Tomb of Benozzo Federighi

Abstract

The tomb of Benozzo Federighi, bishop of Fiesole, was made for San Pancrazio and is now housed in Santa Trinita in Florence. The marble tomb is surrounded by flat glazed terracotta tiles, each with different, naturalistically depicted flowers. The tomb was moved four times in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries and so does not survive in its original form. A red marble base and extensive gilding are documented, and some scholars in the early twentieth century observed traces of gilding and paint on the marble figures. Therefore when it was first made, there would be less of a contrast between the white marble and the colourful glazed terracotta. Luca della Robbia is known for being the inventor of glazed terracotta, but these tiles were made with an even more demanding technique than Luca glazed sculptures, because glaze becomes molten when fired and is difficult to control on a flat tile. He created these tiles in many pieces, assembling them like an intarsia (opus sectile). The background in these tiles is gold, not applied to the surface of a previously glazed work (as in other examples) but somehow incorporated into the glaze. The vivid colourful blooming frame seems to offer eternal life to the dead man, depicted in white marble in in the much more severely designed central part of the tomb. Vasari particularly admired these tiles, which he said were so naturalistic, that a painter using oils could not do better, calling them "marvelous" and "most rare." Photograph(s) licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.