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BEST WORKS OF SCULPTURE
For a list of the world's top 100
3-D artworks, by the best sculptors
in the history of art, see:
Greatest Sculptures Ever.
BEST SCULPTORS
For a list of the world's most
talented 3-D artists, see:
Greatest Sculptors.
SCULPTING MEDIA
For different types of carving,
and modelling, see:
Stone Sculpture
From igneous, sedimentary,
and metamorphic rocks.
Marble Sculpture
Pentelic, Carrara, Parian marbles.
Wood Carving
Chip carving, relief carving of
softwoods and hardwoods.
Bronze Sculpture
Lost-wax casting method,
sandcasting, centrifugal casting.
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One improvement introduced by Andrea Della
Robbia, in the creation of these enamelled figures, was to leave bare
the face, hands and other exposed fleshy parts - for greater effect -
as exemplified in the tympanum relief of the meeting of St Domenic and
St Francis in the loggia of the Florentine hospital of San Paolo.
Retirement
Andrea was one of the most long-lived sculptors
of the Renaissance
in Florence. On his retirement, the Robbia family workshop was carried
on by his five sons. Giovanni della Robbia (1469-1529) was the
eldest and most important. He created the font for the sacristy (1497)
of S. Maria Novella, in a very similar manner to that of his father, but
his more individual sculptures like the Nativity (1521, Museo Nazionale),
the Tabernacolo della Fontacine (1522, Via Nazionale) and the medallions
at the Ceppo Hospital at Pistoia, are characterized by inept composition
and bad taste in colour. Fra Mattia demonstrated better sculptural
ability in his high altar at Montecassiano (1527), but the middle brothers
Fra Ambrogio and Luca di Andrea were largely imitators.
Andrea Della Robbia's youngest son, Girolamo
della Robbia (1488-1566), was an architect as well as a sculptor.
He moved to France and worked for many years near Paris. His terracotta
enamelled sculptures for the Chateau de Madrid were admired by many, even
if they had little impact on 16th-century French sculpture.
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