Benedetto (1459/60-1521) and Santi (1494-1576) Buglioni Italian, Florence, circa 1515-1520

with Galleria Altomani & Co., Pesaro

G. Gentilini (ed.), I Della Robbia e l'arte nuova della scultura invetriata, exh. cat. Fiesole, Basilica di Sant'Alessandro, Florence, 1998, pp. 346-347, no. VI.5

There is dirt and wear to the surface consistent with age. There are a series of restored, slightly visible, fractures running through the centre of the relief, from top to bottom, and on the right side of the relief. The central piece of the sky at the top is reattached. St Joseph's proper right index finger is reattached and restored. There are a few small chips and losses, in particular to the flying angels face and to the edges of the roundel. There are various, relatively minor, losses to the glaze, in particular at the high points of St Joseph's drapery, to his nose, chin, and fingers, to the Virgin's proper left shoulder and to her hair. The glaze has a yellowish hue at the Virgin's face; this possibly could indicate some subtle restoration. The restored fractures are strengthened to the reverse with old dowels. The relief is in a metal frame. There is some oxidation to the surface. Despite the presence of fractures, which are only slightly visible, the condition is otherwise generally good, considering the age of the roundel.
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This beautiful relief with the Adoration of the Christ Child represents a high point among the oeuvre of Benedetto and Santi Buglioni, artistic competitors to the Della Robbia family. 

Depicting not only the Holy Family in adoration but also, in the background, the Annunciation to the Shepherds and their journey to the stable, the relief combines familial intimacy with narrative ambition. Its use of perspective set within a simple, almost monochrome, colour scheme serves to clarify the narrative, creating an effective communication with the viewer. The tenderness of the central scene, the sweetness of the Virgin’s features, and the Child’s gesture of placing His index finger on His lips, would have appealed to the milieu of popular and domestic devotion that housed the Buglioni workshop’s clientele.

The subject of the Adoration was frequently represented in glazed terracotta by the Della Robbia family, yet arguably never with the same vivid realism that characterises the present work. Benedetto Buglioni’s workshop created largely original compositions, drawing from contemporary Florentine masters in sculpture and painting such as Bernardo Rossellino, Benedetto da Maiano, and Domenico Ghirlandaio (see Gentilini, op. cit.). Buglioni’s authorship of the present roundel may be argued based on its close relation to two other versions of the subject from his workshop, one in Santa Maria Della Grazie in Stia, and the other, with an almost identical composition, in the Museo del Bargello, Florence.

Benedetto Buglioni was the son of a sculptor and probably the pupil of Andrea Verrocchio. As an assistant to Andrea della Robbia, he learned the secrets to making glazed terracotta sculpture, developed by Andrea's uncle Luca in the early 1440s. In the 1480s, Buglioni became the Della Robbia family's direct competitor in Tuscany.

The detail and vivacity of the modelling of the present relief, as seen in the elaborate cityscape and precise anatomy of the figures, indicate the hand of Santi Buglioni, Benedetto’s nephew and successor. Santi was the last practitioner of the art of glazed terracotta and enjoyed a distinguished career of his own. Perhaps his best known work today is the frieze on the loggia of the Ospedale del Ceppo in Pistoia, in which he manifested his talent as a portraitist (Marquand, op. cit., no. 190). In the present work, this talent is evident in the highly naturalistic and expressive face of Joseph, whose pious introspection would have provided an exemplar for the devotional viewer.

RELATED LITERATURE
A. Marquand, Benedetto and Santi Buglioni, New York, 1972