Giorgio Vasari

“ 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. ”

“ 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. ”

“ 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 ”

“ 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.
↑ 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. ”

“ 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. ”

“ 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. ”

“ 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. ”

“ 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. ”

“ 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. ”

“ 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. ”

“ 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. ”

“ 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. ”

“ 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 ”

“ 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 ”