whom the design of the figures was probably taken, is the washing-fountain in the sacristy of S. Maria Novella at Florence, made in 1497.[1] It is a large arched recess with a view of the seashore, not very decorative in style, painted on majolica tiles at the back. There are also two very beautiful painted majolica panels of fruit-trees let into the lower part. In the tympanum of the arch is a very lovely white relief of the Madonna between two Adoring Angels (see fig. 3). Long coloured garlands of fruit and flowers are held by nude boys reclining on the top of the arch and others standing on the cornice. All this part is of enamelled clay, but the basin of the fountain is of white marble. Neither Luca nor Andrea was in the habit of signing his work, but Giovanni often did so, usually adding the date, probably because other potters had begun to imitate the Robbia ware.[2]
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| Fig. 3.—Relief of Madonna and Angels in the tympanum of the lavabo (S. Maria Novella, Florence), by Giovanni. |
Giovanni lacked the original talent of Luca and Andrea, and so he not only copied their work but even reproduced in clay the marble sculpture of Pollaiuolo, Da Settignano, Verrocchio and others. A relief by him, evidently taken from Mino da Fiesole, exists in the Palazzo Castracane Staccoli. Among the very numerous other works of Giovanni are a relief in the wall of a suppressed convent in the Via Nazionale at Florence, and two reliefs in the Bargello dated 1521 and 1522. That dated 1521 is a many-coloured relief of the Nativity, and was taken from the church of S. Girolamo in Florence; it is a too pictorial work, marred by the use of many different planes. Its predella has a small relief of the Adoration of the Magi, and is inscribed “Hoc opus fecit Ioaes Andee de Robia, ac a posuit hoc in tempore die ultima lulli ANO. DNI. M.D. XXI.” At Pisa in the Campo Santo is a relief in Giovanni’s later and poorer manner dated 1520; it is a Madonna surrounded by angels, with saints below—the whole overcrowded with figures and ornaments. Giovanni’s largest and perhaps finest work is the polychromatic frieze on the outside of the Del Ceppo hospital at Pistoia, for which he received various sums of money between 1525 and 1529, as is recorded in documents which still exist among the archives of the hospital.[3] The subjects of this frieze are the Seven Works of Mercy, forming a continuous band of sculpture in high relief, well modelled and designed in a very broad sculpturesque way, but disfigured by the crudeness of some of its colouring. Six of these reliefs are by Giovanni, namely, Clothing the Naked, Washing the Feet of Pilgrims, Visiting the Sick, Visiting Prisoners, Burying the Dead, and Feeding the Hungry. The seventh, Giving drink to the Thirsty, was made by Filippo Paladini of Pistoia in 1585; this last is simply made of painted stucco. The large figures of the virtues placed between the scenes, and the medallions between the pillars, are the work of assistants or imitators.
A large octagonal font of enamelled clay, with pilasters at the angles and panels between them with scenes from the life of the Baptist, in the church of S. Leonardo at Cerreto Guidi, is a work of the school of Giovanni; the reliefs are pictorial in style and coarse in execution. Giovanni’s chief pupil was a man named Benedetto Buglioni (1461–1521), and a pupil of his, one Santi Buglioni (b. 1494), entered the Robbia workshops in 1521, and assisted in the later works of Giovanni.
VII. Girolamo della Robbia (1488–1566), another of Andrea’s sons, was an architect and a sculptor in marble and bronze as well as in enamelled clay. During the first part of his life he, like his brothers, worked with his father, but in 1528 he went to France and spent nearly forty years in the service of the French Royal family. Francis I. employed him to build a palace in the Bois de Boulogne called the Château de Madrid. This was a large well-designed building, four storeys high, two of them having open loggie in the Italian fashion. Girolamo decorated it richly with terra-cotta medallions, friezes and other architectural features.[4] For this purpose he set up kilns at Suresnes. Though the palace itself has been destroyed, drawings of it exist.[5]
The best collections of Robbia ware are in the Florentine Bargello, Accademia and Museo del Duomo; the Victoria and Albert Museum (the finest out of Italy); the Louvre, the Cluny and the Berlin Museums; while fine examples are to be found in New York, Boston, St Petersburg and Vienna. Many fine specimens exist in private collections in England, France, Germany and the United States. The greater part of the Robbia work still remains in the churches and other buildings of Italy, especially in Florence, Fiesole, Arezzo, La Verna, Volterra, Barga, Montepulciano, Lucca, Pistoia, Prato and Siena.
Literature.—H. Barbet de Jouy, Les della Robbia (Paris, 1855); W. Bode, Die Künstlerfamilie della Robbia (Leipzig, 1878); “Luca della Robbia ed i suoi precursori in Firenze,” Arch. stor. dell’ arte (1899); “Über Luca della Robbia,” Sitzungsbericht von der Berliner kunstgeschichtlichen Gesellschaft (1896); Florentiner Bildhauer der Renaissance (Berlin, 1902); G. Carocci, I Dintorni de Firenze (Florence, 1881); “Il Monumento di Benozzo Federighi,” Arte e Storia (1894); “Opere Robbiane poco noti,” Arte e storia (1898, 1899); Cavallucci et Molinier, Les della Robbia (Paris, 1884); Maud Crutwell, Luca and Andrea della Robbia and their Successors (London, 1902); A. du Cerceau, Les plus excellents bastiments de France (Paris, 1586); G. Milanesi, Le Vite scritte da Vasari (Florence, 1878); M. Reymond, Les della Robbia (Florence, 1897); La Sculpture Florentine (Florence, 1898); I. B. Supino, Catalogo del R. Museo di Firenze (Rome 1898); Vasari (see Milanesi’s edition). (J. H. M.; W. B.*)
DELMEDIGO, a Cretan Jewish family, of whom the following
are the most important:
Elijah Delmedigo (1460–1497), philosopher, taught in several Italian centres of learning. He translated some of Averroes’ commentaries into Latin at the instigation of Pico di Mirandola. In the sphere of religion, Delmedigo represents the tendency to depart from the scholastic attitude in which religion and philosophy were identified. His most important work was devoted to this end; it was entitled Behinath ha-Dath (Investigation of Religion).
Joseph Solomon Delmedigo (1591–1655), pupil of Galileo, wrote many books on science and philosophy, and bore a considerable part in initiating the critical movement in Judaism. He belonged to the sceptical school, and though his positive contributions to literature were not of lasting worth, Graetz includes him among the important formative influences within the synagogue of the 17th century. (I. A.)
- ↑ See a document printed by Milanesi in his Vasari, ii. 193.
- ↑ Examples of these imitations are a retable in S. Lucchese near Poggibonsi dated 1514, another of the Madonna and Saints at Monte San Savino of 1525, and a third in the Capuchin church of Arceria near Sinigaglia; they are all inferior to the best works of the Robbia family, though some of them may have been made by assistants trained in the Robbia workshops.
- ↑ The hospital itself was begun in 1514.
- ↑ The Sèvres Museum possesses some fragments of these decorations.
- ↑ See Laborde, Château de Madrid (Paris, 1853), and Comptes des bâtiments du roi (Paris, 1877–1880), in which a full account is given of Girolamo’s work in connexion with this palace.
