DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.61670#0062
36 LUCA DELLA ROBBIA
intention was as uncompromising a realist. What he saw
he endeavoured to represent with absolute fidelity, only his
vision was less keen and true. His own words affirm his
scientific preoccupations and his efforts at a faithful repre-
sentation of Nature: “ From my earliest days ... I have
always sought to discover how Nature reveals herself in Art, and
how I may best draw near to her ; how forms really present them-
selves to the eye .. . on what principles the arts of painting and
of sculpture should be practised." And again : “ I forced myself
with all my powers to seek to imitate Nature as closely as was
possible to me." 1
The main practical interests of Ghiberti and Donatello
were the same, i.e. the exploiting to the uttermost the
technical possibilities of sculpture—the freeing of Art from
traditional restrictions. We know how profound were his
studies of perspective, in the practice of which, indeed, he
was the expertest of his time. He was the chief master of
high relief as Donatello of the more legitimate methods, and
however we may object to his violation of the laws of sculp-
ture in his too pictorial treatment, his rank as the most pro-
ficient craftsman of his day cannot be denied.
These two great sculptors, Donatello and Ghiberti, were
the ruling artistic forces in Florence when Luca della Robbia
was a boy, and from them he received such impressions as
his singularly independent and stable character permitted.
He was, however, one of the most original and self-reliant
of artists, as much the creator of a style as Donatello him-
self, and with aims and characteristics as clearly defined.
But with all his self-dependence, his maintenance of his
own personality and purposes, and steady pursuit of his own
artistic ideals, he would not have been the true and ingenuous
artist he was had he not adopted and assimilated something
from his great contemporaries.
1 Ghiberti’s “Commentaries.” (See Cicognara, “ Storia della Scultura,” ii.
pp. 219 and 222.)
intention was as uncompromising a realist. What he saw
he endeavoured to represent with absolute fidelity, only his
vision was less keen and true. His own words affirm his
scientific preoccupations and his efforts at a faithful repre-
sentation of Nature: “ From my earliest days ... I have
always sought to discover how Nature reveals herself in Art, and
how I may best draw near to her ; how forms really present them-
selves to the eye .. . on what principles the arts of painting and
of sculpture should be practised." And again : “ I forced myself
with all my powers to seek to imitate Nature as closely as was
possible to me." 1
The main practical interests of Ghiberti and Donatello
were the same, i.e. the exploiting to the uttermost the
technical possibilities of sculpture—the freeing of Art from
traditional restrictions. We know how profound were his
studies of perspective, in the practice of which, indeed, he
was the expertest of his time. He was the chief master of
high relief as Donatello of the more legitimate methods, and
however we may object to his violation of the laws of sculp-
ture in his too pictorial treatment, his rank as the most pro-
ficient craftsman of his day cannot be denied.
These two great sculptors, Donatello and Ghiberti, were
the ruling artistic forces in Florence when Luca della Robbia
was a boy, and from them he received such impressions as
his singularly independent and stable character permitted.
He was, however, one of the most original and self-reliant
of artists, as much the creator of a style as Donatello him-
self, and with aims and characteristics as clearly defined.
But with all his self-dependence, his maintenance of his
own personality and purposes, and steady pursuit of his own
artistic ideals, he would not have been the true and ingenuous
artist he was had he not adopted and assimilated something
from his great contemporaries.
1 Ghiberti’s “Commentaries.” (See Cicognara, “ Storia della Scultura,” ii.
pp. 219 and 222.)