Della Robbia and the mystery of the first furnace “hidden” in Bagno a Ripoli

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After working as a sculptor with Ghiberti and Donatello, Luca della Robbia abandoned the chisel and mallet to commit himself to the land creating a glaze cover made with secret mixtures of his own invention.

His first works date to 1441, the Tabernacle of the Sacrament in S. Maria Nuova in 1442 the Resurrection of Christ in S. Maria del Fiore.
For five years, Luca and his relations created true masterpieces of glazed land and a question naturally arises: where did they work and plant the first furnace if their famous home-workshop in via Guelfa in Florence was only acquired in 1446?
The identification of the location is still an enigma that fascinates historians. In 1999, with our publication, we suggested that this place could be in Bagno a Ripoli where Luca’s father owned, even before 1427, homes and estates in Baroncelli and Osteria Nuova, including even the well-known home I’ Robbia.
So, one might suppose that Luca chose this area familiar to him, away from prying eyes to protect the secrets of his invention, but especially for the availability of water from the Rio Maggiore, of dense forests for fuel and of good clay in the river deposits of the Arno.
To validate this hypothesis is Pierone Verile, a sculptor who had a studio in Rovezzano, who, in 1441, curious about the “notion” his friend Luca had invented, crossed the Arno with a ship and “goes to him, in his laboratory on the Quarto hillock, between Rimaggio and Bagno a Ripoli, and is astounded by the works of that artist who is intent on modelling clay and painting it over with a bright paint, now white as snow, now as blue as the sky. He sees in the wide large room men busily working around a roaring furnace.”
In Rimaggio we identified the building (today of residential use) that may have been the workshop of the Della Robbia where, after it was abandoned by them, a certain Franciesco da Figline planted a glass furnace.
There were several works by the Della Robbia in the territory of Bagno a Ripoli which have unfortunately disappeared, but the most intriguing and still visible today is the Madonna della seggiola in the tabernacle of the Martellina that, being just above the probable Rimaggio furnace and being unfinished, may have been one of the first works of the Della Robbia workshop.

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