The Reproduction and Dissemination of Della Robbia in Boston around 1900

David Silvernail

Master’s Paper 2015

Dr. Jodi Cranston

Dr. Keith Morgan

Living in an exceptionally tumultuous period, late-19th

-century Americans turned to

established cultures to form an identity to ease the tensions of the time. Several factors coalesced

to suggest Renaissance Italy, in particular its art, as the most useful comparison. The production

of plaster casts was at its height in the late 19th

century, which allowed American museums to

develop a collection representative of the canon of Western art without the burden of cost or time

that an assemblage of originals required. Casts democratized the establishment of museums,

since America lacked the royal collections from which European museums greatly benefited.

Additionally, innovations in terracotta production became more widely available to Italian

manufacturers in the mid-19th

century and facilitated the imitation of famous Renaissance works

for an international market. Thus, Americans were able to appropriate Renaissance motifs for

home ware. The rediscovered technique was extensively employed during the architectural

terracotta surge, and copies of Renaissance masterpieces were favored decoration. The

increased interest in terracotta and the Renaissance led to a popular reevaluation of the Della

Robbia workshop. The compositions struck a chord with Americans that reverberated through

many aspects of the visual culture, but schools found them especially useful since they were able

to exploit casts to enhance the aesthetics of the educational experience. The workshop’s

popularity was undoubtedly a result of their favored position in the art historical canon; but, even

so, the replication of its oeuvre still was conspicuously disproportionate in school decoration. As

I will argue in this paper, the visual importance of the chosen works reflects the shift of the role

of the child according to elites of the period.

Luca della Robbia (1400-1482) established the Florentine workshop, which specialized in

glazed, polychrome sculpture. Luca developed a technique, adapted from types of majolica, to

add saturated glazes to terracotta sculpture. The style became exceptionally popular and the

Silvernail 3

workshop was a prolific producer of architectural decorations. Before executing the terracotta

works, Luca was commissioned to carve the marble Cantoria for the Cathedral of Florence,

which is considered a highlight of his oeuvre. (Fig. 1) Luca designed several lunettes and

roundels including numerous variants of Madonna and Child. (Fig. 2) After Luca’s death, the

workshop’s production was taken over by Luca’s nephew Andrea (1435-1525), and later

Andrea’s son Giovanni (1469-1529). The roundels that Andrea produced for the Ospedale degli

Innocenti, designed by Fillippo Brunellesci in 1419, represented the orphans cared for in that

institution, and the works later found sustained celebrity in the 19th

and 20th

centuries. (Fig. 3)

The Della Robbia family maintained the workshop technique for about a century before it fell

out of favor in the later16th

century. After the workshop closed, the glazing process to achieve

the vivid and opaque colors was essentially lost. The workshop’s popularity is still evident in the

built environment of Tuscany since most of their works were architectural decorations.

Boston was among the earliest and most influential American cities that turned to the

Della Robbia oeuvre as sources for the decoration of institutions. The community was ripe with

cultural predilections that contributed to the Della Robbia work’s popularity. Bostonians were on

the forefront of educational developments and reforms, and they were interested in the emulation

of Italian Renaissance culture and society in various forms, as is evidenced by one highly visible

example of Renaissance Revival architecture, the Boston Public Library.1 Designed by Charles

Follen McKim and completed in 1895, the Boston Public library epitomized the Renaissance

Revival in American architecture. The Boston Public library maintained current catalogues from

1 See: Boston Public Library, American Art and Architecture of the Boston Public Library, (Boston: The Boston Public

Library Foundation, 1999); Douglass Shand-Tucci, "Renaissance Rome and Emersonian Boston: Michelangelo and Sargent, between Triumph and Doubt", Anglican Theological Review, Fall 2002, 995-100.

Silvernail 4

the Italian ceramic factory, Cantagalli, which produced wares indebted to Renaissance models.2

That factory’s production is discussed below, but Bostonians’ interest in their wares illustrates

their appetite for Renaissance ceramics. Additionally, several local companies helped to develop

the taste for the Della Robbia workshop. One example, the famed Guastavino factory, increased

the awareness of the style by adapting motifs from the Della Robbia workshop to produce their

exceedingly popular glazed tiles.3 The factory was founded by Rafael Guastavino (1842-1908), a

Spanish immigrant, and was based in nearby Woburn. Particularly of note, Guastavino produced

tiles for the room dubbed the “Della Robbia Bar” in the former Vanderbilt Hotel in New York.

