Luca Della Robbia
(Florence 1399/1400 - 1482)

Luca was the founder of the Della Robbia family's highly successful artistic activities. However, like his forefathers before him, he initially trained as an artisan in the textile sector. The surname Della Robbia in fact derives from "rubia tinctorum", a red dye used for fabrics.
Luca's attention soon turned to sculpture and architecture, perhaps as a result of his acquaintance and friendship with the likes of Brunelleschi, Donatello, Ghiberti, Leon Battista Alberti, Michelozzo and Lorenzo il Magnifico.
His humanistic interests led him towards sculpture in terracotta, an art form that was very well known and highly esteemed in antiquity and was reintroduced in the fifteenth century in the climate of rediscovery of the past.
Luca effectively reinvented glazed terracotta, which brought him fame and wealth. As a result, in 1446 he was able to buy a large house in Via Guelfa and set up his workshop, where the Della Robbia family tradition was to continue to prosper for more than a century.
This workshop turned out sculptures, reliefs and other articles, which immediately enjoyed commercial success because of their low production costs, their ease of transport, even to distant and inaccessible locations, and the strength and impermeability of the materials used.

Luca Della Robbia
(Florence 1399/1400 - 1482)

Luca was the founder of the Della Robbia family's highly successful artistic activities. However, like his forefathers before him, he initially trained as an artisan in the textile sector. The surname Della Robbia in fact derives from "rubia tinctorum", a red dye used for fabrics.
Luca's attention soon turned to sculpture and architecture, perhaps as a result of his acquaintance and friendship with the likes of Brunelleschi, Donatello, Ghiberti, Leon Battista Alberti, Michelozzo and Lorenzo il Magnifico.
His humanistic interests led him towards sculpture in terracotta, an art form that was very well known and highly esteemed in antiquity and was reintroduced in the fifteenth century in the climate of rediscovery of the past.
Luca effectively reinvented glazed terracotta, which brought him fame and wealth. As a result, in 1446 he was able to buy a large house in Via Guelfa and set up his workshop, where the Della Robbia family tradition was to continue to prosper for more than a century.
This workshop turned out sculptures, reliefs and other articles, which immediately enjoyed commercial success because of their low production costs, their ease of transport, even to distant and inaccessible locations, and the strength and impermeability of the materials used.