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拍品專文
ICONS OF THE RENAISSANCE AND THE END OF A DYNASTY
By the time Giovanni della Robbia joined the workshop of his father, Andrea della Robbia, their dazzlingly colorful and technically brilliant glazed terracottas were being demanded by the most sophisticated collectors throughout Europe. The Della Robbia workshops, as much as the contemporary Florentine architects and painters of the period, still today remain as icons of the Italian Renaissance, The original studio, founded by Giovanni’s great-uncle Luca, had grown into one of the most innovative and influential productions of the Renaissance. Not only were many of the most important Florentine and Italian buildings being proudly decorated by the Della Robbia workshop, orders were coming from the wealthy and titled connoisseurs throughout Europe. Luca della Robbia (1400-1482), who had popularized the hardy glazed terracotta technique, which had been immediately recognized and celebrated, had been succeeded by his nephew Andrea della Robbia (1435-1525) who then was able to raise the profile and production of the workshop to new heights. Andrea, who continued to work until his death in 1525, was in turn succeeded by his son Giovanni as, even though Giovanni had four brothers, most of their work was abroad for foreign courts and clients. Both Luca and Andrea lived long lives and were prolific in their production yet Giovanni, as the Florentine representative of the third generation, only outlived his father by four years. According to Vasari, three of Giovanni’s five sons, Marco, Lucantonio and Simone, worked in the shop (M. Cambareri, op. cit., p.146). Yet this fourth generation of the Della Robbia family was decimated when all three died in the mid-1520s, probably during the plague that ravaged the city of Florence. And this tragedy effectively ended the future of the Florentine Della Robbia workshops. Girolamo, Giovanni’s brother who had moved to France in 1517 to establish a studio there and work on the decoration of the château de Fontainebleau died in Paris in 1566. Two years later, in his updated Lives of the Artists Vasari lamented of Girolamo that ‘not only did his house die out and his family become extinct, but art was deprived of the knowledge of the proper method of glazing.’ They were envied and imitated, but the Della Robbia were never equaled.
So the present Bust of a Youth by Giovanni della Robbia represents the last generation of this creative and technically brilliant family.
TERRACOTTA ‘PAINTINGS’
Gentilini describes Giovanni as ‘…probably the most prolific and inventive of the sons [of Andrea]…’ (Gentilini, op. cit., p. 279). In addition to increased competition (the famous secret family recipe of the Della Robbia glazes had been revealed to the Buglioni family), Giovanni also faced changes in contemporary taste that necessitated adapting the designs of his father and great-uncle that had been so successful for decades. In the early 16th century there were important new developments in Florentine painting, probably linked to the return of Leonardo da Vinci to the city in 1500, and Gentilini emphasizes how much Giovanni’s elaborate, almost wild, garlands were ‘Leonardesque’ (Gentilini, ibid., p. 281). Giovanni managed to develop a stylistic vocabulary that rivaled contemporary paintings and frescoes as some of his glazed terracottas show sophisticated landscape surrounds and a greater attention to narrative details. One example is his early work, circa 1498, of the lavabo for the church of Santa Maria Novella in Florence and another, later, example is the lunette of Saint Donatus Purifies a Well, of the 1520’s. These new efforts tried to create more dramatic and naturalistic effects and aimed to compete with contemporary paintings. There was also a deeper exploration of the expressive potential of the glazes, with colors now being used in a much wider range, as the Della Robbia’s, by Giovanni’s time, had now been refining their techniques for two generations. And Giovanni’s frames, with their exuberant and original decoration, were particularly successful in illustrating these new efforts. Giovanni was so interested in these naturalistic frames, in fact, that he eventually even made them leap off the walls and become entirely three-dimensional, as can be seen in Basket of Fruit in the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston.
GIOVANNI DELLA ROBBIA AND ANTIQUITY
The present Bust of a Youth relates closely to Giovanni’s work at the monastery of Galluzzo, a hilltop complex just south of Florence. In particular, the series of over sixty circular reliefs with busts of old testament figures, apostles and female saints made for the spandrels of the arcade around the Large Cloister and commissioned in 1523 by one of Giovanni’s great patrons, Leonardo Buonafede. These busts at Galluzzo all project outwards with a dramatic visual forcefulness – as if emerging from between the arches to try and join the fully three-dimensional world. The present Bust of a Youth has the same sense of energy as it directly engages the viewer. The boy’s head – visible almost entirely in the round -- can no longer be counted as a relief, but as pure sculpture. The Galluzzo busts are, in general, more complex compositions often including additional smaller figures and attributes within each roundel, but they also are set into severe stone frames. So, while the present Bust of a Youth is a simpler composition, it does include the richly decorated frame. As is noted by Cambareri, these classically-inspired heads set into roundels recall the ancient commemorative type of the imago clipeata deriving from the Latin for portraits on round shields frequently carved on Roman sarcophagi and, like in the present Bust of a Youth, they are encircled by the celebratory garlands of naturalistic fruits and flowers (Cambereri, op. cit., p. 82). The large and prestigious commission of busts for Galluzzo clearly inspired demand for similar pieces from the Della Robbia workshops. The present Bust of a Youth is probably one such commission and, as it is secular in subject matter, it would almost certainly have decorated a private house. Clearly meant to evoke a classical Greek or Roman bust, the Bust of a Youth would have been used by a contemporary Renaissance prince of the blood or, more likely, a prince of commerce, to convey a direct link to antiquity and, specifically, noble and ancient antecedents.
Please note the present lot is accompanied by a thermoluminescence test from Oxford Authentication dated 12 September 2017 stating the relief and the frame were fired between 400 to 700 years ago.
