HKB

← back

Lives of the Most Eminent Painters Sculptors and Architects, Vol. 02 (of 10)

Giorgio Vasari · 1550s (2nd edition revised, with later additions); Volume II includes biographies of artists from Berna to Michelozzo

passage 65 of 157 · Part, which with the aid of the blessed God we have brought to conclusion. (30/122)

in brief
Agostino della Robbia builds works in Perugia in 1461 and the nephew Andrea della Robbia creates many marble and glazed terra-cotta panels, dying in 1528.

low-relief therein and four figures in the round, executed very well and with a delicate manner; and on this work he put his name in these words, AUGUSTINI FLORENTINI LAPICIDAE.

Of the same family was the nephew of Luca, Andrea, who worked very well in marble, as it is seen in the Chapel of S. Maria delle Grazie, without Arezzo, where he made for the Commune, in a great ornament of marble, many little figures both in the round and in half-relief; which ornament was made for a Virgin by the hand of Parri di Spinello of Arezzo. The same man made the panel in terra-cotta for the Chapel of Puccio di Magio, in the Church of S. Francesco in the same city, and that representing the Circumcision for the family of the Bacci. In S. Maria in Grado, likewise, there is a very beautiful panel by his hand with many figures; and on the high-altar of the Company of the Trinita there is a panel by his hand containing a God the Father, who is supporting Christ Crucified in His arms, surrounded by a multitude of angels, while S. Donatus and S. Bernard are kneeling below. In the church and in other parts of the Sasso della Vernia, likewise, he made many panels, which have been well preserved in that desert place, where no painting could have remained fresh for even a few years. The same Andrea wrought all the figures in glazed terra-cotta which are in the Loggia of the Hospital of S. Paolo in Florence, and which are passing good; and likewise the boys, both swathed and nude, that are in the medallions between one arch and another in the Loggia of the Hospital of the Innocenti, which are all truly admirable and prove the great talent and art of Andrea; not to mention many, nay, innumerable other works that he made in the course of his life, which lasted eighty-four years. Andrea died in the year 1528, and I, while still a boy, talked with him and heard him say--nay, boast--that he had taken part in bearing Donato to the tomb; and I remember that the good old man showed no little pride as he spoke of this.

← previous passage read in the full work → next passage →

topics: crafts, industry, and manufacture · kinship, lineage, and clan · rank, class, and social order

Lives of the Most Eminent Painters Sculptors and Architects, Vol. 02 (of 10) · Giorgio Vasari · 1547–1568