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Tag Archives: 15th century

Object of the Month: December 2025

Pair of Angels with Candlesticks

Glazed terracotta, c. 1500

Benedetto Buglioni (attributed to)

Florence, 1459/60 – 1521

Italian Renaissance masters like Donatello, Cellini, and Michaelangelo created magnificent sculptures chiseled from stone, carved from wood, or cast in metal. These methods were time-consuming and costly. In the early 1440s, Luca della Robbia, a stone sculptor in Florence, was able to cut the time and cost of sculpture production by developing techniques for tin-glazed terracotta. In addition to achieving the magnificent detail found in the expensive materials, he produced vibrant, permanent colors in his sculptures which other media could not duplicate. Also, he designed multiple modified pieces from molds, which greatly reduced production time and cost.

As a businessman, Luca della Robbia managed a large workshop, where he produced high quality, tin-glazed terracotta pieces and preserved the secrecy of his formulas and techniques. His nephew, Andrea della Robbia inherited both Luca’s workshop and secrets. He became an outstanding sculptor, creating pieces beyond his uncle’s capabilities. (Andrea’s sons, Giovanni and Girolamo, also became sculptors and practiced the family’s secrets. Girolamo accepted the king of France’s invitation to Paris in 1517, where he made M&G’s terracotta busts of French nobility.)

Benedetto Buglioni

The son of a sculptor, Benedetto Buglioni was born in Florence in 1459/60. He probably studied under Andrea del Verrocchio (Leonardo da Vinci’s teacher) and learned terracotta sculpting as a pupil in the della Robbia workshop of Luca and later Andrea. According to Giorgio Vasari, a contemporary artist and historian, Benedetto learned the “secret of glazed earthenware” from a female servant “who came out of the house of Andrea della Robbia.”

In his early 20s, Benedetto opened his own terracotta workshop in Florence. For unknown reasons, from 1487 to 1490, he and his brother produced terracotta works in Perugia, a city about 100 miles from Florence.  Returning to Florence, the Buglioni brothers opened their own workshop and became della Robbia’s chief competitors. High quality, tin-glazed terracotta was extremely popular, and there were plenty of commissions for both workshops.

In time Benedetto was recognized as a master artist. His clients included major churches, important civic groups, and wealthy patrons, including the Medici family. His standing in the artistic community is recognized by the fact that he served on the committee which determined the placement of Michelangelo’s monumental David.

Terracotta Angel Candlesticks

The Eucharist or Communion is a Christian sacrament instituted by Jesus Christ at the final supper before His crucifixion. He shared bread and wine with His disciples and told them the bread represented His body and the wine, His blood. His followers were to partake of the bread and wine as a reminder of His sacrifice and its eternal significance.

In Roman Catholic churches, the elements of the Eucharist are kept in a tabernacle, a locked and decorative box, built into the wall or placed on the altar. As part of the Catholic Mass, candles on either side of the tabernacle are lit. Traditionally, the candles are reminders that Christ is the light of the world and the church.

M&G’s angels probably held candles on either side of a tabernacle. These angels may have been part of a matching tabernacle and angel set, or they may have been used with a tabernacle made of other materials. There are few Renaissance terracotta tabernacles still in existence, and very few of those still have their original angel candlesticks. Of the existing Renaissance terracotta angel candlesticks, most lack tabernacles and some even lack their partner angel.

M&G’s terracotta candlesticks are a typical height—roughly 22 inches; however, their design details vary greatly. Some Renaissance angel candlesticks stand, others kneel. Some wear robes, stoles, surpluses, sashes, jewelry, or belts; others have intricate collars, cuffs or hems. Some are barefoot, some wear sandals, and others wear shoes. Many have wings, and some, like M&G’s, were designed wingless.

M&G’s Pair of Angels with Candlesticks began as a piece of wood wrapped in wet cloths. A molded clay body was formed around the cloths. The body then received a head, arms, hands, feet, clothing details, and candle holder. Some of these additions were based on standard clay molds, and others were hand-sculpted from raw clay. When the sculpture was complete and the clay set, the wood and cloths were removed, leaving a hollow center, necessary for proper drying and firing.

