angels in the presence of several saints.
This is a work which cannot be assigned to Luca, nor to Andrea, nor to
Giovanni della Robbia. It has a character of its own and there are many
altarpieces and other monuments in Italy which are by the same hand.
Ubaldo Mazzini, in an article entitled Alcune Opere di Benedetto Buglioni
in Lunigiana,3 compares it with the documented Resurrection in the Church
of S. Francesco, Pistoia, and with the lunettes of the Ceppo Hospital,
Pistoia, and of the Ognissanti Church, Florence, and concludes that the
Antona altarpiece is by Benedetto Buglioni. In our opinion this work is
to be classed with a large series of monuments, some of which are un
doubtedly by Benedetto Buglioni ; but Benedetto's style has not yet been
firmly established, nor has it been clearly distinguished from that of Santi
Buglioni, while by many critics it is still confused with that of Giovanni
della Robbia. Mazzini's attribution may be correct, but the evidence for it
is not entirely conclusive. However this may be, the Antona altarpiece is
crowned by a lunette containing a representation of the Nativity. The
Holy Family is represented in a rocky landscape set with trees. On the
left 5. Giuseppe is seated in his usual pensive attitude, on the right are
diminutive heads of the ox and the ass, and a crib. In the centre is the
Madonna adoring the Child, who is supported by an angel. The Lydig
medallion is an excerpt from this composition, without modification to adapt
it to a plaque of circular form. Not merely the composition, but the model
ling is the same in both cases. It is important to note the identity of this
composition with that of the Antona lunette, even though we leave the de
termination of authorship for the present unsettled.
5f. Nativity with S. Giovannino (Fig. 58) .
Mr. Edson Bradley, of Washington, D. C, possesses a medallion of a
Nativity, based on one of the types used by Andrea della Robbia. The
1 Bode and Tschudi, Beschreibung der Bildwerke der christlichen Epoche, p. 40.
' Giorn. Stor. e lett. della Liguria, 1905.

I44 DELLA ROBBIAS IN AMERICA
scene is set in a rocky landscape with trees. From the heavens descends
the Holy Dove. S. Giuseppe and the Virgin, the ox and the ass, are in rapt
admiration of the Child, who reclines on crudely indicated, light yellow hay
or straw. S. Giovannino, who appears only in the later products of the /
school, is here unusually small and his customary haircloth is omitted. A
similar Giovannino with floating mantle, but with the haircloth tunic clearly
expressed, occurs in a tondo of an altarpiece at Fabbrica in Vai d' Era,
dated 1504. The fruit and flower frame is based on Andrea's canons, but
contains various modifications found only in the works of his followers.
58. Nativity with three cherubs and Dove.
The collection of Mr. Julius S. Bache, of New York, contains a round-
headed relief representing the Nativity. It is surrounded by a narrow fruit
frame and is set on a console or bracket. It is slightly polychromatic: S.
Giuseppe has a yellow staff, the ox is yellow, the ass blue, and the Child is
set in light green hay in a light violet basket. All the haloes are yellow.
In the sky is the Floly Dove and three cherubs — the only accessories which
remain of the Gloria in Excelsis. The Accademia di Belle Arti of Siena
contains a Nativity of somewhat similar quality, equally removed from
Andrea's established types.
59. The Holy Family (Fig. 59).
In the collection of Mr. Charles P. Taft, of Cincinnati, there is a damaged
medallion representing the Floly Family. The fruit and flower frame is
composed in accordance with Andrea's canons. The central relief is de
rived from Andrea's Nativities, though not very close to them in style.
The landscape is slightly indicated by some distant hills. The Child rests
on an uncomfortable bed of hay. The Madonna exhibits traces of An
drea's influence, but the S. Giuseppe in his intensity of expression is based
on some other prototype. Figures of a somewhat similar character may be
seen on a font in the church at Rignano.
60. The Nativity with the Stable (Fig. 60).
The late Mr. Charles C. Perkins presented to the Boston Museum of
Fine Arts a polychromatic Nativity, in which appears a thatch-roofed
stable. Not possessing the quality of fine workmanship it has been rele-

Figure s8— Nativity. E. Bradley Collection, Washington.

Figure 59. — Holy Family. C P. Taft Collection, Cincinnati.

Figure 60. — Nativity. Museum of Fine Arts, Boston.

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Figure 6i. — Nativity and Saints. Museo Nazionale, Florence.

