Evangelists

Abstract

These four glazed terracotta roundels depicting the Evangelists were created by the Florentine sculptor Andrea della Robbia. The Della Robbia workshop received numerous commissions from the Spanish-Aragonese dynasty, which ruled Naples in the late fifteenth century. Andrea produced the four roundels specifically for the Tolosa Chapel (commissioned by the merchant Paolo Tolosa, who had connections to the Strozzi family) in Sant’Anna dei Lombardi, where he also designed the chapel’s maiolica floor (fragments of which are preserved in the Museo della Ceramica in Faenza). Andrea was commissioned to create eighteen busts for the Aragonese family, and by October 1492, four crates of these works had arrived in Naples from Florence for the now-destroyed Villa Poggio Reale. The roundels for Sant’Anna dei Lombardi were likely produced around the same time. Each Evangelist is identified by his traditional symbol: Matthew is shown writing his Gospel while guided by an angel, Mark appears with the winged lion, Luke is accompanied by the winged ox, and John is represented with the eagle. Photograph(s) licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.