The head and hands of M&G’s angels are not glazed; these areas are the color of baked clay. A tin oxide glaze was painted over all the areas to be glazed and then fired, leaving a beautiful white as seen in the angels’ collars and sleeves. Next, a blue cobalt and a yellow lead glaze were painted over the white. When fired again, the glazes fused with the terracotta, became enameled, and their colors permanent.

Renaissance sculptors rarely signed their works. If found, contracts and payment records can establish who created larger objects; however, smaller works are most often associated with a particular workshop based on style, quality, and the figure’s individual details. Experts agree that M&G’s angels can be attributed to Benedetto Buglioni and his workshop.

Although these angels no longer serve during church services, they do speak to us of the craftmanship of Renaissance tin-glazed terracotta masters. They may also cause us to think of those who saw them in the warm glow of their candles more than 500 years ago.

 

William Pinkston, retired educator and M&G volunteer

 

Suggested Reference

Della Robbia: Sculpting with Color in Renaissance Florence by Marietta Cambareri, with contributions by Abigall Hykin and Cortney Harris

 

Published 2025

 

St. Bartholomew

St. Bartholomew

Jean Bellegambe

Below the image, click play to listen.

Object of the Month: January 2025

Madonna and Child with Angels

Tempera and oil on panel

Master of the Greenville Tondo

Umbrian, active late 15th century

This mystery painting was once attributed to the young Umbrian, Raphael as possibly one of his early works (Giuseppe Fiocco, 1937), which could “aid in the studies of the formation of Raphael’s personality” (Mario Salmi). Then, it was suggested as characteristic of Raphael’s teacher in Umbria, Pietro Vannucci, called Perugino (William Suida, 1941 and Wilhelm von Bode, 1921). But it was the great historian Federico Zeri in 1959 and later followed by Everett Fahy, former Metropolitan Museum of Art curator and Director of the Frick, who suggested a different old master entirely.

This tondo (Italian for “round”) is puzzling, but understanding the cultural context of patronage, traditional artistic training, and the workshop setting can help explain some of the mystery.

In the Middle Ages through the early Renaissance, workshop practice was the only common form of artistic instruction in Italy beginning with the religious orders, monasteries, and convents. The Trades (sculptor, mason, architect) were taught from father to son or from an older family member to a younger. Formal apprenticeships emerged in the 13th century in the context of the craft guild system when workshop or bound apprenticeship became a fully regulated system for lay artists. Then, during the 15th century, the dislike for the guild system’s restrictions and process led to an adapted concept of artistic training, called the Academy. The specific training process for artists is further developed in the article about M&G’s painting, A Sibyl by female Old Master, Ginevra Cantofoli.

Throughout all of these training methods to become a master of one’s own workshop, imitation was the most important component of artistic training. Master painters employed a workshop of assistants to copy or paint in his style and to help meet the incoming demand of commissions by patrons. These points are critical to understanding why it is difficult to attribute a specific artistic personality to today’s enduring Old Master paintings. Besides, most painters well into the late 1400s and early 1500s did not autograph their finished works, and finding the original documents commissioning paintings can be challenging.

However, when the artist is unknown, yet there is an entire group of works that look to be by the same master’s hand, the experts (as in this case) will suggest a pseudonym—create a name for the artist after the place or location where his best or most representative work resides. Zeri and Fahy chose M&G’s painting as the namesake for the painter, “The Master of the Greenville Tondo,” meaning this tondo in Greenville, SC.

According to historian Carrie Baker, this painter, subject, and style reflect the “prevailing visual tastes of the period.” Workshop practice utilized multiple assistants and collaborative work to fill commissions that looked like the master’s hand. The assistants were all skilled artisans but working for the key master. Not knowing the assistants’ names isn’t an issue as this was their occupation: to reproduce works at the request of clients in the consistent style of the master to meet customer expectations. Today, we can photograph and print our favorite originals, but then artists could only copy and repeat. Works like M&G’s Madonna and Child with Angels reflect a popular subject and shape of the period, and providing paintings like M&G’s at a client’s request was the master’s way of “positioning . . . his workshop at an economic advantage.”

