ANST - Terracotta Sculpture

[D. R. Hoffpauir]

"Nathan W. Jones" wrote:

> Has anyone seen, heard of, or read anything about terracotta
> sculpture in our period, or plaster sculpture?  Surely they
> must have done it.  And, by sculpture, I mean 'art for art's
> sake', not necessisarily tilework, functional pottery or such.

Good day,

    It's been just long enough since my Art History days to be foggy, but I
recall there was just this sort of work shop in Florence in the 15th century.
Founded by Luca della Robbia, it specialized in religious terra-cotta bas-relief
used as architectural decorative elements.  The workshop remained active into
the 16th century and was passed down through the family.  Most notable was
Andrea della Robbia, a nephew, who specialized in narrative sculpture done both
in marble and ceramic.  Andrea's sons, Giovanni, Girolamo, Luca the Younger, and
Ambrogio, also became terra-cotta sculptors.

    Most of their work is religious or funerary, but they also did terra-cotta
portrait.  The 'Tondo Portrait of a Lady' is one example and it hints at your
question about middle-class art, though I'd imagine 'the Lady' is not
middle-class.  Andrea also did the medallions on the Foundling Hospital in
Florence which show simple 'bambini' forms on a blue background.

    Typical of all their work is bas-relief terra-cotta and I know that the
della Robbia work shop was sort of the Renaissance spring-board that led to
decorative use of plaster and terra-cotta in the barouque.  I'll have to dig a
little deeper to see what precursored Luca della Robbia.

    You may also look into the origins of guilded statuary and painting frames.
Much of the barouque 'gold-leaf' statuary and painting frames were plaster.

> But, (again, just a guess) surely by the time of the Renaissance
> there was enough of a middle class to support a cheap decorative
> art.  Especially in cities where it was hard enough keeping up
> with the 'Medici's'.  I refuse to believe that all sculpture in
> our period was either done in stone or cast metal.

Note here:  Donatello's 'The Penitent Magdalene' was done in wood with gold
leaf.  He and the della Robbia's were contemporaries from Florence and likely
would have known something of each other's methods.

'The Penitent Magdalene' can be seen at:  http://www.artchive.com/ftp_site.htm
(under Donatello)

>
> thanks,
>
> Gio
> Northkeep
> Ansteorra

Hope this helps,
David St. David, Raven's Fort

these web sites are in Italian but they've got photos
http://www.ocaiw.com/dellarob.htm
http://www.thais.it/scultura/scultura.htm

You can also see reproductions of the della Robbia's work in the 'Design
Toscano' catalog (just in case you'd like to buy one).

dsd

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