Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: CHAPTER III DATED AND AUTHENTICATED WORKS 7E may divide the della Robbia sculpture into three classes—first, those of which no repetitions are found, as they were expressly ordered from the fabbrica by congregations and families. On most of these we shall find the coats of arms or devices of those by whom they were commissioned. The second category, which is very numerous, comprises mostly reproductions of Luca's and Andrea's works of minor merit; they are repetitions of the same subject, representing especially the Madonna and Infant Child. Many are to be found on the walls of streets and palaces, and on country road-sides. The third category comprises the coats of arms of families, municipalities, convents, and hospitals, and these are the most numerous. They are at the present day exactly imitated and copied by the Ginori- Richard fabbrica at Doccia, and the Cantagalli fabbrica out of Porta Romana in Florence. The first of Luca della Robbia's works of which we have an undisputed date (1431), are the monuments for the organ of S. Maria del Fiore in Florence, which are constructed on a very grand scale. " The wardens commissioned them from Luca, who, in addition to his reputation, had a further recommendation from Messer Vieri de' Medici, an influential and popular citizen, by whom Luca was much beloved. These ornaments were to be placed over the door of the sacristy in the above- named cathedral." Vasari, to whom we owe these facts, adds : " In the prosecution of this work, Luca executed certain series for the casement, which represent the choristers, who are singing, in different attitudes. To the execution of these, he gave such earnest attention, and succeeded so well, that although the figures are sixteen braccia from the ground, the spectator can, nevertheless, di...