This relief console with two putti is made by Andrea della Robbia in the second half of 15th century in Florence.

It is of polychrome enamelled terracotta and the upper edge of the console consists of a falt leaf-and-dart cornice supported by two winged putti, whose feet meet at the base.

The Della Robbia family was an Italian family of sculptors and potters. They were active in Florence from the early 15th century and elsewhere in Italy and France well into the 16th. Family members were traditionally employed in the textile industry, and their name derives from rubia tinctorum, a red dye.

Luca della Robbia founded the family sculpture workshop in Florence and was regarded by contemporaries as a leading artistic innovator, comparable to Donatello and Masaccio. The influence of antique art and his characteristic liveliness and charm are evident in such works as the marble singing-gallery for Florence Cathedral. He is credited with the invention of the tin-glazed terracotta sculpture for which the family became well known.

His nephew Andrea della Robbia, who inherited the workshop, tended to use more complex compositions and polychrome glazing rather than the simple blue-and-white schemes favoured by his uncle.

Several of Andrea’s sons then worked in the shop. Marco della Robbia became a Dominican monk in 1496 but continued to execute sculpture. Giovanni della Robbia and Luca della Robbia the younger inherited the workshop and were responsible for adapting its production to 16th-century taste, influenced by contemporary Florentine painting.
Francesco della Robbia joined the Dominican convent of S Marco in Florence in 1495 but maintained links with the family shop.

Girolamo della Robbia was the only son of Andrea to continue the reputation of the family’s terracotta works beyond the mid-16th century. He spent much of his life in France, working for the royal court, often in collaboration with Luca the younger, who joined him there in 1529.