Madonna and Child with Saints Stephen and Lawrence

Abstract

The glazed terracotta lunette over the door to Prato Cathedral was commissioned from Andrea della Robbia in 1489 but not installed into the pre-existing Gothic architecture until until 1496. In the same years, Andrea decorated the church of Santa Maria delle Carceri in Prato with roundels of the Evangelists and a frieze. The Madonna is larger and more imposing (in higher relief) than the depictions in his half-length reliefs for domestic devotion. Andrea's typical blue and white colour scheme contrast brilliantly with the black and white marble of the architecture. Photograph(s) licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.