DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.61670#0130
74 LUCA DELLA ROBBIA
door, are a fitting introduction to the chapel, perhaps the
most perfect bit of Renaissance architecture in existence.
The Medallion represents S. Andrea, patron Saint of the
Pazzi family, and is the first of the series of Apostles exe-
cuted by Luca for the chapel, thirteen in all (for this saint
is again represented in the interior). Of all the figures it
is the grandest and most classic, the severe head and broadly
draped massive torso recalling some antique statue of Zeus,
a suggestion accentuated by the absence of any halo. He
is seated majestically upon a cloud, with his bare feet also
resting upon clouds, ivory-white against a background circled
in graduated blues like the ripples in a pool of water.
In this figure, as indeed in this whole series, we are
specially struck by the extreme beauty of the hands and
feet, an invariable characteristic of Luca’s work, but which
is nowhere so noticeable as here. The type of hand chosen
by Luca is that of an artist, of a musician, a splendid com-
bination of strength and delicacy, broad in the palm, with
long tapering fingers supple and sinewy. This beautiful
representation of the hand—the most perfectly - shaped in
quattrocento art—he taught also to Andrea, and it became
almost a tradition of the whole school, the hands often re-
taining beauty of form and a certain amount of good model-
ling, when all else has grown coarse and careless. The feet of
Luca match the hands, slender and delicate, with long supple
toes and well-shaped nails, modelled with the utmost care.
Entering the chapel the decorative effect of the enamels
upon the severe whitewashed walls is very fine. Beneath the
small ribbed dome are four large Medallions, glowing with
rich colours, clear grass green and pale blue predominating,
on which are represented the four Evangelists with their
emblems. Below, around the walls, runs a frieze of lambs
and cherubs in painted stucco, and beneath these, accentuating
the graceful lines of the architecture, which in its turn seems
designed only to give them fitting frame, are twelve smaller
door, are a fitting introduction to the chapel, perhaps the
most perfect bit of Renaissance architecture in existence.
The Medallion represents S. Andrea, patron Saint of the
Pazzi family, and is the first of the series of Apostles exe-
cuted by Luca for the chapel, thirteen in all (for this saint
is again represented in the interior). Of all the figures it
is the grandest and most classic, the severe head and broadly
draped massive torso recalling some antique statue of Zeus,
a suggestion accentuated by the absence of any halo. He
is seated majestically upon a cloud, with his bare feet also
resting upon clouds, ivory-white against a background circled
in graduated blues like the ripples in a pool of water.
In this figure, as indeed in this whole series, we are
specially struck by the extreme beauty of the hands and
feet, an invariable characteristic of Luca’s work, but which
is nowhere so noticeable as here. The type of hand chosen
by Luca is that of an artist, of a musician, a splendid com-
bination of strength and delicacy, broad in the palm, with
long tapering fingers supple and sinewy. This beautiful
representation of the hand—the most perfectly - shaped in
quattrocento art—he taught also to Andrea, and it became
almost a tradition of the whole school, the hands often re-
taining beauty of form and a certain amount of good model-
ling, when all else has grown coarse and careless. The feet of
Luca match the hands, slender and delicate, with long supple
toes and well-shaped nails, modelled with the utmost care.
Entering the chapel the decorative effect of the enamels
upon the severe whitewashed walls is very fine. Beneath the
small ribbed dome are four large Medallions, glowing with
rich colours, clear grass green and pale blue predominating,
on which are represented the four Evangelists with their
emblems. Below, around the walls, runs a frieze of lambs
and cherubs in painted stucco, and beneath these, accentuating
the graceful lines of the architecture, which in its turn seems
designed only to give them fitting frame, are twelve smaller