MISCELLANIOUS ROBBIA WORKS 153
gated to the student collections in the basement. Our interest in the relief
lies chiefly in its relationships. Its closest analogues are the altarpiece from
the monastery of San Vivaldo at Montaione, now removed to the Museo
Nazionale, Florence (Fig. 61), and a similar altarpiece in the Chiesa delle
Monache Augustiniane at Poppi. The Boston relief presents the same type
of S. Giuseppe, of huge proportions, and a somewhat similar Virgin, back
ground, and stable ; the Dove is added, hut the angels, shepherds and ador
ing saints are omitted. In these works the influence of Andrea della Robbia
is reduced to a minimum and that of Antonio Rossellino is more evident.
They belong to a class of works produced when Santi Buglioni was an
active worker of the Robbia School.
61. Medallion head of a Child (Fig. 62).
Mr. Charles P. Taft of Cincinnati possesses a medallion with the head
of a child. The frame shows a garland of flowers with studied variety in
the successive bunches. Who the garlanded child may be we do not at
tempt to determine. Italian marble busts of boys sometimes represented the
Christ Child, or S. Giovannino, or mere portraits, and the same is true of
the busts of children from the Robbia factory. There are charming busts
of boys in the Museo Nazionale, Florence, and in the Guny Museum, Paris,
and less important relief busts in medallions in the oratory of S. Ansano
near Fiesole. The Taft medallion may be classed with the late products of
the Robbia School, when busts of all kinds in medallions were not uncom
mon. It is not directly to be connected with the works of Andrea, nor is
it easy to relate it to any other Robbia master.
62. Fragment representing Fra Leo.
From the storeroom of the Metropolitan Museum has been recovered a
fragment of an altarpiece, which originally represented the scene of S.
Francesco receiving the stigmata. The remainder of the altarpiece may
still be in Italy or scattered in foreign lands. The fragment in the Metro
politan Museum represents the monk, supposed to be Fra Leo, who accom
panied S. Francesco. He may be seen, much in the same attitude, on the
altarpieces at Barga,3 at Citta di Castello, and in predella scenes elsewhere.4
He shrinks with fear at the supernatural appearance of the crucifix in the
3 Schubring, op. cit., Abb. 150.
* Marcel Reymond, op. cit., pp. 165, 170, 205.

I[?4 DELLA ROBBIAS IN AMERICA
sky. His flesh tints are pink, his gown gray. The hillside of La Verna is
coloured to represent nature, and through it runs a white stream of water
on the banks of which are a yellow stag and a black sheep.
The subject of S. Francesco receiving the stigmata was not uncommon
in the works of Andrea della Robbia, and we should expect the fragment in
the Metropolitan Museum to reflect his style. It is, however, not very
closely related to Andrea, nor yet to Giovanni, but may nevertheless be
classed in general as a product of the Robbia School.
Works by a follower of Rossellino (Nos. 63-66).
The man whom we designate as a follower of Rossellino might also be
recognized under the title of the Sculptor of the Madonna of the Lilies.
He was apparently enamoured of Antonio Rossellino's Madonna at Solarolo
near Faenza,5 of which a free rendering in stucco may be seen in the
Louvre.6 For the Christ Child he sometimes follows Desiderio da Settig-
nano, and at times Benedetto da Majano.
63. Madonna of the Lilies with standing Child (Fig. 63).
In the collection of Mr. Charles P. Taft, Cincinnati, is a Madonna with
slightly draped Child standing on a cushion. It came from the Hainauer
collection, and is declared by Dr. Bode to be the best of its class — other
reliefs of the same subject being found in the Louvre,7 and in the Museo
Nazionale, Florence.8 The Madonna reflects the style of Rossellino, and
the Child that of Desiderio. The Child standing on a cushion we have al
ready found in the works of Andrea della Robbia, but these types are not
Andrea's, and the background of lilies is a feature which this sculptor re
peats in other works. There are various reliefs by the same sculptor rep
resenting the Adoration of the Child — in the Gavet collection, Paris ; in the
Museo Nazionale, Florence;9 in the University Museum, Perugia; and
another formerly in the Casa Castracane, Urbino,10 in which the same types
recur with the same lily stalks in the background.
° Bode, Denkmaler, Taf. 332. Attributed also to Francesco di Simone. See Venturi,
op. cit., vi, 730.
' Alinari photograph, No. 22327.
' Alinari photograph, No. 22381.
* Alinari photograph, No. 2764.
" Brogi photograph, No. 9496.
* Cavallucci and Molinier, Les Della Robbia, p. 148.

