Lives of the Most Excellent Painters, Sculptors, and Architects/Luca della Robbia

by Giorgio Vasari

 

THE FLORENTINE SCULPTOR LUCA DELLA ROBBIA.

[born 1400—died 1481.]

The Florentine sculptor, Luca della Robbia, was born in the year 1388,^[1] in the house of his forefathers, which is situated near the church of San Barnaba, in Florence.^[2] 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 self up entirely to sculpture,^[3] insomuch that he did nothing but work with his chisel all day, and by night he practised himself in drawing; and this he did with so much zeal, that when his feet were often frozen with cold in the night-time, he kept them in a basket of shavings to warm them, that he might not be compelled to discontinue his drawings. Nor am I in the least astonished at this, since no man ever becomes distinguished in any art whatsoever who does not early begin to acquire the power of supporting heat, cold, hunger, thirst, and other discomforts; wherefore those persons deceive themselves altogether who suppose that while taking their ease and surrounded by all the enjoyments of the world, they may still attain to honourable distinction—for it is not by sleeping, but by waking, watching and labouring continually, that proficiency is attained and reputation acquired.

Luca had scarcely completed his fifteenth year, when he was taken with other young sculptors to Rimini, for the purpose of preparing certain marble ornaments and figures for Sigismondo di Pandolfo Malatesti, lord of that city, who was then building a chapel in the church of San Francesco, and erecting a sepulchre for his wife, who had recently died. In this work Luca della Robbia gave a creditable specimen of his abilities, in some bassi-rilievi, which are still to be seen there, but he was soon recalled to Florence by the wardens of Santa Maria del Fiore, and there executed five small historical representations for the campanile of that cathedral. These are placed on that side of the tower which is turned towards the church, and where, according to the design of Giotto, they were required to fill the space beside those delineating the arts and sciences previously executed, as we have said, by Andrea Pisano. In the first relief, Luca pourtrayed San Donato teaching grammar; in the second are Plato and Aristotle, who represent philosophy; in the third is a figure playing the lute, for music; in the fourth, a statue of Ptolemy, to signify astronomy; and in the fifth, Euclid, for geometry. These rilievi, whether for correctness of design, grace of composition, or beauty of execution, greatly surpass the two completed, as we have before said, by Giotto, and of which one represents painting, by a figure of Apelles, occupied in the exercise of his art; the other Phidias working with his chisel, to represent sculpture. The superintendants beforementioned, therefore, who, in addition to the merits of Luca, had a further motive in the persuasions of Messer Vieri dei Medici, a great and popular citizen of that day, by whom Luca was much beloved, commissioned him in the year 1405^[4] to prepare the marble ornaments of the organ which the wardens were then causing to be constructed on a very grand scale, to be placed over the door of the sacristy in the above-named cathedral. In the prosecution of this work, Luca executed certain stories for the basement, which represent the choristers, who are singing, in different attitudes: to the execution of these he gave such earnest attention and succeeded so well, that although the figures are sixteen braccia from the ground, the spectator can nevertheless distinguish the inflation of throat in the singers, and the action of the leader, as he beats the measure with his hands, with all the varied modes of playing on different instruments, the choral songs, the dances, and other pleasures connected with music, which are there delineated by the artist.^[5] On the grand cornice of this work, Luca erected two figures of gilded metal: these represent two angels entirely nude, and finished with great skill, as indeed is the whole performance, which was held to be one of rare beauty, although Donatello, who afterwards constructed the ornaments of the organ placed opposite to this, displayed much greater judgment and more facility than had been exhibited by Luca in his work, as will be mentioned in its proper place; for Donato completed his work almost entirely from the rough sketches, without delicacy of finish, so that it has a much better effect in the distance than that of Luca, which, although well designed and carefully done, becomes lost to the observer in the distance, from the fineness of its finish, and is not so readily distinguished by the eye as is that of Donato, which is merely sketched.^[6]