(Fig. 4) The colloquial title represents how thoroughly Della Robbia was associated with the

generic Renaissance motifs displayed there. The aesthetic tastes, cultural values and initiatives

that promoted the Della Robbia reproductions were all well expressed around Boston, making it

an ideal site for the current study.

At large, Americans were closely associating with the Renaissance in broad cultural

concepts, but they had not previously held the Renaissance in such high esteem.4 The

Renaissance was comparatively much less well appreciated than ancient culture before the latter

half of the nineteenth century. However, soon after midcentury, several European writings

became widely available to American audiences that portrayed the Renaissance as the successor

of the ancient world. They included works by Walter Pater, Jacob Burckhardt, and John

2 Annual List of New and Important Books added to the Public Library of the City of Boston, 1902-1903. 80.

accessed April 10, 2014, Google Books. 3 See Salvador Tarragó, Guastavino Co. (1885-1965): catalogue of Works in Catalonia and America, (Barcelona:

Collegi d’Arquitectes de Catalunya, 2002); John Allen Ochsendorf, Guastavino vaulting: the art of structural tiling,

(New York: Architectural Press, 2010). 4 See Richard Guy Wilson, The American Renaissance: 1876-1917, (Brooklyn: Brooklyn Museum, 1979). for a

detailed explanation. Prominent works on the topic include Oliver W. Larkin, Art and Life in America, (New York:

Holt, Rhinehart and Wilson, 1960); Howard Mumford Jones, Ideas in America, (Cambridge: Harvard University

Press, 1945). 140-151.

Silvernail 5

Symonds.5 Americans began to see similarities between their sensibilities and those of the

Renaissance, particularly the appreciation for classical models and a commitment to elevate the

artist.6 The oft-cited quote by American sculptor, Augustus Saint-Gaudens is pertinent, “[n]o

time since the Renaissance has such a great team of men gathers to celebrate the arts.”7 Events

like the Colombian Exhibition, to which Saint-Gaudens was referring, provided a platform for

the rebranding of art in America. Italian Renaissance society not only emulated the ancients, but

surpassed them through artistic achievement. America wanted to be a part of the succession of

great societies, and the Renaissance provided a particularly effective framework for America to

present itself internationally.

International interest specifically in the Della Robbia workshop contributed to its

reputation in America. The popular appreciation abroad was facilitated by the production of

majolica works in Italy. New factories produced a great number of works, and demand for the

Renaissance style rose quickly. The revival of majolica workshops conveniently coincided with

the mid-19th

century unification of Italy, which brought a new spirit of Italian nationalism, which,

in turn, promoted an interest in exemplary Italian artwork. The government exploited the rich

cultural history of Italy to provide a sense of patriotism during the Risorgimento.8 The

Renaissance was a chief adoration, and a highlight of Italian Renaissance art production was

5 See Walter Pater, The Renaissance, (New York: Macmillan & Co. 1888); Jacob Burckhardt, The Civilization of the

Renaissance in Italy, (London, C.K Paul & Co. 1878); John Addington Symonds, The Renaissance in Italy, (New

York: Holt, 1887). 6 Wilson, The American Renaissance, 12.

7 Ibid. 12.

8 See Albert Boime, The Art of the Macchia and the Risorgimento: Representing Culture and Nationaluism in

Ninteenth-Century Italy, (Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 1993). The Risorgimento refers to the period

of Italian history roughly from 1815-1871 when many of the regions of the Italian peninsula formed the Kingdom of

Italy. The term connotes not only a sense of patriotism, but specifically a pride of history.

Silvernail 6

glazed terracotta.9 Scholars believed the workshop had invented the glazing technique and

emphasized its ingenuity. Contemporary factories naturally wanted to exploit the association

with exemplary Italians.

Two notable Italian factories established themselves in relation to the Della Robbia

workshop: the Ginori at Doccia and the Cantagalli near Florence. The Cantagalli and Ginori

factories stood as exemplars in the field and represented its spectrum of production emulating

Renaissance models. During the 1850s, the Ginori factory produced works after Renaissance

compositions including famous works by the Della Robbia.10

They mimicked famous designs

and styles during these earlier years. Their reinterpretation of the Cantoria reliefs included the

blue and white coloring, a signature combination of Luca della Robbia’s terracotta reliefs,

despite that the reliefs were made of marble. (Fig. 5) The factory quickly switched gears and

soon preferred to interpret the Renaissance style much more freely. Ginori continued to rely

heavily on Renaissance motifs, but developed unique wares.11

Their products were adaptations

and amalgamation, but still disseminated the Renaissance style.

