few works he did produce obtained him the name of a good sculptor, and as he was a citizen of Florence, he was also entrusted with many public offices in his native city: in these, as in all other matters, Nanni comported himself after the manner of a just and prudent man, and was therefore much beloved. He died of pleurisy in 1430, and in the forty-seventh year of his age.[1]
THE FLORENTINE SCULPTOR LUCA DELLA ROBBIA.
[born 1400—died 1481.]
The Florentine sculptor, Luca della Robbia, was born in the year 1388,[2] in the house of his forefathers, which is situated near the church of San Barnaba, in Florence.[3] He was there carefully reared and educated until he could not only read and write, but, according to the custom of most Florentines, had learned to cast accounts so far as he was likely to require them. Afterwards he was placed by his father to learn the art of the goldsmith with Leonardo di Ser Giovanni, who was then held to be the best master in Florence for that vocation. Luca therefore having learned to draw and to model in wax, from this Leonardo, found his confidence increase/ and set himself to attempt certain works in marble and bronze. In these also he succeeded tolerably well, and this caused him altogether to abandon his trade of a goldsmith and give him-
- ↑ In the first edition, is added, “And was honourably entombed in
the church of Santa Croce”, with the following epitaph:—
“Sculptor eram excellens Claris natalibus ortus
Me prohibit de me dicere plura pudor.” - ↑ Documents relating to the property of the family, enable us to correct the error of Vasari in respect to the year of Luca della Robbia’s birth. From these it results that he was born in 1400. See Gaye, Carteggio Inedito, etc., vol. i, p. 182-186.— Ed. Flor. 1846-9.
- ↑ The house inhabited by the Della Robbia family, and where Luca was born, was in the Via Sant’Egidio. The street in which the family afterwards dwelt (Via Guelfa) is still called the Via dei Robbia. —Ibid.
elegant than those known to be by Nanni usually are, as well as by the fact that Baldinucci found no mention of this performance in a manuscript of the Strozzi collection, wherein the works of Nanni are enumerated.—Ibid.