Many of the masters and their assistants were truly “Renaissance” men—able to tackle the design of many things, not just paintings but manuscripts, reliquary, sculpture, fabrics, architectural features, etc. The anonymous artist as Baker notes, “was probably an active participant of a working-class system of many trades.” The artist is unknown, but by comparing similar characteristics, experts have connected at least 32 works as having come from this same artist’s hand found in places including Pancole, Italy, the Museum of Fine Arts, St. Petersburg in Florida, Princeton University Art Museum in New Jersey, the Walters Art Museum in Baltimore, and the Estensi Gallery in Modena, Italy.

Regardless of this painting and many others not being attributed to a specific, known personality—such as a respected influencer like Perugino or a major name of the Renaissance like Raphael, this master’s work was just as valuable in shaping Umbria’s artistic identity. And, more than that, our painting is shaping the estimation of our own community through the designation “Master of the Greenville Tondo”—bringing honor and recognition to the city of Greenville throughout the world where other works by this unknown master are displayed.

 

Erin R. Jones, Executive Director

 

Published 2025

The Coronation of the Virgin

The Coronation of the Virgin

Antonio Checchi (called Guidaccio da Imola)

Below the image, click play to listen.

 

Object of the Month: September 2024

Credenza

Walnut

Italian, 15th or 16th century

Gift of Paul W. Doll

In 1970, one of the Museum & Gallery’s primary early donors contributed this piece—a 15th-16th century carved walnut Credenza. As a furnishing, credenzas began as functioning sideboards, the top of which were meant for preparation and presentation of food. Long, low cabinets, often featuring drawers or doors for storing dishes and glasses, credenzas were often draped with expensive fabrics in wealthier homes.

Taken from medieval Latin, credenza means “belief” or “confidence” (sharing its derivation with our English word, “credence”). In our modern mindset, it is somewhat difficult to comprehend how the idea of “confidence” might have been wedded to a piece of wooden furniture, but it likely began as an association of the act of testing a noble’s food for poison.

Lest we discount such a probability, it’s helpful to understand the historical context. As far back as A.D. 1198, the Jewish doctor and philosopher Maimonides wrote a treatise on the subject for his employer, Sultan Saladin of Egypt and Syria. Maimonides gave detailed instruction, urging Saladin to insist his server or host eat a large portion of each dish before beginning to eat his own.

It seems unlikely to us that the need to test food could be so great, but historical examples may aid here.  During the reign of Henry VIII in 16th-century England (the era in which M&G’s Credenza was constructed in Italy), the king employed some 200 persons in Hampton Court’s kitchens alone. While other European royalty and nobility may have employed smaller staffs, there was still ample opportunity for poisoning a ruler’s food. As servants delivered dishes to the dining room, they placed the dishes on the piece of furniture where credence tests for poisons were conducted, a literal credenza.

The face of M&G’s 16th-century walnut credenza was crafted of five solid boards, with overlay panels applied over each.  Each of these panels is ornamented with detailed carving—four of these featuring profile busts of Renaissance figures (a technique called romayne). Each pair of these panels form doors, and the doors flank a fixed central panel carved with a grotesque mask. Hovering above the five front panels are three drawers, largely camouflaged by detailed fluted carving. The two end panels are simpler, each contain a distinctively Italian carved rosette and each lack the fluted frieze at the top. Along the front of the top plank are periodic dowel caps, indicating that the top is formed of smaller individual planks.

This style of carved Renaissance credenza is typical of both France and Italy, but individual elements indicate that this piece is most likely from Northern Italy, while still reflecting influences from the surrounding countries. Construction, materials, and ornamentation help to date the Credenza to the end of the 15th century to the middle of the 16th. Specifically, the detailed clothing of the men and women carved on the face of this credenza is like a Renaissance time capsule. The winged helmet worn by the first male (far left), for instance, depicts a sallet, a combat helmet which replaced the bascinet (helmet) in the mid-15th century. Later sallets dispensed with face protection and featured gracefully curved surfaces. These were preferred by more lightly armed troops and suggest that this credenza was built no earlier than about A.D. 1460.