And this is a point to which artists should give much consideration, since experience teaches us that whatever is to be looked at from a distance, whether painting, sculpture, or any other work of similar kind, has ever more force and effect when merely a striking and beautiful sketch than when delicately finished; and, besides the effect here attributed to distance, it would appear, also, that the poetic fire of the author frequently acts with most efficiency in a rapid sketch, by which his inspiration is expressed in a few strokes suddenly thrown off in the first ardours of composition: a too anxious care and labour, on the contrary, will often deprive the works of him who never knows when to take his hands from them, of all force and character. He who knows how closely, not only painting, but all the arts of design resemble poetry, knows also that verse proceeding from the poetic furor is the only good and true poesy: in like manner the works of men excellent in the arts of design, are much better when produced by the force of a sudden inspiration, than when they are the result of long beating about, and gradual spinning forth with pains and labour. Whoever has the clear idea of what he desires to produce in his mind, as all ought to have from the first instant, will ever march confidently and with readiness towards the perfection of the work which he proposes to execute. Nevertheless, as all minds are not of the same character, there are, doubtless, some who can only do well when they proceed slowly, but the instances are rare. And, not to confine ourselves to painting, there is a proof of this among poets, as we are told in the practice of the most venerable and most learned Bembo, who laboured in such sort that he would sometimes expend many months, nay, possibly years, if we dare give credit to the words of those who affirm it, in the production of a sonnet. Wherefore, there need be no great matter of astonishment if something similar should occasionally happen to certain of the men engaged in the pursuit of our arts: but the rule is, for the most part, to the contrary, as we have said above, even though a certain exterior and apparent delicacy of manner (which is often a mere concealment, by industry, of defects in essential qualities) should sometimes obtain the suffrages of the unthinking vulgar more readily than the really good work, which is the product of ability and judgment, though not externally so delicately finished and furbished.

But to return to Luca: when he had completed the above named decorations, which gave much satisfaction, he received a commission for the bronze door of the before-mentioned sacristy.^[7] his he divided into ten square compartments, or pictures (quadri), five, namely, on each side, and at all the angles where these joined he placed the head of a man, by way of ornament, on the border: no two heads were alike, some being young, others old, or of middle age; some with the beard, others without; all were varied, in short, and in these different modes every one was beautiful, of its kind, insomuch that the frame-work of that door was most richly adorned. In the compartments themselves, the master represented the Madonna (to begin with the upper part), holding the infant Christ in her arms, in the first square, a group of infinite grace and beauty; with Jesus issuing from the tomb, in that opposite. Beneath these figures, in each of the first four squares, is the statue of an Evangelist, and below the Evangelists are the four doctors of the church, who are all writing, in different attitudes. The whole work is so finely executed, and so delicate, that one clearly perceives how much Luca had profited by having been a goldsmith.^[8]

But when, at the conclusion of these works, the master made up the reckoning of what he had received, and compared this with the time he had expended in their production, he perceived that he had made but small gains, and that the labour had been excessive; he determined, therefore, to abandon marble and bronze, resolving to try if he could not derive a more profitable return from some other source. Wherefore, reflecting that it cost but little trouble to work in clay, which is easily managed, and that only one thing was required, namely, to find some method by which the work produced in that material should be rendered durable, he considered and cogitated with so much good will on this subject, that he finally discovered the means of defending such productions from the injuries of time. And the matter was on this wise: after having made experiments innumerable, Luca found that if he covered his figures with a coating of glaze, formed from the mixture of tin, litharge, antimony, and other minerals and mixtures, carefully prepared by the action of fire, in a furnace made for the purpose, the desired effect was produced to perfection, and that an almost endless durability might thus be secured to works in clay. For this process, then, Luca, as being its inventor,^[9] received the highest praise; and, indeed, all future ages will be indebted to him for the same.

The master having thus, as we have seen, accomplished all that he desired, resolved that his first works in this kind should be those which are in the arch over the bronze door which he had made beneath the organ, for the sacristy of Santa Maria del Fiore, wherein he accordingly placed a Resurrection of Christ, so beautiful for that time, that, when fixed up, it was admired by every one who beheld it, as a truly rare production.^[10] Moved by this success, the superintendents resolved that the arch above the door of the opposite sacristy, where Donatello had executed the decorations of the other organ, should be filled by Luca della Robbia with similar figures and works in terra-cotta; whereupon, the artist executed an Ascension of Christ into Heaven, which is an extremely beautiful work.^[11]