From its foundation in 1878, the Cantagalli workshop, gained celebrity for their

imitations of Renaissance works and, unlike Ginori, the Cantagalli output remained faithful to

Renaissance compositions throughout the company’s lifespan. They relied on the prestige of the

Renaissance forms to promote their wares as a part of a larger business model. Cantagalli entered

the market much later than Ginori, but from the outset Cantagalli had an international aim. As

early as 9 March 1879, the company was mentioned in an article in The New York Times. The

Cantagalli family was full of shrewd businessmen, and Ulisse Cantagalli (1839-1901) used

9 See Livia Frescobadli Malenchini et. al. The Revival of Italian Maiolica: Ginori and Cantagalli, (Firenze:

Polistampa, 2011) 15. and Giovanni Conti, La maiolica Cantagalli e la manifatture ceramiche fiorentine, (Roma:

De Luca edizioni d’arte, 1990). for a more complete historiography. 10

Malenchini, Italian Majolica. 11

Ibid, 16.

Silvernail 7

contacts in London to promote the Renaissance-inspired wares. Cantagalli realized it was easier

to convince foreign markets to accept compositions that had historic merit. Ginori reinterpreted

Renaissance compositions for a contemporary society, whereas Cantagalli continued to defer to

Renaissance masterpieces for inspiration, but both factories took a sincere interest in the

reproduction of the readily available examples of Della Robbia works. The factories’ successes

expose the effectiveness that the Renaissance could provide artistic production.

The popularity of Renaissance inspired works in America coincided with a taste for

original Renaissance artwork. By the late-19th

century, Americans had adopted the view of the

Renaissance as a peak of art production and as the standard for collecting. Della Robbia works

became popular as some of the more accessible and portable examples. Among them are some

notable names in American art collecting, including: J.P. Morgan, Henry Walters, Benjamin

Altman, and Andrew Mellon.12

The increased collecting of the workshop prompted Allan

Marquand (1853-1924), himself a son of a collector, to publish several scholarly works on the

Della Robbia family. His book, Della Robbias in America, addressed the influx of forgeries. As

discussed by Marietta Cambareri, Marquand approached his work with an encompassing and

scientific methodology.13

He sought to view every work attributed to the workshop in order to

accurately assess the examples in American collections. His influential and careful study of

technique and composition laid a firm foundation for the analysis of the Della Robbias.

Scholarly work, in turn, influenced the development of the Museum of Fine Arts in

Boston and the city’s attention to art overall. A desire for comprehensive displays also informed

12

In New York, J.P. Morgan Jr. had two of his Della Robbia works, a Madonna and Child with Angels and a family

crest set into the walls of his library with cement. Walters, of Baltimore, acquired the exquisite Adam and Eve by

Giovanni della Robbia. The New York businessman, Benjamin Altman had one of the finest versions of the

Madonna and Child, which is not at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. The Madonna and Child with Cherubim,

now at the National Gallery, by Andrea and owned by, Secretary of the Treasury, Andrew Mellon is also of

particular note. 13

Marietta Cambareri, “Allan Marquand and the Study of the Della Robbia in America,” in Renzo Dionigi (ed.)

Stemmi Robbiani in Italia e nel Mondo, Edizioni Poistampa: Florence (2014).

Silvernail 8

the preferred decorative programs of schools. In the period, copies played an important role in

museums primarily to serve as a pedagogical tool.14

The casts in the MFA formed the base for

American knowledge and allowed the canon of art history to be accessible to a relatively large

portion of the population. No longer were artworks only accessible to well-traveled elites. The

implications of the democratizing effect would soon take effect. Renaissance scholar Charles

Callahan Perkins established this function in his founding address to the Museum, and his

justification of the cast collection was chiefly to reduce the amount of travel necessary to become

acquainted with the greatest art of the world.15

This is particularly helpful for the Della Robbia

workshop, since many of their original works were still in situ. The MFA, Boston acquired a

relatively representative group of Della Robbia casts, which included Cantoria reliefs and The

Visitation by Luca, as well as the Assumption of the Virgin altarpiece, Innocenti roundels, and the

Annunciation altarpiece by Andrea.16

It is clear that artists were at the core of the museum’s

audience, but the implications and impact of the art stretched far beyond them. In particular,

Perkins was attempting to attract the immense university demographic in Boston by emphasizing

the pedagogical uses of art.17

His use of classical rhetoric appealed to the university culture of

Boston, but the pedagogical uses of art would quickly extend beyond universities to where

versions of Della Robbia works found a special place, the primary school.