Fascinating historic pieces such as M&G’s Credenza provide windows through which we understand the lives and culture of those who came before us and, in this case, an era upon which much of our modern Western civilization is built.

 

Dr. Stephen B. Jones, M&G volunteer

 

Bronze Pitcher

Bronze Pitcher

Belgian, 14th or 15th century

Below the image, click play to listen.

 

Jacopo de Carolis

Madonna and Child with Angels

Jacopo de Carolis

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The Entry into Jerusalem

The Entry into Jerusalem

Signed, “the hand of Theophrastos”

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Psuedo Pier Francesco Fiorentino

Madonna and Child with St. John and an Angel

Psuedo Pier Francesco Fiorentino

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Object of the Month: November 2022

Madonna and Child with St. John the Baptist and an Angel

Tempera on panel

Pseudo Pier Francesco Fiorentino

Florentine, active late 15th century

In the 15th century, Florence enjoyed a robust cultural and economic environment. One prominent idea of the era was the rediscovery of the circle and the variety of ways it was used. It may be somewhat humorous in our current culture to recognize that a simple shape could dominate life, but the circle did.

The Renaissance was about advancement—an era full of discoveries. Dias, da Gama, Columbus, and Vespucci found places previously unknown through geographical exploration of our planet, understood then to be round instead of flat. Rediscovery of Greek and Roman mathematical perfections included the circle. The shape was incorporated into architecture in a variety of public and private buildings in Florence. The circle became a symbol of God, the universe, and heaven. Between late 1430 to early 1450, artists began using the circle as part of their painting design in a format called tondo, the Italian word for round.

As a spiritual symbol, the circle became a means of representing the patron saint of Florence, John the Baptist. He was often depicted as a youth, an example to the young people of Florence. Before the Renaissance, paintings focused on individual depictions of saints and biblical characters; however, artist Fra Filippo Lippi is credited with being one of the first to paint John the Baptist together with Mary and the infant Christ in the 1450s. Additionally, Lippi was the first to paint the figures worshipping the Christ Child in adoration as seen in his work, the Annalena Adoration in the Uffizi, Florence. This new subject was the beginning of a popular focus in the late 1400s and well suited to the tondo format.

Filippo Lippi had a bustling workshop with many apprentices including Pesellino and Botticelli. As a favorite of the Medici, Lippi fulfilled numerous private and public commissions, including a Medici tondo now in the National Gallery. While Botticelli is credited with making the round format popular in the late 1400s, Lippi’s studio and apprentices created tondi and essentially mass-produced paintings depicting Mary and John the Baptist adoring the Christ Child to satisfy the public demand.

The Medici family was partly responsible for the popularity of tondi because these round paintings became not only a status symbol of wealth, but also were of spiritual significance in private, devotional settings. To have an object of art that the Medici possessed was a means of connection to them. Tondi existed in the homes of wealthy Florentines and public spaces and soon became popular in other Italian cities. They were not commonly used in churches since they were smaller.

The creator of M&G’s tondo, Madonna and Child with St. John the Baptist and an Angel, is enigmatic. Scholars have been unable to attribute a specific artist, but the work seemed influenced by Pier Francesco Fiorentino yet not painted by him. Hence, the designation of “Pseudo.” However, careful study of the work indicates that its construction predates the surge in popularity of tondi in the 1480s. M&G’s painting is one of the earliest surviving tondi produced after Fra Filippo Lippi’s initial exploration of the adoration subject—a strong representative of the Florentine tondo tradition.

The painting’s details include a unicorn in the background, which is a symbol of Mary’s purity along with the white lily. Her adoring the Christ Child in a country landscape setting may be based on St. Bridget’s Revelations. The halos reveal the influence of naturalism prevalent in the Renaissance style. While the halos of Mary and the angel are typical of the flat Gothic style, the foreshortened, elliptical halo of John the Baptist is shown from a three-dimensional perspective.

As a “window into heaven,” M&G’s tondo has delighted viewers since entering the collection in 1951—the museum’s inaugural year.

 

John Good, M&G volunteer

 

Published 2022

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