The master, meanwhile, was not satisfied with his remarkable, useful, and charming invention, which is more particularly valuable for places liable to damp, or unsuited, from other causes, for paintings, but still continued seeking something more; and, instead of making his terra-cotta figures simply white, he added the further invention of giving them colour, to the astonishment and delight of all who beheld them. Among the first who gave Luca della Robbia commissions to execute works of this description, was the magnificent Piero di Cosimo de’ Medici, who caused him to decorate a small study, built by his father Cosmo, in his palace, with figures in this coloured “terra.” The ceiling of the study is a half circle; and here, as well as for the pavement, Luca executed various devices, which was a singular, and, for summer time, very convenient mode of decorating a pavement. And it is certainly much to be admired, that, although this work was then extremely difficult, numberless precautions and great knowledge being required in the burning of the clay, yet Luca completed the whole with such perfect success, that the ornaments both of the ceiling and pavement appear to be made, not of many pieces, but of one only.^[12] The fame of these works having spread, not only throughout Italy, but over all Europe, there were so many persons desirous of possessing them, that the Florentine merchants kept Luca della Robbia continually at this labour, to his great profit: they then dispatched the products all over the world. And now the master himself could no longer supply the numbers required; he therefore took his brothers, Ottaviano and Agostino^[13] from the chisel, and set them to these works, from which both he and they gained much more than they had previously been able to earn by their works in sculpture: for, to say nothing of the commissions which they executed for the various parts of Tuscany, they sent many specimens of their art into France and Spain. The abovenamed Piero dei Medici, also employed them extensively, more especially in the church of San Miniato-a-Monte, where they decorated the ceiling of the marble chapel, which is raised on four columns in the centre of the church. This ceiling was divided into eight compartments, producing a very beautiful effect. But perhaps the most remarkable work of this kind that proceeded from the hands of these artists was the ceiling of the chapel of San Jacopo, in the same church. Here the cardinal of Portugal lies entombed. The chapel has no sharp angles; but within four circular compartments, the masters represented the four Evangelists; and, in the midst of the ceiling, also within a medallion, they depicted the Holy Spirit, filling all the remaining spaces with scales, which, following the lines of the ceiling, diminished gradually as they approached the centre; the whole executed with so much care and diligence, that nothing better in that manner could possibly be imagined.^[14]

At a later period, Luca della Robbia produced a figure of the Virgin, surrounded by numerous angels: a work of infinite animation and beauty,^[15] which was placed in the small arch over the door of the church of San Piero Buonconsiglio, situated below the Mercato Vecchio; and over the door of a small church near San Piero Maggiore,^[16] he executed another Madonna, within a half circle, also attended by angels; which are considered extremely beautiful. In the chapter-house of Santa Croce, which had been erected by the Pazzi family, under the direction of Pippo di Ser Brunellesco,^[17] Luca also executed the figures of glazed terra-cotta, both those outside, and those within the building.^[18] This master is, moreover, asserted to have sent various figures, in full relief, and of great beauty, to the King of Spain, with other works in marble. For Naples, also, he constructed the marble sepulchre of the Infant, brother to the Duke of Calabria: this was decorated with ornaments in the glazed terra-cotta; it was executed in Florence, and afterwards sent to Naples: Luca being assisted in its completion by his brother Agostino.

After these things, the master still sought to make further inventions, and laboured to discover a method by which figures and historical representations might be coloured on level surfaces of terra-cotta, proposing thereby to secure a more life-like effect to the pictures. Of this he made an experiment in a medallion, which is above the tabernacle of the four saints, near Or San Michele, on the plane of which our artist figured the insignia and instruments of the Guilds of Manufacturers, divided into five compartments, and decorated with very beautiful ornaments. In the same place he adorned two other medallions in relief; in one he placed a Madonna for the Guild of the Apothecaries, and in the other a lily on a bale, for the Tribunal of the Merchants, with festoons of fruit and foliage of different kinds, so admirably done that they seem rather to be the natural substance than merely burnt and painted clay.^[19]

For Messer Benozzo Federighi, Bishop of Fiesole, Luca della Bobbia erected a sepulchre of marble, on which he placed the recumbent figure of Federigo, taken from nature, with three half-length figures beside;^[20] and between the columns which adorn this work, the master depicted garlands with clusters of fruit and foliage, so life-like and natural that the pencil could produce nothing better in oil-painting. This work is of a truth most rare and wonderful, the lights and shadows having been managed so admirably, that one can scarcely imagine it possible to produce such effects in works that have to be completed by the action of fire. And if this artist had been accorded longer life, many other remarkable works would doubtless have proceeded from his hands, since, but a short time before his death, he had begun to paint figures and historical representations on a level surface, whereof I formerly saw certain specimens in his house,^[21] which led me to believe that he would have succeeded perfectly, had not death, which almost always carries olf the most distinguished men just at the moment when they are about to do some good to the world, borne him from his labours before the time.^[22]