The period in question, approximately 1880-1920, saw a great shift in the American

public school system, in which Boston was a major player. The modern public education was

formed in this period. Many educators were particularly concerned with being perceived as

14

See for this discussion, Allan Wallach, Exhibiting Contradiction: essays on the art museum in the United States,

(Amherst: University of Massachusetts Press, 1998). 15

Charles Callahan Perkins, Tuscan Sculptors: their lives, works, and times, (London: Longman, Green and Roberts,

1864). 16

Benjamin Ives Gilman, Manual of Italian Renaissance Sculpture as Illustrated in the Collection of Cast at the

Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. (Boston: The Museum of Fine Arts, Boston), 66-89. 17

I thank Deborah Stein for her advice concerning Perkins.

Silvernail 9

cultured by their European counter parts.18

In order to advance America’s international

reputation, the educators thought it best to start art education early. Much of the art education

reform began in the greater Boston area. Drawing was incorporated into the mandatory

curriculum with The Massachusetts Drawing Act of 1870.19

Proponents argued that drawing

would develop the students’ understanding of design and that it was essential to engineering and

other mathematical professions. Reformers were not only concerned with the technical aspects

of art, however, they were also prompting a greater understanding of composition by virtue of

study of masterpieces. They sought to train a child’s eye by surrounding one with examples of

great works of art.20

The art history canon was scoured to produce a definitive list carefully

organized by grade level. For the Boston area, this list was codified in an exhibition in 1895 at

Allston Hall.21

The Boston Public School Art League argued for the instructional importance of

the casts, but the aesthetic qualities of the work were of the greatest importance.22

The League

was officially founded in 1892 to facilitate and standardize the decoration of the schoolroom.

The Renaissance and ancient works naturally were prominent in these lists. Slight modifications

were made in all iterations, but Della Robbia works were invariable listed for the lower grades.

The Innocenti roundels and the Cantoria reliefs resonated soundly with the intentions of the

educators. No other works were as consistently reccommended for these grades as these Della

Robbias which suggests the works held particular significance visually.

Schools could acquire reproductions in two distinct ways that represented very separate

intentions and audiences: through plaster cast catalogues or through commissioned works.

18

Ross Turner, Art for the Eye: Suggestions for School Decoration. (Boston: Prang Educational Company, 1897). 5.

accessed April 8, 2015. Google Books. 19

See Peter Smith, The History of American Art Education, Learning about Art in American Schools. Westport:

Greenwood Press, 1996) for a detailed history. The Industrial Drawing Act made drawing instruction mandatory 20

Boston Committee. Decoration of the School Room. (Chicago: Kindergarten Literature, 1895). 21

Ibid. 3. 22

Ibid.

Silvernail 10

Plaster casts were relatively affordable and easily accessible, since they were mass produced.

Casts were displayed within the schoolroom and, therefore, the audience was unequivocally the

students. In contrast, site-specific commissions were placed in prominent public places and had

to be impermeable. Students would naturally see the works, but they would not have been the

sole audience. The students would not have been compelled to contemplate the compositions as

they would the casts. Instead commissioned works operated as an emblem for the school. This

outdoor decoration would help situate the institution visually in the viewers’ minds. These

would be designed in conjunction with the architecture and their production was closely

associated with architectural practice. Due to the greater time devoted, commissions were more

expensive, but generally of finer quality. They would typically be polychrome terracotta,

therefore, more closely related to the originals than plaster casts. Parents were enticed to

consider these works at least as much as the pupils and to identify the institution with their

decoration. The decision between these routes illustrated the institution’s motivations.

In reviving architectural terracotta, American factories naturally took a deep interest in

Della Robbia practices. After 1907 the Atlantic Terra Cotta Company was the largest supplier of

architectural terracotta in the United States.23

They produced site-specific works, often based on

famous artworks. To advertise, the company produced a monthly journal highlighting the

advantages of terracotta and their company’s mastery. They emphasized the durability, color,

and versatility inherent in the material, as well citing its historic precedence. The signature

frontispiece of the magazine was one of the Innocenti by Andrea della Robbia. (Fig. 6) The

image of the Innocenti was widespread enough to succinctly evoke a legacy of excellence in

terracotta. In 1922, the Atlantic Terra Cotta company decided to instruct their consumers about

23

The Atlanic Terra Cotta Company was formed by several factories from the New Jersey valley. The previous

factories included, Perth Amboy Tecca Cotta, The Atlantic Terra Cotta and A. Hall and Sons.

