AN OBJECT FOR SUMMER
"JUNE" - ONE OF THE LABOURS OF THE MONTHS
By Lucca della Robbia (1399-14820)
Made in Florence, Italy about 1450-56
Diameter 59.7cms
Location - Medieval & Renaissance Galleries, Victoria & Albert Museum, London.
I've mentioned my interest in Renaissance Italian ceramics in previous postings and promised to write about a visit I've made to the historic pottery making town of Deruta in Umbria in recent months. I'm prompted just now, however, to include a ceramic item in my monthly "object in focus" series for 2015. Back in the 1980's, long before the Victoria and Albert Museum had drawn up plans for the re-display of the Renaissance collections, I used to wander the ground floor badly lit linoleum covered corridors where objects from the Italian collections were housed and displayed. One of my favourite stopping points was a wall mounted display of 12 pottery roundels which were entitled "Labours of the Months" and its one of these, appropriately entitled "June" that I've chosen to focus on here.
Measuring just short of 60 centimetres and with a relief decorated narrow border, beyond that is another painted border decorated in light and dark blue to indicate night and day at that time of year and with an inscription giving the number of daylight hours. The sun is shown in the Zodiac sign of cancer (note the little crab motif) and opposite in the dark blue band is the crescent moon. The labour of the month shown here is a young man harvesting a hay crop with a scythe. Near him he has bound the stalks in to a group of sheaves which lie on the ground. The other roundels in the set each depict a separate labour relevant to the annual cycle.
The Labours of the Months were commonly found as part of elaborate schemes of decoration to be found in European late medieval/ early renaissance churches and sometimes in medieval illuminated manuscripts. The use of the cycle in terms of Italian Renaissance pottery making seems to be unique though as the curators at the V & A say there is nothing else quite like it.
The roundel itself was crafted in the middle of the 15th century from terra cotta covered with a layer of tin glaze - a white powedery material which when dried could be painted on with more tin glaze tinted with various pigments. The technique was used extensively to make pots in Renaissance Italy and Lucca della Robbia (1399-1482) specialised in producing sculptural objects for installation in architectural schemes. Unusually for this workshop, only the architectural leaf motif border is sculpted - the naturalistic decoration itself painted on to the surface of the roundel.
The set of roundels appear to have been made for the private study (studiolo) of Piero Medici at the Palazzo Medici in Florence, created by him in the 1450's next to the family church of San Lorenzo. What is also fascinating is that each of the roundels has a curved disposition indicating they were used to decorate the barrel vault of Piero's study. Fragments of bits of green and purple tiles on the edge of some of the roundels indicate they must have been set in a a pattern of green and purple tiles - probably representing as closely as possible the colours of the Medici family. The design of each roundel is based on contemporary agricultural practice but descriptions in classical texts was probably also important. Piero had a copy in his library of a 1st century treatise "De Re Rustica" by Columella which describes the labours.
Studiolos were important rooms in the houses of Renaissance princes being used for private study, contemplation and also for the display of collected objects including rare illuminated books, natural history specimens, coins, cameos, medieval ivories and other costly items. The choice of subject for the ceiling roundels, the eternal passage of the seasons, not only resonates with the notion of God's ordering of the universe, but also with man's adaptation to them in the cultivation of food. It has also been suggested that the ceiling might be interpreted as a metaphor for the continuity and order of the Medici regime.
At the Palazzo Medici in Florence, now known as the Palazzo Medici Riccardo, only the wonderful Gozzoli series of frescoes has survived in situ, for the studiolo was destroyed in an extensive remodelling of the building carried out in 1659. The set of roundels was purchased for the V & A (then the South Kensington Museum) in 1861 from an Italian private collection during the time the museum was actively seeking to develop its Renaissance. collections. In the recent re-display of the Medieval and Renaissance collections the curators chose to place the roundels in a curved structure which would show their original disposition next to a case containing the types of objects that would have been kept in the original room; its an evocative display and worthy of seeking out if a visit to the V and A in London is made.