Figure 62, — Head of a Child, C. P. Taft Collection, Cincinnati,

/ I

' mm v J

Figure 63. — Madonna. C P. Taft Collection, Cinicinnatti.
5

MISCELLANIOUS ROBBIA WORKS 159
64. In the collection of Mr. E. J. Berwind, Newport, there is a
replica of the Taft Madonna, not so fine in quality.
65. Madonna of the Lilies, suckling the Child (Fig. 64).
In the collection of Mr. Philip M. Lydig, New York, there is a medal
lion by the same hand. It represents the Madonna of the Lilies seated in
a barren landscape suckling her Child. The Madonna resembles closely the
Taft Madonna, but the type of the Child has changed, being no longer
derived from Desiderio. In all probability this medallion was once sur
rounded by a garland frame of fruit and flowers.
66. Madonna of the Lilies, suckling the Child (Fig. 65).
Mr. Henry Walters, Baltimore, has also a Madonna of the Lilies, suck
ling the Child. The Madonna is here presented nearly full length, occupy
ing so much of the field that the landscape background is omitted. The two
lily plants, however, are retained. The type of the Madonna has been some
what modified. It is no longer quite so close to that of Rossellino. The
round faced Child tells also of a new influence, possibly that, of Benedetto
da Majano. This relief is surrounded by a Robbia frame, which
exhibits the eclectic spirit of the later members of the school. The scaler
pattern which Luca della Robbia had used in the frames of the medallions
in the Portogallo Chapel at S. Miniato, and which was seldom if ever used
by Andrea and Giovanni della Robbia, is here revived in connection with a
fruit and flower garland of late design.
6f. Work by a follower of Benedetto da Majano (Fig. 66) .
In the collection of Mr. Philip M. Lydig, New York, there is a medal
lion from the Lanna collection, Prague, showing a half figure of the Ma
donna carrying in her left arm the nude Child, who blesses with his right
hand and holds in his left a bird. The subject is familiar to us in works of
the Robbia School. The type of the Madonna is not far removed from
Giovanni's in the lunette of the lavabo (1497) in the sacristy of S. Maria
Novella.11 But it is even more closely related to a medallion, No. 22 in
the Museo Nazionale, Florence, attributed to Benedetto da Majano, since
11 Bode, Denkmaler, Taf. 276 ; Cruttwell, Luca and Andrea della Robbia, p. 216 ; Rey
mond, Les Della Robbia, p. 228; Schubring, Luca della Robbia, Abb. 141.

l6o DELLA ROBBIAS IN AMERICA
it is almost an exact copy of Benedetto's medallion above the sarcophagus
of Filippo Strozzi (1491-1493) in S. Maria Novella.12 Possibly, therefore,.
it is an early work of Giovanni's, although more likely to have been exe
cuted by one of Giovanni's associates or followers.
Works by the Sculptor of the Morgan Altarpiece (Nos. 68- f 3).
We have here classed six works together, which have enough in common
to permit us to assign them to the same author. This sculptor was evi
dently a dominating personality, whose influence is seen not only in Flor
ence, but at Empoli, Barga, Cutigliano, S. Casciano, Pistoia, Prato, Pisa,
Poppi, Porrena, Antona, S. Fiora, and Bolsena. His works vary in merit,
reminding us sometimes of Andrea, again of Giovanni, and again of
Desiderio or other Florentine sculptors. Whether he is to be identified
with Benedetto Buglioni, or whether he may have been one of Andrea's
many sons we must leave for future discussion. It is enough that we begin
to assemble his works, at least those of them which happen to be in
America.<56'. The Morgan Altarpiece (Fig. 6f).
There was exhibited, until very recently, in the Renaissance Room of
the Metropolitan Museum, an altarpiece representing the Madonna en
throned between S. Girolamo and S. Mccolo di Bari (Fig. 68). It was
loaned to the Museum by Mr. Junius S. Morgan, and as it is a very char
acteristic example of its class we may for the time speak of its author as
the sculptor of this altarpiece. The monument is inscribed with the name
of the donor, Sister Catarina, daughter of Tomaso di Salvestro di Nuc-
carello, and bears the date 1502. On the predella we see the family arms,
scenes from the lives of S. Girolamo and S. Niccolo, and a Pieta, separated
from each other by balusters, which frequently recur in the works of this
sculptor. The frame of the altarpiece, with its pilasters decorated with
candelabra and its elaborate frieze, already heralds the advent of the High
Renaissance. This sculptor uses a similar predella and entablature in the
altarpiece of the Immaculate Conception at Empoli.13 In both altarpieces
the central panel is comprised of a central figure or group with a standing
12 Bode, Denkmaler, Taf. 358.
u Alinari photograph, No. 10123.

Figure 64— Madonna. P, M, Lydig Collection, New York,

Figure 65. — Madonna. Walters Collection, Baltimore.

Figure 66.— Madonna. P. M. Lydig Collection, New York.