By the time Giovanni della Robbia joined the workshop of his father, Andrea della Robbia, their dazzlingly colorful and technically brilliant glazed terracottas were being demanded by the most sophisticated collectors throughout Europe. The Della Robbia workshops, as much as the contemporary Florentine architects and painters of the period, still today remain as icons of the Italian Renaissance, The original studio, founded by Giovanni’s great-uncle Luca, had grown into one of the most innovative and influential productions of the Renaissance. Not only were many of the most important Florentine and Italian buildings being proudly decorated by the Della Robbia workshop, orders were coming from the wealthy and titled connoisseurs throughout Europe. Luca della Robbia (1400-1482), who had popularized the hardy glazed terracotta technique, which had been immediately recognized and celebrated, had been succeeded by his nephew Andrea della Robbia (1435-1525) who then was able to raise the profile and production of the workshop to new heights. Andrea, who continued to work until his death in 1525, was in turn succeeded by his son Giovanni as, even though Giovanni had four brothers, most of their work was abroad for foreign courts and clients. Both Luca and Andrea lived long lives and were prolific in their production yet Giovanni, as the Florentine representative of the third generation, only outlived his father by four years. According to Vasari, three of Giovanni’s five sons, Marco, Lucantonio and Simone, worked in the shop (M. Cambareri, op. cit., p.146). Yet this fourth generation of the Della Robbia family was decimated when all three died in the mid-1520s, probably during the plague that ravaged the city of Florence. And this tragedy effectively ended the future of the Florentine Della Robbia workshops. Girolamo, Giovanni’s brother who had moved to France in 1517 to establish a studio there and work on the decoration of the château de Fontainebleau died in Paris in 1566. Two years later, in his updated Lives of the Artists Vasari lamented of Girolamo that ‘not only did his house die out and his family become extinct, but art was deprived of the knowledge of the proper method of glazing.’ They were envied and imitated, but the Della Robbia were never equaled.
So the present Bust of a Youth by Giovanni della Robbia represents the last generation of this creative and technically brilliant family.
TERRACOTTA ‘PAINTINGS’
Gentilini describes Giovanni as ‘…probably the most prolific and inventive of the sons [of Andrea]…’ (Gentilini, op. cit., p. 279). In addition to increased competition (the famous secret family recipe of the Della Robbia glazes had been revealed to the Buglioni family), Giovanni also faced changes in contemporary taste that necessitated adapting the designs of his father and great-uncle that had been so successful for decades. In the early 16th century there were important new developments in Florentine painting, probably linked to the return of Leonardo da Vinci to the city in 1500, and Gentilini emphasizes how much Giovanni’s elaborate, almost wild, garlands were ‘Leonardesque’ (Gentilini, ibid., p. 281). Giovanni managed to develop a stylistic vocabulary that rivaled contemporary paintings and frescoes as some of his glazed terracottas show sophisticated landscape surrounds and a greater attention to narrative details. One example is his early work, circa 1498, of the lavabo for the church of Santa Maria Novella in Florence and another, later, example is the lunette of Saint Donatus Purifies a Well, of the 1520’s. These new efforts tried to create more dramatic and naturalistic effects and aimed to compete with contemporary paintings. There was also a deeper exploration of the expressive potential of the glazes, with colors now being used in a much wider range, as the Della Robbia’s, by Giovanni’s time, had now been refining their techniques for two generations. And Giovanni’s frames, with their exuberant and original decoration, were particularly successful in illustrating these new efforts. Giovanni was so interested in these naturalistic frames, in fact, that he eventually even made them leap off the walls and become entirely three-dimensional, as can be seen in Basket of Fruit in the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston.
GIOVANNI DELLA ROBBIA AND ANTIQUITY
The present Bust of a Youth relates closely to Giovanni’s work at the monastery of Galluzzo, a hilltop complex just south of Florence. In particular, the series of over sixty circular reliefs with busts of old testament figures, apostles and female saints made for the spandrels of the arcade around the Large Cloister and commissioned in 1523 by one of Giovanni’s great patrons, Leonardo Buonafede. These busts at Galluzzo all project outwards with a dramatic visual forcefulness – as if emerging from between the arches to try and join the fully three-dimensional world. The present Bust of a Youth has the same sense of energy as it directly engages the viewer. The boy’s head – visible almost entirely in the round -- can no longer be counted as a relief, but as pure sculpture. The Galluzzo busts are, in general, more complex compositions often including additional smaller figures and attributes within each roundel, but they also are set into severe stone frames. So, while the present Bust of a Youth is a simpler composition, it does include the richly decorated frame. As is noted by Cambareri, these classically-inspired heads set into roundels recall the ancient commemorative type of the imago clipeata deriving from the Latin for portraits on round shields frequently carved on Roman sarcophagi and, like in the present Bust of a Youth, they are encircled by the celebratory garlands of naturalistic fruits and flowers (Cambereri, op. cit., p. 82). The large and prestigious commission of busts for Galluzzo clearly inspired demand for similar pieces from the Della Robbia workshops. The present Bust of a Youth is probably one such commission and, as it is secular in subject matter, it would almost certainly have decorated a private house. Clearly meant to evoke a classical Greek or Roman bust, the Bust of a Youth would have been used by a contemporary Renaissance prince of the blood or, more likely, a prince of commerce, to convey a direct link to antiquity and, specifically, noble and ancient antecedents.
Please note the present lot is accompanied by a thermoluminescence test from Oxford Authentication dated 12 September 2017 stating the relief and the frame were fired between 400 to 700 years ago.