- Work:
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- Author, circle:
- Luca della Robbia (1439/40-1482)
- Commissioner, collector:
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Piero il Gottoso de’ Medici (1416-1469)
- Epoch, date:
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- Location:
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- Inventory:
- inv. nn.: 7632-1861 (Gennaio), 7633-1861 (Febbraio), 7634-1861 (Marzo), 7635-1861 (Aprile), 7636-1861 (Maggio), 7637-1861 (Giugno), 7638-1861 (Luglio), 7639-1861 (Agost
- Technical details:
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glazed terracotta, polychrome (in the colours blue, white, yellow and black); diameter, respectively, cm: 59.7 (January), 60 (February), 59.7 (March), 58.4 (April), 56.8 (May), 56.5 (June), 56.2 (July), 59.7 (August), 60.3 (September), 60.3 (October), 60 (November), 59.7 (December).
- Provenance:
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- Description, subject:
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The twelve medallions in glazed terracotta, painted on a white ground in various shades of blue, represent the Labours of the Months accompanied by the respective astrological indications. Each scene is surrounded by a round border coloured light and dark blue to indicate the duration of the day and the night relevant to each month. Written on this round band are the name of the month, at the bottom, and at the sides the number of daylight hours, at the ends of the light blue portion. Shown at the top left of each medallion is the House of the Zodiac in which the sun is to be found in that month. On the opposite side at the bottom is the crescent indicating the phases of the moon.
- Historical information:
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The medallions in glazed terracotta now in the Victoria & Albert Museum in London are what remains of the splendid low barrel vault ceiling of the studiolo on the first floor of Palazzo Medici. Luca della Robbia executed them shortly after the mid fifteenth century, between 1450 and 1456, for Piero il Gottoso, who found the refined technique of enamelling perfected by the artist particularly attuned to his own sophisticated and elegant tastes, loving as he did the precious materials to which the brilliant colours of the della Robbia terracottas appeared to allude.
In the ceiling of the study in Palazzo Medici, the medallions must have been set within coloured backgrounds imitating rare and precious marbles, such as porphyry and green serpentine. The different curvature of the twelve medallions has suggested the theory that they were arranged in the intrados of the vault in three rows of four, one in the centre (with the months of May, June, July and August) and the other two on each side of the barrel vault between the springer and the keystone (Pope-Hennessy 1980, p. 241). According to another theory (Gentilini 1992, p. 164 note 25), instead, the medallions were arranged in groups of six months, following the sequence of the Florentine year which began in March, and set in a chequered pattern.
The entire decoration, in which the figurative motifs in circular frames were alternated with multicoloured tiles which created abstract and colourful patterns, must have resembled in appearance other ceilings created by Luca in the years that followed, in particular that of the chapel of the Cardinal of Portugal in San Miniato al Monte, but also those in the tabernacles, again in San Miniato, and in the sanctuary in Impruneta.
The iconography of the della Robbia medallions appears to refer to an ancient source, the treatiseDe Re Rustica (On Agriculture) by Lucius Iunius Columella (4-70 AD), who lauded the pleasures of country life that could be enjoyed in the rural villa.
The ceiling of Piero de’ Medici’s study, together with the majolica pavement, the inlaid cupboards and the numerous rarities contained therein, as well as the precious manuscripts, aroused the wonder and admiration of contemporaries as illustrated in the pages of Filarete and Vasari (see Archive/Anthology in the record on the Studiolo). In 1468 Diomede Carafa requested various drawings of the ceiling to use them as models in designing the rooms in his new residence in Naples.
The ceiling was dismantled together with the rest of the study shortly after the palazzo was purchased by the Riccardi in 1659.
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