When Luca della Robbia had thus prematurely departed, there still remained Ottaviano and Agostino, his brothers,^[23] who survived him, and to Agostino was born another Luca, who was a most learned man in his day.^[24] But first of Agostino himself, respecting whom we have to relate that, devoting himself to art as Luca had done, he decorated the fa$ade of the church of San Bernardino in Perugia, in the year 1461, producing three historical representations in basso-rilievo, with four figures in full relief, admirably executed in a very delicate manner. Beneath this work the artist wrote his name in the following words:—

“augustini florentini lapicidae.”^[25]

Of the same family was Andrea—he was, indeed, a nephew of Luca^[26]—who also worked in marble with great ability, as may be seen in the chapel of Santa Maria delle Grazie, without the city of Arezzo, where he was commissioned by the commune to execute a vast marble ornament, comprising a large number of minute figures, some in mezzo-rilievo and others in full relief. This was intended as the framework of a Virgin from the hand of Parri di Spinello, the Aretine painter.^[27] Andrea likewise prepared the decorations of the chapel belonging to Puccio di Magio, in the church of San Francesco in the same city: a work which is also in terra-cotta. He, moreover, executed the picture of the Circumcision for the Bacci family. There is, besides, a most beautiful picture from his hand in the church of Santa Maria in Grado: which contains numerous figures. Over the high altar of the Brotherhood of the Trinity there is also a work of Andrea della Robbia, representing God the Father, who supports the body of the crucified Redeemer in his arms. This group is surrounded by a multitude of angels, while San Donato and San Bernardo are kneeling below.^[28]

In like manner, this master executed various pictures for the church and other buildings of the Sasso della Vernia, and these have retained their beauty in that desert place, where no painting could have been preserved even for a few years.^[29] Andrea likewise executed all the figures in glazed terracotta, which decorate the loggia of the hospital of San Paolo in Florence, and which are tolerably good.^[30] The boys, some naked, others in swathing-clotlies, which are in the medallions between the arches, in the loggia of the hospital of the Innocenti,^[31] are also by Andrea della Robbia. These are all truly admirable, and give a favourable idea of the ability and knowledge of art possessed by this master; there are, besides, a large—nay, an almost infinite number of other works, performed by him in the course of his life, which lasted eighty-four years. Andrea died in 1528, and I, being still but a boy and talking with him, have heard him say, or rather boast, that he had been one of those who bore Donato to his burial-place. I remember, too, that the good old man, speaking of this circumstance, seemed to feel no little pride in the share he had taken in it.

