ART 198 - HISTORY OF WORLD CERAMICS

In addition to the religious panels and sculpture that made the della Robbia's famous, they also created secular art, including many portrait busts of men, women, and children. Here the brick colored terra cotta clay can be seen at the edges and other areas where the bianchi has been chipped off. Also easily seen in this example is the way that the della Robbias added the pigments directly into the glaze. They used a rather limited palette of a dark blue and a light blue (both from additions of cobalt to the glaze) a rather dead green from copper and sometimes a yellow and a brown (not seen here). This sensitive portrayal of a young lady is by Andrea della Robbia and the way in which he has captured her sidelong glance and slightly pursed lips seems very much that of a beautiful and perhaps a somewhat sad young lady of 1470 CE.

'Female Bust, Majolica glazed terra cotta, by Andrea della Robbia, Firenze, around 1470 CE