Talk:Luca della Robbia

There are several issues with citations, unbiased language, and some missing information in the article. In the introduction to the article there are no citations listed, the references given from Oxford Art Online and Encyclopedia Britannica could be good citations for this section. The Biography Section mentions information it says is from the work of Giorgio Vasari, yet does not mention which work or include a citation for his book. Citing The Lives of the Artists Oxford University Press, 1998. ISBN 0-19-283410-X, and adding some more information which is present in this work would be an improvement for the Biography section.

Some of the language of the article comes across as unprofessional or as biased. For example where the introduction describes his "most famous work" or the Sculpture section describes "the most important existing work", these sections do not give any citation for why this is so and it comes across as a personal opinion. Some of the passages which describe artworks also insert assessments of the art which are un-cited and biased, for example in the section of Sculptures "Their figures are at once lively, finely observed, and gracefully combined in groups designed to fit the ten panels of the gallery." is an un-cited, non-neutral critique of the work. There are also several areas where there are inferences about della Robbia's skill and technique which are un-cited. For example the section on the Cantoria which claims "The advanced nature of the work proves that he must have been an accomplished artist long before joining the Sculptors Guild in 1432",is un-cited. The Oxford Art Online article on della Robbia, given in references, gives some citations from other artists that could be used to describe what specific professionals thought of della Robbia's skill.

Over all the article can be improved by either providing citations for professional assessments of the importance and skill of different works, or deleting any biased sentences all together. There is also more information in sources for this article such as in Gentilini, Giancarlo. "Robbia, della." Grove Art Online. Oxford Art Online, Oxford University Press, which could be added to improve the article.Walcoh (talk) 20:45, 31 January 2017 (UTC)Reply

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Davidmadelena (talk) 10:19, 28 May 2022 (UTC) A text from the V&A website ^[1]contains clues to the glazing technique used (lacking citations) by Luca Della Robbia, but lacks the detail one might hope for to describe the stage by stage process and the chemistry of the enamels/glazes. Does V&A text qualify for citations in Wikipedia articles? Davidmadelena (talk) 10:19, 28 May 2022 (UTC) The V & A text follows, with davidmadelena comments in square brackets:Reply

Enamelled terracotta sculpture was produced by a technique very similar to that used since at least the 14th century by Italian ceramicists in the making of glazed pottery [that process is dip, dry, paint, fire, i.e. dip or coat in lead silicate glaze with added tin, allow to dry, brush paint with metal oxide enamels - different oxides producing different colours - and fire. Thereby creating in-glaze polychrome decorated earthenware, the enamels being absorbed into the unfired tin-glaze rather like fresco.] Although Luca della Robbia cannot be credited with the discovery of this fundamental principle, he was the first artist to discover an enameling technique which could be successfully applied to sculpture.

'January', roundel, Luca Della Robbia, 15th century. Museum no. 7632-1861

His eventual breakthrough followed several failed attempts to enamel small terracotta reliefs, made during the 1430s. Luca's technique remained a closely guarded secret until after his death, but its basic steps can be briefly outlined [It would be nice to see more detail]. The artist first modelled his damp clay into the desired shape. This was usually done by hand, although simple designs, such as decorative repeat-motifs, could be cast from a mould.

The latter method was generally eschewed by Luca although it was often used by Andrea della Robbia. Cast details were inevitably much cruder and more stereotyped than those individually modelled, as may be illustrated by the contrast between the sensitively sculpted foliage of the 'Stemma' of René of Anjou and the monotonous formalised flowers from the border of the later della Robbia roundel of 'The Adoration of the Shepherds', also at the Victoria and Albert Museum. After the clay had dried, it was fired in an oven. If the sculpture was of considerable size, it would previously have been cut into sections which were fired separately.

This was the case with the 'Stemma', where the central area is formed of seven or eight pieces and the border of no less than fourteen. When it had cooled, the clay was treated with a lead glaze before being fired a second time, [coated with a lead silicate glaze with added tin and metallic oxides different oxides producing different colours, before being fired a second time,] in order to make its surface harder and impervious to water [Duh]. The glaze would be coloured by the prior addition of one of the limited number of coloured oxides available. [The glazes would be coloured by the prior addition of metallic oxides, different oxides producing different colours: Tin oxide for white, Antimony for yellow, Manganese dioxide for purple/brown, Cobalt oxide for blue, Copper oxide for greens, Iron oxide for brown/ochre.]

By the standards of the day, the range of pigmentation in the 'Stemma' is a very wide one, comprising six colours: white, yellow, purple, blue and light and dark green. A multi-part relief, such as the 'Stemma', would then be pieced together before finally being cemented into the place prepared for it on the wall.