St. Mary of Egypt

Abstract

This glazed terracotta lunette can be attributed to Benedetto Buglioni on the basis of style and dated to c. 1490-1500. Unlike the Della Robbia family, who used bright saturated colors for their glazed terracotta works, Buglioni experimented with an almost watercolour effect in this landscape, creating shifting tones of green and brown. St. Mary of Egypt, a hermit saint sometimes confused with St. Mary Magdalene because of their similar iconography, seems of a piece with this landscape, as she is glazed in similar colors, and her rippling hair finds echoes in the trees and rocks surrounding her. The lunette's original location is unknown (possibly over the door of Compagnia di Maria Vergine in Florence), and it is found today in the Museo dell'Opera del Duomo in Florence. Photograph(s) licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International.