DELLA ROBBIA, ANDREA

born Oct. 20, 1435, Florence died Aug. 4, 1525 in full Andrea Di Marco Di Simone Della Robbia Florentine sculptor who was the nephew of Luca Della Robbia and assumed control of the family workshop after his uncle's death in 1482. Like Luca, Andrea Della Robbia was apparently trained as a marble sculptor. His best-known works are 10 roundels of foundlings in swaddling clothes on the facade of the Ospedale degli Innocenti in Florence (c. 1463). Andrea's interest in narrative sculpture led him to develop from the reliefs of Luca a class of large polychrome reliefs, of which characteristic examples exist at numerous churches in Italy, including Santa Maria degli Angeli at Assisi and Santa Croce in Florence, as well as many museums outside Italy. The development of Andrea's style between 1475 and 1522 can be followed through a sequence of dated or documented works. Many of his smaller reliefs exist in a quantity of versions turned out from the Della Robbia studio.