Silvernail 11

the history of terracotta by dedicating their journal to famous artists or masterpieces in terracotta.

Several of these articles reference the Della Robbias, but three are dedicated entirely to the

workshop—one each to Luca, Andrea and Giovanni. The company praised the family for

creating such graceful and enduring images. The writers were well-informed, and the journals

were even accompanied by sketches of works in-situ which implied that the company had sent

some artists to Italy in order to study these works first-hand. In the journal, the company

displayed several works directly modeled after Della Robbia compositions from which schools

and other institutions could select.

Plaster casts, however, for outnumbered commissioned works, despite the fine quality

they provided. Boston was fortunate to have direct access to some of the best molds in the world.

The celebrated P.P. Caproni & Brother Company was based in the city.24

The factory produced

plaster casts from thousands of famous works and included Della Robbia examples like the

Cantoria reliefs, Innocenti roundels, and several versions of the Madonna and Child by 1894.25

Largely acknowledged as the finest cast craftsman of his time, Caproni was given access to

numerous masterpieces so that he could produce direct molds for the casts. The market was

developed enough that other factories arose in Boston, like the Foreign Plastic Art Company that

had several Della Robbia casts in their catalogue by 1904.26

Plaster casts represented the most

accessible reproductions for schools and beyond.

At least twenty-one reproductions of Della Robbia works are recorded in the immediate

Boston area. Many examples have, unfortunately, been lost, but the records make clear that

24

The company was founded in 1892 by Pietro and Emilio Caproni and provided many many American institutions

with their casts including collections at Harvard University, Yale University and the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine

Arts. 25

P.P. Caproni and Brother, Catalogue of Plaster Cast Reproductions: Subjects for Art Schools, (Caproni and

Brother: Boston, 1894). 84-91. 26

Foreign Plastic Art Company, Catalogue of Plaster Casts from Ancient, Renaissance and Modern sculptures,

(Foreign Plastic Art Company: Boston, 1904).

Silvernail 12

wealthy donors played a central role in these decorative decisions. Influential elites, such as

Pauline Agassiz Shaw and Elizabeth Perkins Cabot are among the recorded donors, but arguably

the most active donor was Ross Turner. Turner supported school decorations across New

England and was actively engaged in the advancement of the American aesthetic.27

Not only did

he supply decorations, but he had major influence on their display. At the Philips School in

nearby Salem, Turner developed what was perceived as the ideal program: each room was

dedicated to a specific time period.28

The choices expose the ideals of the period: Roman, Italian

Renaissance, American, and Egyptian. Turner also arranged five casts of the Cantoria reliefs by

Luca della Robbia at the Horace Mann School to present one continuous relief, in an altered

representation of the original composition.29

(Fig. 7) They suggest a greater sense of interaction

and movement: characters engage with those found in the other sections, suggestive of a

communal celebration. Prominent donors had a major influence over the decoration of

schoolrooms in the area. The artworks were not selected as a representative sample of the Della

Robbia oeuvre; certainly the Della Robbias produced many more images of the Madonna and

Child than the works deemed appropriated. These compromises reflect the preoccupations of art

enthusiasts like Turner.

Since the publications distributed by the Boston Public School Art League and others do

not explicitly address the benefits any specific artwork provided to the classroom, the application

of Della Robbia works outside of school provide the context in which to understand their

interpretation by Americans. The Innocenti roundels found sustained association with health

care, unsurprisingly, as the children’s hospitals and maternity institutions provided the most

27

Ross Turner, Art for the Eye: Suggestions for School Decoration. Boston: Prang Educational Company, 1897.

accessed April 15, 2015. Google Books. 28

Boston Committee. Decoration of the School Room. 5. 29

“A Beautiful School Room”, The School Journal, vol. 26 (Jun 27, 1896) 769.