But to return to Luca, that master was buried, with the rest of his family, in the tomb of his fathers, which is in the church of San Pier Maggiore, and after him Andrea della Robbia was entombed in the same sepulchre. The latter left two sons, who became monks in San Marco, where they received the cowl from the venerable Fra Girolamo Savonarola, who was ever held in great honour by the della Robbia family; wherefore it is that these artists have depicted him in the manner which we still see on the medallions.^[32] Andrea had three sons besides the monks above-mentioned—Giovanni^[33] (also an artist, and who had three sons, Marco, Lucantonio, and Simone, all of high promise, but who died of the plague in 1527); Luca and Girolamo, who devoted themselves to sculpture. Of the two last-named, Luca paid infinite attention to works in the glazed terra-cotta; and among many other labours of his performance are the pavements of the papal Loggia, which pope Leo X caused to be constructed in Rome, under the direction of Raphael of Urbino, and those of numerous walls and chambers, wherein Luca represented the arms and insignia of that pontiff. Girolamo, who was the youngest of all, worked in marble and bronze, as well as terra-cotta, and by the emulation existing between himself, Jacopo Sansovino, Baccio Bandinelli, and other masters of his time, he had already become a good artist, when he was induced by certain Florentine merchants to visit France. Here he executed various works for king Francis at Madri,^[34] a place not far distant from Paris, more particularly a palace decorated with numerous figures and other ornaments, cut in a kind of stone similar to that which we have ourselves at Volterra, but of a better quality, since it is soft while being worked, and becomes indurated by time and exposure to the air. Girolamo della Robbia laboured much in Orleans, and executed many works in various parts of the whole realm of France, acquiring high reputation and great riches. But after a time, understanding that the only brother now remaining to him in Florence was Luca, while he was himself alone in the service of the French king, and very wealthy, he invited his brother to join him in those parts, hoping to leave him the successor of his own prosperous condition and high credit. But the matter did not proceed thus. Luca died soon after his arrival in France, and Girolamo found himself once more alone and with none of his kin beside him. He then resolved to return to his native land, and there enjoy the riches acquired by his pains and labours, desiring moreover to leave some memorial of himself in his own country. In the year 1553 he established his dwelling in Florence accordingly, but was in a manner compelled to change his purpose, seeing that duke Cosmo, by whom he had hoped to be honourably employed, was entirely occupied by the war in Siena: he therefore returned to die in France, when not only did his house remain closed and his family become extinct,^[35] but art was at the same time deprived of the true method of working in the glazed terra-cotta. It is true that there were some who made attempts in this kind of sculpture after his decease, but no one of these artists ever approached the excellence of Luca the elder, of Andrea, and the other masters of that family in the branch of art of which we are now speaking.^[36] Wherefore, if I have expatiated at some length on this subject, or said more than may have seemed needful, let my readers excuse me, since the fact that Luca invented this mode of sculpture, which had not been practised—so far as I know—by the ancient Romans, rendered it proper, as I thought, that it should be treated of at some length, which I have done accordingly. And if, after closing the life of Luca the elder, I have briefly stated other things relating to his descendants, who have lived even to our own days—this I have done that I may not have further occasion to recur to that matter. Luca moreover, be it observed, though he passed from one occupation to another—from marble to bronze, and from bronze to terra-cotta—was not induced to these changes by an idle levity, or because he was, as too many are found to be, capricious, unstable, and discontented with his vocation, but because he was by nature disposed to the search after new discoveries, and also because his necessities compelled him to seek a mode of occupation which should be in harmony with his tastes, while it was less fatiguing and more profitable. "Whence the arts of design and the world generally, were enriched by the possession of a new, useful, and beautiful decoration—from which, too, the master himself derived perpetual fame and undying glory. Luca della Robbia drew well and gracefully, as may be seen by certain drawings in our book, the lights of which are in white lead; and in one of them is his own portrait, made with great care by his own hand, looking at himself in a mirror.

