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  • The Freemasons' Monthly Magazine
  • Sept. 24, 1864
  • Page 4
  • TERRA-COTTA AND LUCA DELLA ROBBIA WARE, CONSIDERED ON THE PRINCIPLES OF DECORATIVE ART.
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The Freemasons' Monthly Magazine, Sept. 24, 1864: Page 4

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Terra-Cotta And Luca Della Robbia Ware, Considered On The Principles Of Decorative Art.

borately wrought into so many kinds of decorative form . Ever and anon , in some of the old out-ofthe-way churches at Rome , do we catch a glimpse of some piece of burned clay work , which has been spared by the ruthless hand of the would-be Classic architects in the sixteenth and seventeenth

centuries . All over Tuscany are scattered fine examples of this style , and the whole of Lombardy is full of them . In Verona they often start up before us . Pavia shows you the west front of St . Pantaleone ' s ; Cremona , its cathedral ; Monza , its town hall ; Mantuaits ducal palace ; and St .

, Andrew ' s , all rich in the splendid examples of what has been and yet may be done for architecture in its decorative members by the use of this material . Though last to be mentioned , almost the very first in importance is the great hosjiital at Milan , in all likelihood the finest specimen as a

whole beyond the Alps of what decorative burned clay can do ; and , perhaps , better still , how it should be done , as far as its manipulation goes , to bring out all its beauties . Here we find that the squeezing was but the first part of that process through which these ornaments were made to go .

Thrown out of their moulds , and while yet soft enough , they were , as needed , wrought again by hand , before being fired , aud thus had given them a softening- grace ancl a crispy sharpness which the modelling stick of an artist can alone bestow . Hereat homeAve are not without several

in-, , structive instances of our own ; and the way in which burned clay ornamentation , more especially in stacks of chimneys , was with great effect employed at Thornbury Castle , Gloucestershire , Eton College , and Hampton Court , besides other places , should not be overlooked . All over Sussex the

chimney-stacks of its homesteads attract admiring notice . Thus far , for the greatest number of samples in architectural decoration , we have wandered on the . Continent , and have pointed mostly to what may be only seen abroad . Eor specimens in higher art ,

we happily need travel no further than the wellfilled splendid halls of this museum , which will show us at a glance how burned clay , after all its manners , whether in its own native tint , or variously coloured ancl wearing a bright glaze , has been and may bewith the best resultsapplied to

, , statuary . As the subject we have before us falls of itself into two parts , we will begin it by taking in hand " burned clay , " to look at it under its first simple shape , that is , as a decorative ornament with no other than its own natural self-colouring about it .

Upon brackets round three sides of the northern court is a series , in red clay , by Tuscan artists , of no fewer than twenty-one busts ; some ideal of the saints ; the others , the portraitures of individuals most of whom , be it said , were seemingly not overwell favoured by nature with beauty and winningfeatures . All these busts show that they were done by masters' hands , and the secular ones with

such a life-like truthfulness as to let us know that if the Florentines of that time , however intellectual , were not a handsome race , those men who fashioned their likenesses in clay did not stoop to flatter them , nor lower their noble art to adulation . The busts of holy personages exhibit rather a naturalistic than a lofty type of the outward beautiful .

While on the subject of busts , it might seem an ungracious omission were I not to bring to mind three very remarkable ones exhibited amid the Loan Collection , brought together in this Museum during the ever-to-be-remembered year 1862 . One of these busts represented Lorenzo the

Magnificent , ancl now belongs to Lord Taunton ; the other two , the property of Mr . J . C . Robinson , gives us the portraitures of the father and mother of the Emperor Charles V . The Medici bust I look upon as one of the two most remarkable ones the worldancient and modernever saw . The

, , other is that of Caracalla . This Roman emperor ' s frowning effigy shows us the man inside and out . Upon his brow the murderer's brand is furrowed , and in that dark scowl of his we seem to see him

as he bent his head and listened to the screeches of his dying brother Geta , as with his own hand he dealt him the last death-stab : aptly is CaracahVs bust called by some the last sigh of the arts . Though the mark of Cain is not upon the forehead of Lorenzo's , there is that in its face , its

leering eyes , its determined mouth , that crooked sneering nose , which makes us think this head would be no unfitting frontispiece to an edition of Machiavelli's book , " II Principe . " In each of Mr . J . C . Robinson ' s two busts we discover much individuality and character—mild , elevated ,

prepossessing-, but tlie features are a little idealized and nicely rounded . Though brought into this country from Belgium , I make no doubt these fine busts originally came from the south of Spain , where for some time there existed a splendid , school of artmany chief masters of which wrought

, , and wrought admirably , in burned clay ; and such works are little or nothing known to Englishmen . Arranged upon the sides of four laz-ge square stands , somewhat in the middle of this court , are , along with one valuable bust of a friar , several fine examples of whole though small figures , as

well as subjects in low relief , almost all of a sacred character ; and one of them—a monk at his studies —a most remarkable and very precious work .

To these recesses on the north of this court , must we go , however , to behold some among the most daring ancl instructive productions of hi gh art , left us by the great old masters in burned clay . One of the earliest to work in clay of any sort ,

spoken of by Vasari , is Jacopo della Querela , so called from the name of his birthplace , in the neighbourhood of Sienna , A . D . 1874 . Telling of this sculptor , he says : — " The Sienese , deeply lamenting the death of their captain , ( Giovanni

“The Freemasons' Monthly Magazine: 1864-09-24, Page 4” Masonic Periodicals Online, Library and Museum of Freemasonry, 11 July 2025, django:8000/periodicals/mmr/issues/mmr_24091864/page/4/.
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Title Category Page
A RUN TO THE LAKES : KESWICK. Article 1
TERRA-COTTA AND LUCA DELLA ROBBIA WARE, CONSIDERED ON THE PRINCIPLES OF DECORATIVE ART. Article 3
Untitled Article 7
MASONIC NOTES AND QUERIES. Article 7
Untitled Article 10
CORRESPONDENCE. Article 11
BUTE LODGE (No. 960). Article 11
THE MASONIC MIRROR. Article 12
METROPOLITAN. Article 12
PROVINCIAL. Article 12
LITERARY EXTRACTS. Article 15
Untitled Article 16
PUBLIC AMUSEMENTS. Article 17
THE WEEK. Article 17
TO CORRESPONDENTS. Article 20
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Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software.

