Family of Italian artists active in Florence. The first works of Luca (di Simone di Marco) Della Robbia (1399/1400–1482) were reliefs sculptured in marble, most notably those for the Cantoria (singing-gallery) of Florence Cathedral (1432–37). He is remembered mainly for his development of glazed terra-cotta as a medium for sculpture; his major terra-cotta works include roundels of the Apostles (&circa; 1444) in Filippo Brunelleschi's Pazzi Chapel in Santa Croce.
In time the Della Robbia studio became a potters' workshop-industry, famous especially for its renderings of the Madonna and Child in white enamel on a blue ground. Andrea (di Marco) Della Robbia (1435–1525), Luca's nephew, assumed control of the workshop &circa; 1470. Trained as a marble sculptor, his best-known works are ten roundels of infants on the facade of Florence's Foundling Hospital (&circa; 1487). Giovanni Della Robbia (1469–1529), the most distinguished of Andrea's sons, took control of the family workshop after his father's death. His early works, notably a lavabo in Santa Maria Novella (1497) and medallions in the Loggia of San Paolo (1493–95), were collaborations with his father.
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