CIAO & KBO
This is the 6th Object in Focus and part of a series of 12 about fascinating Italian "items of interest". New postings are produced at the beginning of each month and other occasional postings occur about other subjects occur inbetween. Take a look back at previous postings which start with the purchase of our apartment in Italy in 2012. Thanks, Ian
"JUNE" - ONE OF THE LABOURS OF THE MONTHS
By Lucca della Robbia (1399-14820)
Made in Florence, Italy about 1450-56
Diameter 59.7cms
Location - Medieval & Renaissance Galleries, Victoria & Albert Museum, London.
I've mentioned my interest in Renaissance Italian ceramics in previous postings and promised to write about a visit I've made to the historic pottery making town of Deruta in Umbria in recent months. I'm prompted just now, however, to include a ceramic item in my monthly "object in focus" series for 2015. Back in the 1980's, long before the Victoria and Albert Museum had drawn up plans for the re-display of the Renaissance collections, I used to wander the ground floor badly lit linoleum covered corridors where objects from the Italian collections were housed and displayed. One of my favourite stopping points was a wall mounted display of 12 pottery roundels which were entitled "Labours of the Months" and its one of these, appropriately entitled "June" that I've chosen to focus on here.
Measuring just short of 60 centimetres and with a relief decorated narrow border, beyond that is another painted border decorated in light and dark blue to indicate night and day at that time of year and with an inscription giving the number of daylight hours. The sun is shown in the Zodiac sign of cancer (note the little crab motif) and opposite in the dark blue band is the crescent moon. The labour of the month shown here is a young man harvesting a hay crop with a scythe. Near him he has bound the stalks in to a group of sheaves which lie on the ground. The other roundels in the set each depict a separate labour relevant to the annual cycle.
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| THE MONTH OF JUNE "LABOURS OF THE MONTHS" BY LUCCA DELLA ROBBIA |
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| THE TWELVE ROUNDELS OF THE LUCCA DELLA ROBBIA "LABOURS OF THE MONTHS" |
The set of roundels appear to have been made for the private study (studiolo) of Piero Medici at the Palazzo Medici in Florence, created by him in the 1450's next to the family church of San Lorenzo. What is also fascinating is that each of the roundels has a curved disposition indicating they were used to decorate the barrel vault of Piero's study. Fragments of bits of green and purple tiles on the edge of some of the roundels indicate they must have been set in a a pattern of green and purple tiles - probably representing as closely as possible the colours of the Medici family. The design of each roundel is based on contemporary agricultural practice but descriptions in classical texts was probably also important. Piero had a copy in his library of a 1st century treatise "De Re Rustica" by Columella which describes the labours.
Studiolos were important rooms in the houses of Renaissance princes being used for private study, contemplation and also for the display of collected objects including rare illuminated books, natural history specimens, coins, cameos, medieval ivories and other costly items. The choice of subject for the ceiling roundels, the eternal passage of the seasons, not only resonates with the notion of God's ordering of the universe, but also with man's adaptation to them in the cultivation of food. It has also been suggested that the ceiling might be interpreted as a metaphor for the continuity and order of the Medici regime.
At the Palazzo Medici in Florence, now known as the Palazzo Medici Riccardo, only the wonderful Gozzoli series of frescoes has survived in situ, for the studiolo was destroyed in an extensive remodelling of the building carried out in 1659. The set of roundels was purchased for the V & A (then the South Kensington Museum) in 1861 from an Italian private collection during the time the museum was actively seeking to develop its Renaissance. collections. In the recent re-display of the Medieval and Renaissance collections the curators chose to place the roundels in a curved structure which would show their original disposition next to a case containing the types of objects that would have been kept in the original room; its an evocative display and worthy of seeking out if a visit to the V and A in London is made.
 |
| THE ROUNDELS ON DISPLAY IN THE RENAISSANCE GALLERIES AT THE V & A IN LONDON. |
This is the 6th Object in Focus and part of a series of 12 about fascinating Italian "items of interest". New postings are produced at the beginning of each month and other occasional postings occur about other subjects occur inbetween. Take a look back at previous postings which start with the purchase of our apartment in Italy in 2012. Thanks, Ian
Thank you very much. Very good and detailed descriptions, really useful!
ReplyDeleteElena Cardinale