Terra-Cotta And Luca Della Robbia Ware, Considered On The Principles Of Decorative Art.

borately wrought into so many kinds of decorative form . Ever and anon , in some of the old out-ofthe-way churches at Rome , do we catch a glimpse of some piece of burned clay work , which has been spared by the ruthless hand of the would-be Classic architects in the sixteenth and seventeenth

centuries . All over Tuscany are scattered fine examples of this style , and the whole of Lombardy is full of them . In Verona they often start up before us . Pavia shows you the west front of St . Pantaleone ' s ; Cremona , its cathedral ; Monza , its town hall ; Mantuaits ducal palace ; and St .

, Andrew ' s , all rich in the splendid examples of what has been and yet may be done for architecture in its decorative members by the use of this material . Though last to be mentioned , almost the very first in importance is the great hosjiital at Milan , in all likelihood the finest specimen as a

whole beyond the Alps of what decorative burned clay can do ; and , perhaps , better still , how it should be done , as far as its manipulation goes , to bring out all its beauties . Here we find that the squeezing was but the first part of that process through which these ornaments were made to go .

Thrown out of their moulds , and while yet soft enough , they were , as needed , wrought again by hand , before being fired , aud thus had given them a softening- grace ancl a crispy sharpness which the modelling stick of an artist can alone bestow . Hereat homeAve are not without several

in-, , structive instances of our own ; and the way in which burned clay ornamentation , more especially in stacks of chimneys , was with great effect employed at Thornbury Castle , Gloucestershire , Eton College , and Hampton Court , besides other places , should not be overlooked . All over Sussex the

chimney-stacks of its homesteads attract admiring notice . Thus far , for the greatest number of samples in architectural decoration , we have wandered on the . Continent , and have pointed mostly to what may be only seen abroad . Eor specimens in higher art ,

we happily need travel no further than the wellfilled splendid halls of this museum , which will show us at a glance how burned clay , after all its manners , whether in its own native tint , or variously coloured ancl wearing a bright glaze , has been and may bewith the best resultsapplied to

, , statuary . As the subject we have before us falls of itself into two parts , we will begin it by taking in hand " burned clay , " to look at it under its first simple shape , that is , as a decorative ornament with no other than its own natural self-colouring about it .

Upon brackets round three sides of the northern court is a series , in red clay , by Tuscan artists , of no fewer than twenty-one busts ; some ideal of the saints ; the others , the portraitures of individuals most of whom , be it said , were seemingly not overwell favoured by nature with beauty and winningfeatures . All these busts show that they were done by masters' hands , and the secular ones with

such a life-like truthfulness as to let us know that if the Florentines of that time , however intellectual , were not a handsome race , those men who fashioned their likenesses in clay did not stoop to flatter them , nor lower their noble art to adulation . The busts of holy personages exhibit rather a naturalistic than a lofty type of the outward beautiful .

While on the subject of busts , it might seem an ungracious omission were I not to bring to mind three very remarkable ones exhibited amid the Loan Collection , brought together in this Museum during the ever-to-be-remembered year 1862 . One of these busts represented Lorenzo the

Magnificent , ancl now belongs to Lord Taunton ; the other two , the property of Mr . J . C . Robinson , gives us the portraitures of the father and mother of the Emperor Charles V . The Medici bust I look upon as one of the two most remarkable ones the worldancient and modernever saw . The

, , other is that of Caracalla . This Roman emperor ' s frowning effigy shows us the man inside and out . Upon his brow the murderer's brand is furrowed , and in that dark scowl of his we seem to see him

as he bent his head and listened to the screeches of his dying brother Geta , as with his own hand he dealt him the last death-stab : aptly is CaracahVs bust called by some the last sigh of the arts . Though the mark of Cain is not upon the forehead of Lorenzo's , there is that in its face , its

leering eyes , its determined mouth , that crooked sneering nose , which makes us think this head would be no unfitting frontispiece to an edition of Machiavelli's book , " II Principe . " In each of Mr . J . C . Robinson ' s two busts we discover much individuality and character—mild , elevated ,

prepossessing-, but tlie features are a little idealized and nicely rounded . Though brought into this country from Belgium , I make no doubt these fine busts originally came from the south of Spain , where for some time there existed a splendid , school of artmany chief masters of which wrought

, , and wrought admirably , in burned clay ; and such works are little or nothing known to Englishmen . Arranged upon the sides of four laz-ge square stands , somewhat in the middle of this court , are , along with one valuable bust of a friar , several fine examples of whole though small figures , as

well as subjects in low relief , almost all of a sacred character ; and one of them—a monk at his studies —a most remarkable and very precious work .

To these recesses on the north of this court , must we go , however , to behold some among the most daring ancl instructive productions of hi gh art , left us by the great old masters in burned clay . One of the earliest to work in clay of any sort ,

spoken of by Vasari , is Jacopo della Querela , so called from the name of his birthplace , in the neighbourhood of Sienna , A . D . 1874 . Telling of this sculptor , he says : — " The Sienese , deeply lamenting the death of their captain , ( Giovanni

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