Dovizia (Plenty) (c. 1520–29): Art, History and Details

Dovizia (Plenty) (c. 1520–29) is in the Cleveland Museum of Art collection. The museum's creator attribution is Giovanni della Robbia (Italian, 1469–1529/30).

The work and its context

The museum's open-access catalogue describes the work:

Many elite Florentine Renaissance homes had sculptures of idealized young women carrying nature’s bounty, such as this work. The motif stems from a statue by Donatello (about 1386–1466) that towered over Florence’s main public market. At home, however, the sculpture became a talisman for the family’s well-being. The city-state’s low birth rate was a serious political matter, and such a sculpture was believed to stimulate fertility while also promoting motherhood and bolstering financial success.

Object facts

• Title: Dovizia (Plenty)
• Date: c. 1520–29
• Creator attribution: Giovanni della Robbia (Italian, 1469–1529/30)
• Culture: Italy, Florence
• Type: Sculpture
• Technique: glazed terracotta
• Dimensions: Overall: 110.2 cm (43 3/8 in.)
• Collection: Sculpture
• Department: European Painting and Sculpture
• Accession number: 1940.343

A detail from the museum

Inspired by an over life-sized, public sculpture by Donatello, Giovanni della Robbia reduced the figure for a domestic setting.

Collection credit

Gift of S. Livingstone Mather, Constance Mather Bishop, Philip R. Mather, Katherine Hoyt Cross, and Katherine Mather McLean in accordance with the wishes of Samuel Mather

Further reading listed by the museum

• Milliken. William. "Objects from the Samuel Mather Collection." The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art 28, no. 3 (March 1941): 36-40.
• The Cleveland Museum of Art. Handbook of the Cleveland Museum of Art/1966. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1966.
• The Cleveland Museum of Art. Handbook of the Cleveland Museum of Art/1969. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1969.

View the collection record

See the museum's photographs and full catalogue entry. Catalogue text is reproduced from the Cleveland Museum of Art's open-access data, with HTML formatting removed. This object and its supplied image are designated CC0.