MISCELLANIOUS ROBBIA WORKS 167
saint on either side. The Madonna recalls the Madonnas of Giovanni della
Robbia, while the standing saints remind us of the saints of Andrea della
Robbia. But this sculptor does not confine himself to Robbia types. The
Christ Child in the Morgan altarpiece is inspired by Desiderio's Christ
Child on the Tabernacle in S. Lorenzo, but in the Empoli altarpiece the
angelic host in the clouds is borrowed from Antonio Rossellino's altarpiece
for the church of Monte Oliveto, Naples. The style of this sculptor be
came more individualized and fixed by 1520 when he made a lavabo in the
church of S. Niccolo da Tolentino at Prato and an altarpiece of the
Madonna between S. Domenico and S. Francesco now in the gallery of the
Innocenti Hospital at Florence (Fig. 68).
69. Madonna and Child between two angels (Fig. 69).
In Mr. Walters' collection, Baltimore, may be seen a three-quarter
length figure of the Madonna supporting a nude Christ Child, who stands
upon a cushion, blessing with his right hand and in his left holding a
crown of thorns and two large nails. The Child is here obviously a copy
of Desiderio's Christ Child. The Madonna has a general resemblance to
that of the Morgan altarpiece. The adoring angels, associated with this
Madonna when it belonged to Don Marcello Massarenti, Rome, are crudely
conceived, but exhibit, nevertheless, some resemblance to the flying angels
in the Innocenti altarpiece. This Madonna, with the adoring angels, may
well have decorated a lunette over a door or above an altarpiece.
fo. Bust of the Madonna (Fig fo).
A more accomplished representation of the same wistful Madonna may
be seen in an unglazed bust, also from the Massarenti collection and now in
the possession of Mr. Walters, Baltimore. As in the preceding example, we
see the same prominent forehead, downcast eyes and long nose, but a
more expressive mouth and the characteristic corkscrew curls. The sculp
tor of these Madonnas had a fondness for drawing one end of the scarf
across the Madonna's breast.
fi. Similar bust of the Madonna.
In the collection of Mr. Stanley Mortimer, at Roslyn, there is a replica
of this bust, partially glazed. She wears a light blue scarf, with green

jgg DELLA ROBBIAS IN AMERICA
reverse, drawn across the breast, which 'is. covered with a tunic or robe
of dark blue.
f2. Madonna with Child standing on a pedestal (Fig. fi).
Once again in Mr. Walters' collection do we find a Madonna by this
sculptor. The Madonna, in three-quarter length, holds to the right the
lightly draped Child, who stands on a pedestal. The Child is unglazed,
as is also the Madonna's face, hair, and hands. She wears a white scarf
drawn across the breast, - a blue mantle with :green reverse, and a crude
violet robe: The type of the Madonna differs little from- the preceding
busts.' We may notice the white pedestal on which- the Child stands, a
motive used by Andrea della' Robbia In the lunettes of S. - Maria della
Quercia, Viterbo,'.and of the Cathedral at Pistoia. The type of. the Child
no longer follows Desiderio, but resembles the more independent 'type in"
the altarpiece in the Innocenti Hospital.
7J. The green glased Madonna and Child (Fig. f2).
The Walters' gallery in Baltimore contains still another Madonna, more
or less closely connected '« with the series we have studied— the full-length
standing Madonna carrying the almost nude- Child on'-her* left arm. - This
is a most unusual production inasmuch as it is entirely covered with 'a light
green glaze. I can recall dhly one other example where such an experiment
was tried. In modelling it is not as strong as the examples we have cited.
It is hardly to be assigned to the same sculptor, but to-some assistant, or
more recent copyist, who has caught the mannerism of the corkscrew curls
and who endeavors to produce- the same type of Child.

Figure 67.— Madonna and Saints. Metropolitan Museum, New York.

i ^aVESTOlABaWACHOLOAfATTO / •' f
• FARFMONAfRAMCESCHA DONAFV - '

Figure 68, — Madonna and Saints. Innocenti Hospital, Florence.

Figure 69. — Madonna and Angels. Walters' Collection, Baltimore.

Figure 70, — Maponna. Walters' Collection, Baltimore.

Figure 71. — Madonna, Walters' Collection, Baltimore,

Figure 72. — Madonna. Walters' Collection, Baltimore.

INDEX

Accademia, 144.
Adam, in, 112, 136.
Adoration, 15, 64, 67, 77, 103,
10S, 154-
Agnolo, Via dell', 2, 7.
Alabaster, 120.
Alessandra, 67.
Alessandro, 106.
Alinari, 45, 54, 89, 154, 160.
Altarpiece, 29, 36, 63, 64, 67,
68, 78, 85, 86, in, 112, 115,
119, 120, 127, 128, 136, 144,
153, 160, 167, 168.
Altman, B., 1, 2,^7.
Ambrogio, Fra, della Robbia,
135-
American Journal of Arch
aeology, 7, 15, 78.
Andrea della Robbia, 8, 15,
21, 29, 35, 36, 46, S3, 54,
63, 64, 68, 77, 78, 85, 86, 89,
90, 100, 103, 105, 111, 119,
120,- 128, 135, 136, 143, 153,
154. 159, l60, 167, l68.
Andre, Madame, 21.
Angels, 15, 16, 21, 29, 77,
78,85,90, 99, in, 119, 120,
128, 136, 167.
Ankle, 35, 36.
Antinori, 21, 106, 116.
Antinous, 112.
Antona, 143, 160.
Antonio, 115.
Apple, 7, 8.
Aquila, 85, 86, in.
Arezzo, 29, 36, 54, 67, 78,
85, 86, 89, 128.
Arsoli, 64.
Ashmolean, 77.
¦ Ass, 16, 77, 143, 144.
Assisi, 86.
Assumption, 68, 78, 85, 86,
in.
Ave Maria, 77.
Bache, J. S., 45, 144.
Backgrounds, 29, 36, 46, 64,
103, in, 112, 119, 136, 153,
154.
Baldinucci, 35.
Baldovinetti, 46.