Silvernail 13

direct translation of these images from the Foundling Hospital in Florence. In Boston, two

hospitals have maintained versions of the Innocenti roundels on their exteriors. The Brigham and

Women’s Hospital, formerly the Boston Lying-In Hospital, has retained their numerous replicas

surrounding the entrance.30

(Fig. 8) The visual program at the former Boston Lying-In Hospital

is extensive when compared to the typical use of these roundels. In other examples of exterior

architectural decoration, the roundels were reproduced as a sole figure and occasionally as a pair.

These roundels were, instead, set in a concourse across the building, much like in the Ospedale

degli Innocenti. Moreover, the hospital utilizes several different versions of the Innocenti,

thereby reinforcing the individual complexity of the original works. In a more typical

demonstration, the Children’s Hospital of Boston showcases the roundel in the pediment of the

entrance to their Hunnewell Building.31

Here, the work was the only figural decoration available

to the viewer, which suggests an emblematic view of the institution.

Nationally, the American Academy of Pediatrics adopted an insignia based on an

Innocenti in 1930.32

(Fig. 9) The founders of the Academy were aware of the pervasiveness and

effectiveness of the Della Robbia model. The institution bears the insignia to this day. These

extensive examples illustrate the close connection the Innocenti held with protection and care.

The stylized, swaddling clothes meant to convey the care and attention the children would

receive at the institution just as at the Ospedale. Significantly, these examples addressed adult

audiences in contrast to those used in classrooms. Americans clearly associated the image with

the development and protection provided for children. Contextually, nurturing imagery meant a

great deal for the educators that began to promote the Innocenti for decoration.

30

Coolidge and Shuttuck designed the Boston Lying-In Hospital in 1921-22. 31

This building was designed in 1912-14 by Shipley, Rutan, and Coolidge: an earlier generation of the firm that

designed the Lying-In Hospital. 32

Paul W. Beaven, “The Origin and Significance of the Academy’s Della Robbia Insignia,” Pediatrics, 17 (1956).

Silvernail 14

The nurturing of children had adapted to a new cultural understanding of childhood in

America. Laws concerning working age and mandatory schooling began in this period, and

Massachusetts heralded this movement by enacting the first state-wide legislation concerning

both issues.33

Children began to shift from productive members of the household to become

revered and protected innocents. Progressives wanted children to be viewed as distinct from

adult counterparts and to occupy a separate space in society. Although this perspective aligns

with the current American view, it was not as universal in the late-nineteenth century. These

legal reforms targeted immigrant and working class populations who often relied on children to

maintain their household finances. Elites saw schooling as a disciplinary and americanizing tool

to curb negative tendencies that they associated with foreign-born citizens.34

Schools could

produce proper citizens and impose certain values on the population. Since work was pushing

beyond the home, this now comforted those aligning with the majority values and threatened

outsiders since both were required to send their children to these institutions. Those in charge of

the education system could manipulate an entire generation with mandatory schooling, making

elites’ power resounding.

Through this lens, the extensive discussion of schoolroom decoration becomes more

poignant. Decoration inherently advanced particular sentiments and priorities among the

educators. The symbols and representations evoked in the images could be used to reinforce the

ideals of those in power. It is clear that the general tendency of the teachers was to explore

patriotic themes in their decorations, and educator Theodore Dillaway lamented the

pervasiveness of this mode, “so common are images of Washington and Lincoln.”35

Patriotic

33

Massachusetts passed the first law concerning child labor in 1836 and demanded compulsory education in 1852. 34

See Claire Perry, Young America: Childhood in 19th

-Century Art and Culture, (New Haven: Yale University Press,

2006). I am indebted to Catherine Kupiec for this reference. 35

Theodore M. Dillaway, Decoration of the School and Home. (Springfield: Milton Bradley Company, 1914). 68.

Silvernail 15

messages espoused by the teacher were explicit through lesser art, but those arguing for the

inclusion of canonical art were not operating under a different value system. The mission of the

Boston Public School Art League was “to ennoble the surroundings of school life, to give the

children a glimpse of a finer world would be our wish. The school children of today are soon to

be citizens of the Republic”.36

The art educators were using the same rhetoric as the educational

reformers, forging a generation of citizenry. The approach was a simply a subtler one. Turner

maintained that through this artistic atmosphere children would “absorb unconsciously what is

true and good and beautiful.”37

The art was intended to provide a heightened sense of aesthetics,

so that children would come to understand proper compositions and designs. Therefore, the

means by which the children learned was largely subconscious. Art was a covert means to the

same ends. The intentions would have been less overt, but no less effective.

