MARYS for May #20 – Formed from Clay

Madonna of the Niche

Lucca della Robbia, glazed terracotta, about 1448, 

Museum of Fine Arts, Boston

Lucca della Robbia is an Italian Renaissance sculptor who developed a new technique for glazing and firing terracotta that produced works that were both more delicate and more durable than the ceramics that preceded him. Due to his talented relatives and his busy workshop, blue and white della Robbias can be found in almost any museum, but this one in Boston is particularly lovely.

As a sculptor in marble and bronze, della Robbia was capable of complex compositions, but for his ceramics he strips away every unnecessary detail, and offers us an elegant yet profound simplicity.

In Genesis God fashions the first humans from clay and Isaiah offers us an image of God as potter: Yet you, Lord, are our Father.
    We are the clay, you are the potter;
    we are all the work of your hand. (64:8)

In the skilled hands of della Robbia, clay becomes a powerful medium of expression. Set in a simple niche, we glimpse a tender embrace between mother and child. Formed from the rich red clay of Tuscany, Mary and Jesus are shaped into a unified composition. There is no separation or division between the human mother and her divine son. Notice how beautifully della Robbia integrates the bodies of Mary and Jesus, their faces pressed together and their hands and arms pulling their bodies closer to each other.  In humble clay, della Robbia offers us a glimpse of the “perfect” union of human and divine, potter and clay, in Jesus and Mary.

St. Louis de Montfort:

"Mary is the most perfect and the most holy of all creatures, and Jesus, who came to us in a perfect manner, chose no other road for his great and wonderful journey. The Most High, the Incomprehensible One, the Inaccessible One, He who is, deigned to come down to us poor earthly creatures who are nothing at all. How was this done? The Most High God came down to us in a perfect way through the humble Virgin Mary, without losing anything of his divinity or holiness. It is likewise through Mary that we poor creatures must ascend to almighty God in a perfect manner without having anything to fear."