Madonna and Child with Bird

 

      Something rather different today.  A sculpture, 139x95cms, undertaken in glazed terracotta in Renaissance Florence.  It is the creation of the workshop of Giovanni della Robbia, (1469-1529), son of the much better know Andrea della Robbia.  Today it is on display in the foyer of the Barber Institute (part of the University of Birmingham) but it was originally made for a monastery (and I have no idea which) located in Castellina nr Florence. I took the photograph way back in 2017 when I made my first visit to the Institute.

     The sculpture is in the form of an aedicule (from the Latin meaning 'little house'), essentially a small shrine.  It is an example of those ways in which Classical Antiquity was adopted and adapted to fit a Christian context.  The term 'tabernacle' might be used today.  The aedicule is of the Corinthian order supported by a winged cherub's head flanked by two cornucopia profusely sprouting foliage, fruit and pine cones.  The profusion is repeated in the sunk panels of the Corinthian pilasters and cornucopia replace the volutes, the 'helices', in the capitals. Indeed, the whole 'architecture' of the aedicule is highly decorated, most particularly the frieze of the entablature which echoes the ornamentation of the support with alternating cherub heads and foliage. The cornice is itself is a little simplified, omitting the brackets/modillions (for technical reasons?).

     The visual and devotional heart of the aedicule is a relief sculpture of the Theotokos and the Christ child contained in a thin arch decorated with 'egg and dart'. She placed centrally, Christ to her left. Both are standing - the Virgin Mary is three quarter length, Christ full length.  Both the figures occupy slightly different positions in the 'picture' plain - Christ, who is standing on the 'sill' of the arch is in the foreground, his mother slightly behind, her lower half partially hidden by the architecture. Christ's right hand is raised in blessing, his left hand, which is held above his heart is holding a small bird.

     The work of the della Robbia family has an immediate appeal to the viewer.  I particularly love the tondi, which are used so successfully to decorate the exterior of so many Renaissance buildings in the city and also the dazzling ceiling of the Chapel of the Cardinal of Portugal attached to the north aisle of San Miniato del Monte also in Florence. In the Madonna and Child with Bird, which is so scaled as to suggest a devotional use, I love the freedom with which the Classical language of architecture is handled. 

    Is the bird in the infant Christ's hand, I wonder, a reference to the legend of the infant Jesus making birds from clay and then giving them life?  The story occurs in the Infancy Gospel of Thomas.  The legend later occurs in the Quran and in Medieval Jewish writing.  Although entirely apocryphal it was, like stories from the Proto-Evangelium of James, a very popular subject for Medieval artists.  If it is then it is some sort of comment on the work of della Robbia as a sculptor in clay and by extension to work of all artists.