Guess the Artwork

Tondi della Facciata dello Spedale degli Innocenti- Terracotta roundels on the Façade of the Hospital of the Innocents by Andrea della Robbia in Piazza Santissima Annunziata, Florence.

The Ospedale degli Innocenti was one of the first children's orphanage in Europe and was commisioned in 1419 by the Silk Guild, Arte di Por Santa Maria, to Brunelleschi and became one of the first examples of Italian Renaissance architecture.  

The façade is made up of nine semicircular arches springing from columns of the composite order. According to Brunelleschi's design, the spandrels of the arches were originally meant  to remain blank concavities, but around 1490, Renaissance sculptor Andrea della Robbia (October 24, 1435 – August 4, 1525) was commissioned to fill them in with ceramic tondi featuring a series of babies in swaddling clothes suggesting the function of the building.

Born in Florence, Andrea della Robbia was the most important artist of ceramic glaze of the times. He was the nephew of Luca della Robbia who is actually the artist who  popularized the use of glazed terra-cotta for sculpture. After his uncle Luca died, he took over the family workshop which was then carried on by his son Giovanni after his death.

A few of the tondi are still the original ones, but some are nineteenth century copies.