The ideals of the educators played out especially well in the examples of Della Robbia

works and can explain why the workshop found such popularity in the lists of appropriate

decoration. By far the two most popular Della Robbia works were the roundels from the

Ospedale degli Innocenti and the relief panels of the Cantoria, since both visually articulated

childhood as a period of life to be protected. The Innocenti roundels convey a particular moment

of physical development. The infants gaze out to the viewer inviting compassion and, again,

care. This highlighted the value of children, independent from the economic benefits they could

provide. The figures are presented in a dynamic pose that enhances the emotive quality of the

works. The viewer was meant to recognize the helplessness of the child, not as a nuisance, but

as a part of the beauty of childhood. Children could be prized for their individuality—each

roundel is unique. For the youngest grades art was intended to allow the child to identify with

36

Boston Committee. Decoration of the School Room. 37

Turner, Art for the Eye. 7.

Silvernail 16

the work, “children can learn through association here.”38

Children were meant to identify with

the characters in the images. This illustrates why the Innocenti roundels were suggested only for

grades 1 and 2, as well as Kindergartens, while the Cantoria reliefs were intended for grades 3

and 4 and occasionally older. The child is noticeably viewed as a prized personage, just as the

elite class was promoting at the time and would coerce students to adopt this view.

The Cantoria reliefs performed a function similar to the Innocenti roundels for the

reformers. Each panel depicts young children joined in a mutual activity, playing trumpets,

dancing, and singing: in essence, scenes of play. The role of play in childhood took on central

importance in the discussion of development. Progressives claimed that play represented the

vast abilities of children while making them distinct from adults. Play provided a counterweight

to labor.39

The Horace Mann School reinterpretation reinforced these views. The rearranged

group emphasizes the engagement between scenes and the energy of the work is heightened,

suggesting an extensive scene of joy and play. The students were encouraged to engage in this

joyful activity instead of work. These compositions were ideal; they had proven their potency

through the centuries while providing a point for instruction. These Della Robbia works, the

Innocenti roundels and Cantoria reliefs, would have promoted educators’ ideals of childhood

well.

The vast majority of Della Robbia casts found their home in these primary schools.

Boston schools exhibited numerous examples of casts, but two extraordinary artistic efforts of

commissioned works are notable. These do not serve in the daily class education, but as a

general improvement of school aesthetics and, as previously discussed, emblems of the

institution. The John D. Runkle School in Brookline incorporated two versions of the Innocenti

38

Dillaway, Decoration of the School and Home. 68. 39

Frederick Froebel, “Pedogogic’s of the Kindergarten.” 1899. Froebel was key to the discussion of childhood

development in this period and greatly influenced the curriculum of Kindergartens.

Silvernail 17

roundels on its original facade from 1897. (Fig. 10) The copies are vertically oblong, but this was

a common reinterpretation by manufacturers, as evidenced in the Caproni and Foreign Plastic Art

catalogues.40

These representations are exceptional as they are glazed polychrome terracotta,

which is particularly relevant for the Della Robbia works. The polychrome innovations were

intrinsic to the workshop’s success according to scholars as far back as Giorgio Vasari.41

Viewing only the monochrome plaster casts in classrooms, the vast majority of students would

have been unaware of the characteristic blue and white style. As the only exterior ornamentation

on the original Runkle School, these works conveyed a succinct statement about the school’s

intentions. Symbolic of the school, the roundels were the only original parts of the school

preserved and relocated to the entryway of the new school during a renovation in the 1960s.

These details reinforce the important association the works made with the school.

Perhaps the finest quality reproduction of a Della Robbia work in the Boston area is at the

St. Mary of the Assumption School, for which construction was completed in 1907. Above the

main entrance of the parochial school is an elegant copy of the Madonna of Via dell’Agnolo, the

original now at the Bargello. (Figs. 11 & 12) Although the original seems relatively obscure, it

was not completely unknown to a Boston audience. James Frederick Hopkins, Director of

Drawing for the Boston Public Schools, recommended it for an example in his Lectures of 1897

and drawing lesson plans of 1898.42

Moreover, Vasari praised the Via dell’Agnolo Madonna as

a major work, which is repeated in a Boston art history journal, making it an ideal candidate for

canonical representation.43

This period is even more significant for the original work. Just two

40

Foreign Plastic Art Company, Catalogue of Plaster Casts from Ancient, Renaissance and Modern sculptures,

(Boston, 1904).; P.P. Caproni and Brother, Catalogue of Plaster Cast Reproductions: Subjects for Art Schools,

(Boston: 1894). 87. 41

Giorgio Vasari, Lives of the most eminent painters, sculptors and architects, (London: Henry G. Bohn, 1855) 340. 42

James Frederick Hopkins, Boston Public Schools Outline of Lessons in Drawing 1898-99, Boston, 1898. 23, 34,

39, 62, 95, 102. Hopkins refers to the Della Robbia works several times as exemplars worthy of reproduction. 43

“Luca and Andrea della Robbia,” Masters in Art, 21 vol. II (September 1901) (Boston: Bates and guild Company).