Baltimore, 45, 67, in, 136,
159, 167, 168.
Baluster, 120, 160.
Balustr'ade, 35.
Bambini, 29, 85.
Bandinelli, 112.
Banner, 127.
Baragazza, 63.
Bardini, 25, 35, 36, S3, 103.
Barga, 153, 160.
Bartolomeo, 67.
Bastianini, 25.
Beckerath, A. von, 16, 22.
Belmont, Mrs. O. H. P., 30.
Bench, 25.
Benkard, 64.
Berlin Museum, 8, 25, 45, 63,
86, 89, 103, 136.
Bernardo, 100.
Berwind, E. J., 77, 86, 127,
159.
Bianca, 67.
Bibbiena, 86.
Bird, 21, 35, 45, 135, 136, 159.
Blessing, 30, 36, 159, 167.
Bliss, Mrs. George T., 7, 8,
IS-
Bode, 1, 2, 7, 8, 15, 16, 21,
45, 54, 63, 89, 143, 154, 159,
160.
Bolsena, 160.
Bonaventure, E. F, 120.
Borgo S. Sepolcro, 86, 103.
Boston, 36, 46, 85, 116, 119,
120, 128, 144, 153.
Boston, Museum of Fine
Arts, 15, 46, 85, 116.
Bouquets, 127, 128.
Boy, 89, 90.
Bradley, E., 135, 143.
Braunschweig, 136.
Brogi, 46, 154.
Bronze, 2, 25, 89.
Brooklyn, 106, in, 136.
Brooklyn Institute, Museum,
106.
Buggiano^ 99.
Buglioni, B., 135, 143, 153,
160.
Buglioni, S., 135.

Buondelmonti, 67, 89, 115,
116.
Bust, 25, 89, 106, 120, 153,
167, 168.
Byzantine, 7.
Calvary, 120.
Camaldoli, 54.
Campana, 25.
Campanile, 7.
Campo Santo, 36, 112.
Candelabrum, 128, 160.
Canessa, 36.
Canigiani, 45.
Careggi, Villa, 90.
Carocci, 21, 63.
Carotti (Archivio Storico
dell'Arte), 100.
Casa Castracane, 154,
Castellani, 90.
Catarina, 160.
Cavallucci and Molinier, 25,
S3, 136, 154-
Cave, 86.
Ceiling, 99.
Ceppo, III, 143.
Cerchi, 53.
Certosa, 112, 116, 127.
Chair, 29, 35, 36, 45, 54, 63.
Cherub, 29, 30, 35, 36, 45, 53,
54, 63, 67, 68, 77, 78, 85, 86,
144.
Chess-rooks, 103.
Chicago, 68, 99.
Child, 1, 2, 7, 8, 16, 21, 22,
30, 35, 36, 45, 46, 53, 54, 63,
64, 77, 78, 105, 127, 135,
136, 143, 144, 153, 154, 159,
167, 168.
Chin, 2.
Christ, in, 116, 119, 120, 128,
136, 153, 154, 167.
Ciborium, 90, 99.
Cincinnati, 144, 153, 154.
Cintola, 68.
Citta di Castello, 54, 63, 90,
153-
Clarke, T. S., 128. ¦
Clouds, 29, 35, 53, 54, 63, 68,
77, in, 119, 136, 167.
Cluny Museum, 2, 67, 153.

