ROBBIA, Giovanni della
(b. 1469, Firenze, d. 1529, Firenze)

Altarpiece

1511
Glazed terracotta
San Medardo, Arcevia

Giovanni della Robbia, the third-born son of Andrea, inherited the family workshop and was responsible - together with his brother Luca the Younger - for adapting its production to 16th-century taste, influenced by contemporary Florentine painting. His style was eclectic with emphasis on decoration, and his works showed a dialectical relationship between plastic and pictorial effects.

In 1511, Giovanni executed an intricate altarpiece for the main altar of the hermitage of San Gerolamo del Sasso Rosso near Arcevia. This altarpiece, now in San Medardo, Arcevia, has an architectural framework with many ornamental motifs. The grandiose character of the work, the two candelabrum-bearing angels at the sides of the upper part of the altar, and the figures St John the Baptist and St Jerome in the niche take their inspiration from Andrea Sansovino. The spacious and resonant structure of the altarpiece recalls the Monument of Ascanio Sforza by Sansovino in Santa Maria del Popolo in Rome.