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years prior to the St. Marys School construction, the original was removed from its position over

a door on the Via dell’Agnolo to the Bargello, which would have made it easier to examine

closely or create a mold. It is unknown if the St. Mary relief derives from such close inspection,

but the features are especially fine as an testament to the skill of the Atlantic Terra Cotta

Company’s artisans. Architectural plans by Franz Unterseer from 1906 articulate the replica in

this prominent position, suggesting the administration took care to include this specific piece in

the decorative program. (Fig. 13) Although this work is an outlier in Boston examples, it allows

direct comparisons to works elsewhere that underscore the association between Della Robbia and

education.

The Via dell’Agnolo Madonna at the Allen Memorial Art Museum at Oberlin College is

closely related with the St. Mary’s relief. (Fig. 14) Here, as in Brookline, the Madonna was

incorporated from the beginning and both are products of the Atlantic Terra Cotta Company. The

museum was designed by Cass Gilbert, someone intimately familiar with terracotta. Cass

Gilbert had a particular interest in the Della Robbia family and returned to their features in his

decoration of Battle Hall at the University of Texas, also produced by Atlantic Terra Cotta

Company. (Fig. 15) While Gilbert’s architectural vocabulary was broad, he insisted that styles

must match with the building’s usage. When advising a young architect he explained that style

is arbitrary, that one should know all styles and use the function of the building to dictate the

appropriate decoration.44

Gilbert believed that the Renaissance style was suited for educational

building as he repeated it on several buildings at both Oberlin and Texas. This reinforces the

notion that Della Robbia was closely aligned with contemporary educational decoration.

44

Barbara S. Christen and Steven Flanders, eds., Cass Gilbert, Life and Work: Architect of the Public Domain.

(New York: W.W. Norton and Company, 2001). 79.

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By the end of the 19th

century, the masterpieces of the Della Robbia workshop were

firmly planted in the American consciousness and mass production of this style continued on a

large scale. As a result of the broad application, later interpretations became more fluid and

adapted for American needs, but vestiges of the style are still present. The Boys Republic, a

California school for troubled youth established in 1907, still makes Della Robbia wreaths and

several lines of devotional merchandise are named and styled after the workshop. The Della

Robbia workshop was interpreted in a way that so closely aligned with American sensibilities a

century ago that the style has been embedded into our culture. The reproductions allowed

administrations to perpetuate visually the concept of children that the administrators believed

was appropriate. The use of mere reproductions provides insight into the mentality of American

educators and how they developed the eye of a generation with the canon of art history at their

side.

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Figure 1: Two of the roundels from the Ospedale degli Innocenti, Andrea della Robbia, c. 1490.

Figure 2: Madonna of the Niche, Luca della Robbia, c. 1448.

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Figure 3: Cantoria for the Cathedral of Florence, Luca della Robbia, 1431-38.

Figure 4: The “Della Robbia Bar” Vanderbilt Hotel, New York City, 1912.

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Figure 5: Terracotta relief after the Cantoria by Luca della Robbia, Ginori Factory, c. 1850.

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Figure 6: Atlantic Terra Cotta, Frontispiece.

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Figure 7: Rendering of Cantoria arrangement at Horace Mann School

Figure 8: Lying in Hospital, Boston

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Figure 9: American Pediatric Association Emblem

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Figure 10: Runkle School, Brookline, MA, 1897.

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Figure 11: St. Mary’s School, Brookline, MA, 1907.

Figure 12: Via dell’ Agnolo Madonna, Luca della Robbia, c. 1448.

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Figure 13: Architectural design by F. Joseph Untersee for St. Mary of the Assumption, 1906.

Figure 14: Allen Memorial Art Museum, Oberlin, OH, 1917.

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Figure 15: Battle Hall, University of Texas, 1911