Luca della Robbia: Final Years

"Monument to Bishop Benozzo Federighi"
by Luca Della Robbia (270 cm. x 275 cm., 8.85 ft. x 9 ft.)

"Luca della Robbia still sought to make further inventions, and laboured to discover a method by which figures and historical representations might be coloured on level surfaces of terra-cotta, proposing thereby to secure a more lifelike effect to the pictures.

For Benozzo Federighi, bishop of Fiesole, Luca erected a sepulchre of marble on which he placed the recumbent figure of Federigo, taken from nature, with three half-length figures - Christ, St. John and the Virgin - standing over him. Between the columns which adorn this work, the master depicted garlands with clusters of fruit and foliage, so lifelike and natural that the brush could produce nothing better in oil painting. 

And if this artist had been accorded longer life, many other remarkable works would doubtless have proceeded from his hands, since, but a short time before his death, he had begun to paint figures and historical representations on a level surface, whereof I formerly saw certain specimens in his house, which led me to believe that he would have succeeded perfectly, had not death borne him from his labours before the time.

In 1471, Luca della Robbia was elected president of the Florentine Guild of Sculptors, but he refused on account of his age and infirmity. His election demonstrated, however, the very high esteem in which he was held by his contemporaries. He died in Florence during February 1482, taking most of his secrets of tin-based glaze with him."

(Excerpts from "Lives of Seventy of the Most Eminent Painters, Sculptors and Architects" by Giorgio Vasari and Wikipedia's article on Luca Della Robbia.)