Tableau
In sculpture, the tableau refers to a genre of large-scale, usually polychrome sculptural groups that flourished in many European countries in the 15th-16th centuries. The term is applied by art historians to both historical staged arrangements of religious figures, made from terracotta or in mixed "non-precious" materials, and to the modern life-size installations. Renaissance tableaux are characterized by life-size figures, intense realism, and expressive pathos; in Italy these tableaux frequently depicted the Lamentation and represented a specific development in the art of the period, while in the German-speaking lands the typical motif was the Mount of Olives group. Usually marginalized in scholarship as a form of "popular" or low art compared to marble and bronze, recent work has repositioned the genre as significant figurative sculpture engaged with the theological and political ideologies of its era.
Defining characteristics
- Life-size figures arranged as a single staged scene
- Polychromy: painted and glazed surfaces in terracotta or mixed non-precious materials
- Intense realism in faces, hands, drapery, and wounds
- Expressive pathos - grief, awe, and devotional emotion made physical
- Sacred narrative subjects: the Lamentation in Italy, the Mount of Olives in German-speaking lands
- Ensemble groupings designed to be read as one dramatic moment
Key figures
- Luca della Robbia (1400-1482) — Pioneered glazed terracotta sculpture in Florence
- Andrea della Robbia (1435-1525) — Ran the prolific della Robbia workshop producing polychrome devotional groups
- Niccolò dell'Arca (c. 1435-1494) — Terracotta sculptor of the intensely emotional Lamentation at Bologna
Example works
- Lamentation over the Dead Christ — Niccolò dell'Arca (c. 1463)
- The Lamentation over the Dead Christ — Workshop of Andrea della Robbia (late 15th century)
Sources
- Tableau - Wikipedia encyclopedia