---

1. 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.
2. 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.
3. Baldinucci declares Luca della Robbia to have acquired his art from Lorenzo Ghiberti.
4. This is most probably an error of the press. Rumohr, Ital. Forsch vol. ii, p. 242, believes this work to have been executed before 1438. The date should in that case perhaps be 1435; but the later Florentine editors incline to make it 1445.
5. This admirable work, divided into ten portions, is now to be seen in the small corridor of modern sculptures of the Royal Gallery of the Uffizj. For certain details respecting other works of this master, preserved in the same gallery, see Antologia di Firenze, tom. iii, and Rumohr. Ital. Forsch. ii, 363.
6. The four parts of this work are also to be found in the above-named corridor. See Cicognara, Storia della Scultura Moderna, where the work of Donatello, as well as that of Luca, is engraved.— Ed. Flor. 1846-9. See also Rumohr, Ital. Forsch. ii, 298.
7. For many valuable remarks on these works, see Rumohr, Ital. Forsch. vol. ii, p. 290; also ibid. 365, et seq.
8. See La Metropolitana Fiorentina Illustrata, Florence 1820, for engravings of this work.
9. The art of glazing terra-cotta was known to the ancients: for various details respecting this practice as thus applied, and as used in making the ware called Majolica, see Giovanni Battista Passeri, who has written very learnedly on the art, which was called ceramica, in his Istoria delle Pitture in Maiolica fatte in Pesaro, etc., first printed in the Raccolta di Opuscoli, Venice, 1758. There is also a small, but exceedingly useful, work on this subject, by Luigi Frati, published in Bologna, in 1844. The coloured majolica was successfully prepared in the dukedom of Urbino; but the most celebrated fabrics of this kind were those of Pesaro.
10. This work also has been engraved by Cicognara.—Ed. Flor. 1832 -8, and 1846-9.
11. All the works of this description, executed by Luca della Robbia, 'lie Duomo, are still in good preservation.— Ibid.
12. Vasari had doubtless seen the manuscript, Trattato d’Architettura, of Rilarete (whose life will follow), which is in the Magliabechiana library. It has the following passage:—“His little study (Cosmo’s), excessively small it is, has the ceiling and pavement adorned with most beautiful glazed figures, so that all who enter are struck with admiration. The master of these invetriamenti, was Luca della Robbia, so he was called by name, who is a most worthy master of these works, and also in sculpture has proved himself,” etc.
13. These artists were brothers to each other, but not to Luca della Robbia, nor did they even belong to his family.
14. All the works here described are still in existence.—Ed. Flor. 1849.
15. This work is also well preserved, and is very beautiful. —Ibid.
16. In the Via dell’ Agnolo, over the door of the “Scuola dei Cherici”, which was formerly the convent of the Lateranensian Hermits. It is now a warehouse, but the work is still to be seen. — Masselli.
17. Filippo Brunelleschi.
18. These works still remain. —Masselli.
19. These works are also in good preservation. — Masselli.
20. This tomb is now in the church of San Francesco di Paolo, in the suburb near Bellosguardo. See the Monumenti Funebri della Toscana of Giovanni Gonnelli, plate 34.
21. One of these pictures may be seen in a room of the building belonging to the Superintendents of the Duomo. It is over a door on the left of the entrance, and is a lunette composed of three portions, representing the Eternal Father in the centre, with an angel on each side, in the attitude of most devout and profound adoration. —Masselli.
22. Luca did not die young, as Vasari intimates, since he is known, from public documents, to have been still living in 1480; and in the first edition of our author he is said to have died in 1430, without doubt a misprint for 1480. See his testament, in Gaye, Carteggio Inedito, etc., i, 185.
23. Neither Ottaviano nor Agostino being mentioned in the fiscal returns made by Simone di Marco della.Robbia, who, according to Vasari, would have been their father, they are not believed to be of his family.
24. The son of Simon di Marco, and born in 1484.
25. See Rumohr, ut supra, ii, 296.
26. For a minute account of this master see Baldinucci, Notizie, &c.
27. The life of Parri di Spinello follows.
28. All the works of Andrea, executed in Arezzo, with the exception of the Circumcision, are still in existence; but that of which Vasari here speaks, as executed for the Brotherhood of the Trinity, is now in the chapel of the Madonna in the cathedral. — Ed. Flor. 1849.
29. These works still remain. See Reumont, in the Morgenblatt for 1831, No. 206.
30. These decorations of the Loggia are also well preserved.
31. These works are still in good preservation. There is also a most beautiful Annunciation, by the same master, over the side-door of the church oi the Innocents, and which was formerly within the building. —Ed. Flor. 1846-9.
32. These medallions are cast. They have the portrait of Savonarola in profile, with a circular inscription, as follows: —

    “hieronymus sav. fer. vir doctiss. ordinis praedichorum.”

    On the reverse is a citjr, with numerous towers, probably Florence, below; and an arm holding a dagger, with the point turned downwards. The inscription is as follows:—

    “gladius domini sup. teram (sic) cito et velociter. ”

    Schorn, and Ed. Flor. 1846-9.
33. Baldinucci enumerates various works of this master. Among others, a magnificent representation of scenes from the life of the Virgin, in the church belonging to the monastery of San Girolamo delle Poverine Ingesuate.
34. A villa built in the Bois do Boulogne, by order of Francis I, in memory of his sojourn as a prisoner in Spain; and therefore called “Madrid”, not “Madri”, nor “Marli”, as Bottari erroneously believes, that last having been erected under Louis XIV. See Lettere Pittoriche, Ticozzi’s edition, vol. iv, No. 210.
35. See Baldinucci, who shews that Vasari is here in error. The Della Robbia family flourished most honourably, both in France and Florence, until the year 1645, the last of the name being Bishop of Cortona and Fiesole. —Schorn.
36. The secret of these inventions was transmitted to the Buglioni family by the marriage of a Della Robbia with Andrea Benedetto Buglioni. Andrea was contemporary with Verrocchio; and his son, Santi Buglioni, inherited the secret, which in him, as it appears, was totally lost, although many attempted to discover the methods adopted (according to Baldinucci, who relates this), more particularly a certain Antonio Novello, but he was far from attaining to the excellence of the Della Robbia family.