An exhibition at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York is bringing renewed attention to the legacy of the Della Robbia family, a Florentine dynasty of Renaissance sculptors known for their pioneering work in brightly glazed ceramics. The show, titled “Rediscovering Della Robbia at the Met,” features 16 statues and reliefs by three generations of the family, highlighting their innovative contributions to art and their enduring cultural impact.
Luca della Robbia, active in the 1440s, is credited with shifting from traditional marble and bronze to develop a new technique for producing vividly colored ceramic works. His nephew Andrea and Andrea’s son Giovanni continued this tradition into the 16th century, creating pieces that transformed both religious and domestic spaces across Florence. Unlike frescoes that could fade or marble façades that lost detail at a distance, the Della Robbias’ glazed ceramics retained brightness and clarity over time and were legible even from afar. Their white-on-blue reliefs, such as Andrea’s depiction of the Archangel Michael, became a recognizable feature in Florentine architecture.
These ceramics not only adorned churches but also found their way into private homes, produced in multiples to meet the demand for personal devotional objects. The familiar religious imagery, such as the Virgin Mary and Christ Child, carried strong emotional resonance in a period when illness and mortality were common. The serene, tender depictions offered a vision of hope and spiritual comfort to Renaissance families.
The Della Robbias’ use of color also echoed classical traditions; contemporaries who had studied ancient Roman marbles noted that these sculptures were originally brightly painted. Their ceramics revived the vibrancy of these lost antiques, adding another layer to their historical significance. Giorgio Vasari, a 16th-century art historian, praised Luca della Robbia’s invention as a durable art of color that surpassed the ancients.
Though popular in their own time and still admired in the 19th century, Della Robbia ceramics gradually fell out of favor in the 20th century, with many pieces at the Met relegated to storage by the 1970s. Changes in art criticism and taste, including modernist preferences emphasizing “medium specificity,” contributed to a diminished appreciation for the family’s glazed works. Critics often viewed them as occupying an uneasy space between painting and sculpture, while their association with mass-produced tourist items further complicated perceptions.
The current exhibition aims to reframe the Della Robbias’ contributions by presenting their works in the context of their original environment and audience. Denise Allen, a curator at the Met involved in organizing the show with guest curator Federica Carta, noted that some sculptures had been neglected in storage, highlighting the renewed institutional effort to restore and showcase these historically significant pieces.
By viewing the ceramics through the lens of their time, the exhibition underscores the Della Robbias’ innovations in durability, legibility, and accessibility that helped shape Renaissance art and culture. This fresh perspective invites contemporary audiences to appreciate the family’s art beyond previous biases and recognize their lasting influence on both artistic technique and devotional practice.