ABSTRACT
Luca della Robbia's glazed terracotta Labours of the Months roundels, made for the now-lost private study of the eminent Piero de' Medici, are iconographically unusual for their focus on horticultural Labours, in particular the care of trees and vines. The selection of this particular imagery has been understood to flatter the interests of the patron: by invoking an analogy between the cultivation of plants and that of the mind, the roundels comment on the intellectual activities Piero pursued in this space. Yet little attention has been directed to the labouring bodies that so conspicuously dominate the roundels as a result of their iconography, whether judiciously pruning vines, tirelessly threshing, or determining the readiness of grapes for harvest. This paper approaches the Labours cycle through those bodies, considering what they might reveal about common perceptions – and ideals – pertaining to physical labour in fifteenth-century Florence. Through this lens, it examines how the artist, Luca, may have understood and theorized his own earth-based work as a maker of innovative glazed terracotta sculptures. I will suggest that concepts emphasized in the Labours – discipline, discernment, knowledgeable action, orderly repetition, and cyclical rhythms – shed light not only on Piero's scholarly activity, but also on the nature of the work undertaken by fifteenth-century artists in their workshops.