INDEX

Coat of Arms, 15, 77, 100,
US-
Coffering, 99.
Colombali, 106.
Colour, 25.
Composition, 8, 21, 22, 36,
45, 53, 54, 63, 64, 77, 7«,
85, 119, 120, 143.
Cord, 2.
Coronation, 67, 68, 85.
Cortona, 99.
Crib, 16, 143.
Cross, 78, 119, 120.
Crown, 68, 167.
Cruttwell, 2, 15, 46, 89, 116,
"9,. 159-
Curtain, 99.
Cushion, 22, 53, 54, 63, 64,
154, 167-
Cutigliano, 160.
David, 89.
Dei, 100, 103.
Desiderio, 25, 99, 154, 159.
160, 167, 168.
Dolor, 119.
Dolphin, 89, 90.
Dolphin handled vases, 112,
127, 128.
Donaldson, 35.
Dove, 35, S3, 54, 63, 64, 68,
77, 90, 144, 153-
Draped, 8, 36, 168.
Drapery, 21, 25, 45, 106.
Dreyfus, G., 45.
Durer, 112.
Dutuit, S3-
Empoli, US, 160, 167.
Enamel, 25, 103.
Endicott, W. C, Jr., 36.
Eve, 112, 136.
Eyebrows, 30, 78, 89.
Eyes, 2, 8, 22, 25, 78, 85, 89,
116, 167.
Faenza, 154.
Father, 30, 64, 68, 77, 86.
90, 99-
Family, Holy, 144.
Ferroni, 36, 78.
Fiesole, 89, 112.
Filippo, 116.
Fingers, 21.
Florence, 1, 21, 25, 29, 35, 45,
46, S3, 54, 64, 68, 86, 90,
103, 106, in, 112, 119, 120,
143, 153, 154, iS9, 167.
Flowers, 29, 120, 135, 144,
159-
Foiano, 29, 85, 86.
Fonticine, 112.
Foot, 54, 63. .
Foulc collection, 15, 45.
Frame, 112, 120, 128, 136,
144, 159, 160.
Frankfurt, 64.
Frescobaldi, 100, 103.
Fruit, 29, 30, 45, 54, 67, 89,
106, 112,, 120, 127, 128, 135,
144, 159.

Galatrona, 127.
Gardner, Mrs. John L., 25,
90, 99, H9-
Garland, 29, 36, 67, 77, 89,
90, 100, 106, 153, 159-
Gavet, E., 7, 30, 78, 86, 90,
127, 154-
Genoa, 16.
Ghiberti, 7.
Gilding, 15, 136.
Giovanni della Robbia, 35,
36, S3, 54, 63, 77, 89, 105,
106, in, 112, 115, 116, H9,
120, 127, 128, 13S, 136, 143,
159, 160, 167.
Girdle, 15, 3°, 63, 68.
Glaze, 25, 78, 106, 116, 127,
128.
Gloria in excelsis, 15, 64,
67, 68, 144.
Godrons, 127, 128.
Goldschmidt, 135.
Golgotha, 119.
Gothic, 7, 8.
Gould, Charles W., 25.
Green glaze, 168.
Guildford, 136.
Hainauer, 154.
Hair, 8, 22, 64.
Halo, 21, 30, 64, 78, in, 144.
Hamburg, 54.
Hand, 64, 106.
Hay, 68, 77, 144-
Head, 21, 78, 86, 89, 116, 120,
153-
Homo, 112.
Host, Sacred, 90, 99.
Hoyt, Mrs. E. C, 90.
Hunt, Mrs. Holman, 22.
Immaculate Conception, 160.
Impruneta, 1, 2, 15, 16, 90.
Ingressus, 112.
Inndcenti Hospital, 2, 29, 85,
167, 168.
Ionic, 30.
Iris, 30, 78, 85, 89.
Jamaica Plain, 8, 22, 35.
Jerusalem, 119.
Johnson, John G., 25.
Kahn, Otto H., 16.
Kerchief, 2, 22.
Kneeling, 105.
Knees, 63, 64, 105, 119.
Krefeld, 16.
Lamentation, 119, 120, 128.
Lamporecchio, in.
Landscape, 78, in, 112, 119,
120, 143, 144, 159.
Lanna, 159'.
Lari, 35, 36.
Last Judgment, 112, 128.
Laurel, 103.
Lavabo, 54, 100, 105, 106, 128,
159, 167.
Leaf and dart,'. 112.
Legnaia, 21.
Lelong, in.
Leo, Fra, 153.

Leo X, 112, H5, no-
Liechtenstein, 22, 36, 53, »9-
Lilies, 22, 154, 159-
Loggia di S. Paolo, 106.
London, 22, 35, 68.
Lorenzo, 67, 90.
Louvre, 35, 46, 86, 154-
Luca della Robbia, 1, 2, 7,
8, 15, 16, 21, 22, 25, 29, .36,
53, 77, 85, 89, 90, 100, 103,
IS9-
Luca di Andrea, 135.
Lucca, 45.
Lucrezia, 115.
Lunette, 1, 2, 7, 16, 21, 29,
46, 54, 63, 67, 90, ios, 106,
m, 119, 127, 136, 143, 159,
168.
Lux Mundi, 2.
Lydig, P. M., 127, 135, 136,
143, 159-
Maddalena, 119, 120.
Madonna, 1, 2, 7, 8, 16, 21,
22, 25, 29, 30, 35, 36, 45, 46,
53, 54, 63, 64, 67, 77, 78, 85,
86, 103, ios, 106, 119, 120,
127, 13S, 136, 143, 154, 159,
160, 167, 168.
Majano, Benedetto da, 135,
154, 159, 160.
Mandorla, 85, 86.
Mantle, 7, 8, 15, 30, 45, 78,
105, 144, 168.
Marcantonio, 112.
Marquand, Henry G., 7, 89,
90.
Massa Carrara, 143.
Massarenti, Marcello, 167.
Mattia, Fra, della Robbia,
135-
Mazzarosa, 45.
Mazzini, N., 143.
Medallion, 7, 53, 54, 64, 77,
89, 100, 103, 112, 127, 135,
136, 143, 144, 153, 159, 160.
Medici, 46, 68, 115.
Messina, 45.
Metropolitan Museum, 78,
86, 89, 105, 153, 154, 160.
Mino da Fiesole, 99.
Minturn, R. S., 63.
Misericordia, 86.
Molinier, 136.
Monache, 153.
Monk, 25, 153.
Montaione, 153.
Monte Oliveto, 167.
Montepulciano, 29, 86.
Montevarchi, 86.
Morgan, J. P., 16, 25.
Morgan, J. S., 160, 167.
Mortimer, Stanley, 77, 100,
103, 127, 167.
Mouth, 2, 7, 22.
Miinchener Jahrbuch, 8.
Museo Industriale, 68.
21, 45, 53, 54, 64, 68, 99,
105, 119, 153, 154, 159.

