DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.61670#0129
ENAMELLED TERRA-COTTA
73
the small cupola is entirely encrusted with enamelled orna-
ments, but within the chapel itself, where the Medallions are
rather a part of the architectural design than independent
sculptures. In this Luca certainly anticipated the late work of
Giovanni in the Ospedale del Ceppo, Pistoja, but where the
reliefs of Giovanni, voluntarily or involuntarily, are subordi-
nate to the building, in the Pazzi Chapel the building seems
but a splendid setting or framework for Luca’s medallions.
As we enter the cloister and walk slowly towards the
entrance of the chapel, the beautiful decoration of the little
dome reveals itself gradually, like the unfolding of some
exquisite flower, the pure brilliant colours gaining full value by
contrast with the grey of the pietra serena. This is our first
introduction to Luca’s decorative work, and its originality is
most striking. In the centre of the graduated shells which
compose the design is set the stemma of the Pazzi family, the
dolphins and crosses, and surrounding it one of those garlands
of fruits and flowers in which Luca shows himself so great a
master of decoration. Attention will be drawn later, in study-
ing the medallions of Or San Michele and the grand stemma
of Rene d’ Anjou, to his treatment of these garlands, which
differs so widely from the florid and obtrusive imitations of
Giovanni and the school; to his artistic arrangement of the
leaves and fruits, half-realistic half-conventional, whereby they
seem actually to flow around the enclosed relief. This wreath
is one of the most beautiful of all, but it is difficult to appre-
ciate beauty with a strained neck, and we shall have better
opportunity for studying them in the more isolated medallions,
which are not, as here, merely the centre of an elaborate scheme
of decoration.
The architecture and general decoration of this little
Atrium are most exquisite. The frieze of cherubs’ heads
beneath the architrave, generally attributed to Desiderio,
and worthy almost of Donatello himself; the deep glowing
colours of Luca’s dome, and his fine Medallion above the
K
73
the small cupola is entirely encrusted with enamelled orna-
ments, but within the chapel itself, where the Medallions are
rather a part of the architectural design than independent
sculptures. In this Luca certainly anticipated the late work of
Giovanni in the Ospedale del Ceppo, Pistoja, but where the
reliefs of Giovanni, voluntarily or involuntarily, are subordi-
nate to the building, in the Pazzi Chapel the building seems
but a splendid setting or framework for Luca’s medallions.
As we enter the cloister and walk slowly towards the
entrance of the chapel, the beautiful decoration of the little
dome reveals itself gradually, like the unfolding of some
exquisite flower, the pure brilliant colours gaining full value by
contrast with the grey of the pietra serena. This is our first
introduction to Luca’s decorative work, and its originality is
most striking. In the centre of the graduated shells which
compose the design is set the stemma of the Pazzi family, the
dolphins and crosses, and surrounding it one of those garlands
of fruits and flowers in which Luca shows himself so great a
master of decoration. Attention will be drawn later, in study-
ing the medallions of Or San Michele and the grand stemma
of Rene d’ Anjou, to his treatment of these garlands, which
differs so widely from the florid and obtrusive imitations of
Giovanni and the school; to his artistic arrangement of the
leaves and fruits, half-realistic half-conventional, whereby they
seem actually to flow around the enclosed relief. This wreath
is one of the most beautiful of all, but it is difficult to appre-
ciate beauty with a strained neck, and we shall have better
opportunity for studying them in the more isolated medallions,
which are not, as here, merely the centre of an elaborate scheme
of decoration.
The architecture and general decoration of this little
Atrium are most exquisite. The frieze of cherubs’ heads
beneath the architrave, generally attributed to Desiderio,
and worthy almost of Donatello himself; the deep glowing
colours of Luca’s dome, and his fine Medallion above the
K