Giovanni della Robbia (1469-1529/30) and workshop Italian, Florence, circa 1525

Standard small losses, surface abrasions, and minor chipping throughout. Expertly done minor restoration to small chips. Some stable hairline firing cracks and minor losses to late frame.
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This charming relief is nearly identical to but larger than a roundel of the same subject in the Detroit Institute of Arts (Darr et. al., op.cit., p. 201) which is given to Giovanni della Robbia, circa 1525. The design probably depends on composition by Andrea della Robbia, circa 1490, which was later reproduced by his son, Giovanni. A related composition, given to Andrea's workshop, is in the Victoria and Albert Museum in London, (Pope-Hennessy, op. cit., vol. I, no. 214, vol. III, p. 154, fig. 224) and another, similar, is preserved in the Louvre, there catalogued as workshop of Andrea and Giovanni della Robbia (Bormand et. al., op. cit., p. 122).

Over the course of nearly a century, the della Robbia family enjoyed the sustained patronage of both the Church and a great number of noble families, including the Medici, the Pazzi and the Tournabuoni. The family produced sculpture to adorn churches and the facades of Florentine palazzi, and for private devotion, as they had done since the founding of the studio by Giovanni’s famous, pioneering grand uncle, Luca della Robbia (1399/1400- 1482). Giovanni, the most distinguished of Andrea della Robbia’s (1435-1525) sons, took over the running of the workshop after his father’s death.

RELATED LITERATURE
J. Pope-Hennessy, Catalogue of Italian Sculpture in the Victoria and Albert Museum, 3 vols., London, 1964
A. P. Darr, P. Barnet, A. Boström, Italian Sculpture in the Detroit Institute of Arts, vol. I, London, 2002, cat. no. 98, pp. 200-201
M. Bormand et. al., Les sculptures européennes du musée du Louvre, Paris, 2006

Sold with a copy of a thermoluminescence analysis report dated 29/6/2015 from Arcadia, Milan indicating that the sample taken [from this relief] is compatible with the presumed date [16th century]