Fifteenth-century patrons were as likely to commission portrait busts as painted portraits for their palace interiors, and to decorate their bedrooms with either a sculpted relief or a painted image of the Madonna and Child. The great theorist and critic Leon Battista Alberti (1404–1472) felt that painting and sculpture were closely related, and Renaissance artists and critics habitually debated the superiority of one over the other. Painters emphasized the three dimensionality of their figures and sometimes simulated sculpture in paint, while sculptors might embellish the surfaces of their marble works with gold and painted decorations. Luca della Robbia famously incorporated color in his glazed terracotta images; a sculpture in wood and terracotta was usually colored—most commonly by a professional painter. A number of artists practiced both painting and sculpture; the portrait medal was invented by a painter, Pisanello, who invariably signed himself PICTOR (painter).
Note: This gallery is temporarily closed to the public due to a construction project. Visitors to the Museum may inquire at the Information Desk in the Great Hall for more information.