INDEX

Museum f. Kunst, 54.
Museo Nazionale, 1, 7, 8, 16,
Museum of Fine Arts, 15,
46, 85, 116.
Nails, 167.
Naples, 167.
Nativity, 15, 16, 64, 67, 77,
86, 143, 144-
Neck, 21, 35, 36.
Nevin, Dr., 119.
Newport, 30, 77, 86, 127.
New York, 7, 16, 36, 45, 54,
63, 77, 78, 90, ios, n6, 120,
127, 128, 13s, 136, 144, 153,
IS9',
Niccolo, 106.
Niche, 7, 8, 15, 46.
Nobili, 1.
Nose, 2, 22, 167.
Nuccarello, 160.
Nude, 8, 21, 35, 36, 45, 46,
53, 63, 106, 127, 159, 167.
Ognissanti, 143.
Oil, Holy, 90.
Oleum, 90.
Opera del Duomo, 1, 15, 46.
Or San Michele, 1.
Osservanza, 68, 85.
Ox, 16, 77, 143, 144-
Oxford, 77.
Palazzo Bianco, 16.
Palazzo Pretorio, 89, 100,
ii5-
Palazzo Riccardi, 67.
Palazzo Vecchio, 115.
Palermo, 54, 68.
Panis vivus, 90.
Paris, 7, 21, 30, 45, 53, 78,
86, 89, 90, in, 127, 153,
154-
Pazzi, I, 2, 67, 100.
Pedestal, 46, 168.
Peretola, 1.
Perkins, C. C, 46, 120.
Perkins, Mrs. Olcott, 116.
Perugia, 154.
Pescia, 1, 53-
Petit Palais, 53-
Philadelphia, 25.
Piazza dell' Unita Italiana,
46.
Pieta, 105, 119.
Filaster, 112, 160.
Pillow, 78.
Pinacoteca, 63.
Piombino, 78.
Pisa, in, 112, 160.
Pistoia, 15, 63, 67, in, 143,
160, 168.
Plaque, 86.
Polychromatic, 22, 45, 86,
in, 128, 144.
Polychromy, 105.
Pomo, 112.
Poppi, 153, 160.
Porrena, 160.

Porphyry, 85, 99.
Portogallo chapel, 16, 159.
Prague, 45, 159.
Prato, 29, 46, 67, 100, 160,
167.
Predella, 86, 112, 119, 120,
153, 160.
Presepio, 105.
Prime, W. C, 53.
Princeton, 53.
Prior, 115, 116.
Priori, 77.
Prudence, 16.
Pugliese, F. del, 77.
Pulci, 112, 127.
Putti, 90.
Quercia, S. Maria della, 15,
21, 136, 168.
Rene d'Anjou, 100.
Repetti, 35.
Replica, 35, 53, 64, 68, 90,
167.
Resurrection, 106, in, 116,
143.
Reymond, 2, 7, 15, 46, 63, 67,
68, 89, 100, 116, 153, 159-
Ribs, 7, 8.
Richardson, Mrs. T. O., 85.
Rickmansworth, 35.
Rignano, 144.
Robinson, 25.
Robbia, see Fra Ambrogio
della Robbia, Andrea della
Robbia, Giovanni della
Robbia, Luca della Robbia,
Luca di Andrea della Rob
bia, Fra Mattia della Rob
bia.
Rome, 36, 68, 78, 89, 119.
Rope ornament, 112.
Rose, Le, 106.
Roses, 25.
Rosette, 30, 99.
Roslyn, 77, 100, 127, 167.
Rossellino, 135, 153, 154, 159,
167.
Rossi, 106.
Round-headed, 68, 77, 116,
120, 135.
Rovezzano, 22.
Rudolfinum, 45.
Ryerson, M. A., 68, 77, 99.
Saints, 78, 85, 86, 119, 127,
167.
Salviati, 100, 115, 116.
Samaritan, 116.
S. Andrea, 22.
S. Ansano, 89, 116.
S. Benedetto, 103.
S. Bernadino, 78, 85, in.
S. Bonanentura, 78.
S. Casciano, 53, 160.
S. Chiara, 86.
S. Croce, 68, 112, 127.
S. Domen-ico, 2, 106, 167.
S. Donato, 53, 78.

