Majolica- Luca della Robia

Luca della Robbia was a Florentine sculptor during 1399-1482. He is known for using tin glaze (also known as majolica) in a way that it had never been used before; He mixed batches of white glaze with oxides of various metals in a finely powdered form to create a variety of colors.

When they were fired, the resulting glazes were colored in their entire mass with blues from cobalt, yellows from antimony, greens from copper, violets from manganese, and oranges and browns from iron rust. These colored glazes were applied to the already fired terracotta sculptures in a liquid form with water admixed, and fixed in a second firing. They covered the sculptures with washes of color in areas needed for clothing and background details, much as paints would do for a picture. The colors were permanent and could be exposed to the weather.

Although Luca della Robbia worked with color, he preferred to work with white glaze since he was fascinated by the pureness of the shape that it delivered.

Most of Della Robbia's descendants used colored glazes, opening the way - as well said by Leonardo da Vinci - “to turning any great painting into a glazed terracotta”, meaning that they broke the rigid boundaries between Pottery, Painting and Sculpture to make ART. Luca's family continued the use of his innovation in their workshop in Florence and a typical element of the della Robbia workshop is that of the encircling wreath of four fruiting plants as you can see in the image above.