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本帖最后由 ngsunyu 于 2020-4-26 00:41 编辑
The "Ospedale degli Innocenti" is more than an architectural milestone. It has provided care of infants and children continuously for more than five centuries. Beginning with its sponsorship and through its services as well as its architecture, the "Innocenti" represents the evolving humanistic views of Florence of the early Renaissance.
When people looked at the building during its early years, they saw 10 blank roundels, concave circular frames set within thespandrels,thespaces created between the arches. Then in 1487, 4 decades after Brunelleschi’s death, the 10 "bambini" by della Robbia were mounted in the roundels. In 1845, 2 additional pairs of "bambini," reproductions of some of the originals, were installed at either end.
Exactly when della Robbia created the "bambini" is obscure, but probably in 1463 - 1466, several years before their installation. Each of the originals is singular. Seven are fully swaddled from thorax to toe, and 2 are depicted with the swaddling clothes still tied but sagging below the waist or knees.
One "bambino," the seventh from the left on the facade, shows the swaddling clothes untied and falling away from the infant. It is the only one with unbound feet. What della Robbia had in mind with this one variation is hard to say. Perhaps the loosened swaddling clothes represent liberation from the constraining stigma of the foundling origins of the "bambino." (museumsinflorence.com) |
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