S. Egidio, 21, 35.
S. Fiora, 86, 160.
S. Francesco, 78, 85, 106,
143, 154, 167.
S. Gaetano, 29, 30, 35.
S. Gimignano, 143.
S. Giobbe, 1.
S. Giovanni, 119.
S. Giovanni in Valdarno, 89,
100, in, 115, 116.
S. Giovannino, 53, 78, 127,
143, 144, 153.
S. Girolamo, 112, 160.
S. Giuseppe, 15, 16, 143, 144,
153.
S. Jacopo Maggiore, 116.
S. Jacopo Minore, 2.
S. Jacopo di Ripoli, 127.
S. Lorenzo, 86, 167.
S. Maria delle Grazie, 67.
S. Maria Novella, 54, 105,
106, 128, 159, 160.
S. Maria Nuova, 29, 35, 53.
S. Maria della Palma, 77.
S. Maria della Scala, 45.
S. Miniato, 1, 16, 159.
S. Niccolo di Bari, 160.
S. Niccolo in Gurgo, 68.
S. Niccolo da Tolentino, 100,
167.
S. Sepolcro, 160.
S. Stefano, m.
S. Stefano a Campoli, 53.
S. Trinita, 1,
S. Veronica, 120.
S. Vivaldo, 153.
SS. Apostoli, 90, 99.
Sansovino, 112.
Sarcophagus, 85, 11 1, 160.
Sarto, Andrea del, 112.
Scala, Via della, 46, 127.
Scale pattern, 127, 128.
Scarf, 167, 168.
Schiff, M. L., 77.
School of Andrea, 77.
Schubring, 2, 15, 21, 25, 54,
63, 153, 159-
Scroll, 1, 2, 7, 68.
Seated, 22, 30, 36, 45, 53, 54,
63, 159-
Secmula, 112, 115.
Segni, 35.
Seminario, 89, 112.
Sepulchre, 119.
Serristori, 100.
Sevres, 45.
Shaw, Mrs. Quincy A., 8,
15, 22, 35.
Siena, 29, 68, 85, 86.
Simon, Eduard, 8, 22.
Simonetti, 89.
Smith, J. L., 128.
Solarolo, 154.
Soldiers, in.
Spirit, Holy, 30, 68, 99.
Soitzer, 89.
Stable, 86, 133, 144.

INDEX

Staedel Inst., 64.
Standing, 21, 35, 36, 45, 46,
63, 154, 168.
Statue,. 29.
Statuette, 89, 90, 105, in,
120, 127, 128.
Stemma, 89, 100, 106, 115.
Stia, 21, 54.
Stroganoff, G, 89.
Strozzi, 25, 67, 160.
Swaddling, 30, 35.
Tabernacle, 99, 105, 112, 167.
Taft, C. P., 144, 153, 154, 159.
Tassels, 63.
Temperance, 2, in, 112.
Thorns, 167.
Tondo, 45, 53, 63, 64, 136.
Trinity, 36, 90.
Turban, 22.
University Museum, 154.

Untermyer, S., 77.
Urbino, 1, 2.
Valdarno, 89, 100, in, 115.
Vanderbilt, Mrs. C, 54, 105.
Vasari, 1, 85, 115.
Vase, 120, 127, 128.
Vaulted, 99.
Veil, 7, 22, 45, 53, 54, 64, 77,
90, 105, 106.
Venice, 1.
Venturi, 7.
Venus, 112.
Verde antico, 99.
Verna, La, 29, 64, 67, 68, 85,
119, 120, 127, 154.
Verrocchio, 90, 105, 127.
Via della Scala, 46, 127.
Via Nazionale, 105, 112.
Vicario, 89, 115.

Victoria and Albert Mus
eum, 22, 25, 35, 45, 68, 103.
Vienna, 8, 22, 36, 53, 89.
Vieweg, 136.
Virgin, 16, 22, 30, 78, 85, 144,
153.
Viterbo, 15, 54, 168.
Volterra, 112, 128.
Wafer, 99.
Walters, Henry, 45, 67, 68,
100, in, 159, 167, 168.
Ward, Samuel G., 36.
Ward, Thos. W., 36.
Washington, 36, 143.
Watt's Collection, 136.
Worcester Art Museum,
116.
Wreath, 100.
Yonkers, 77.
Zeitschrift, 16, 21.

3 9002 00906 6110

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