The terracotta sculptor Agnolo Di Polo De'Vetri : the prison, the pievano, the pratese, and the cook

If the figure of Agnolo di Polo de' Vetri (1470-1528) looms rather large over the landscape of Florentine terracotta sculpture, this is partly because he is the only prolific terracotta sculptor active in Florence during the 16th century, outside the Della Robbia and Buglioni families, about whom we have any real knowledge. The long-standing scholarly neglect of painted, rather than glazed, terracotta sculpture in Tuscany stands in marked contrast to the widespread popularity that the medium enjoyed in the 16th century. As art historians turn increasingly towards an anthropological approach to the study of art production, the "plebian" medium of painted terracotta is gradually receiving more attention, and forgotten masters of the medium such as Bartolomeo di Jacopo (fl. 1486) and Sandro di Lorenzo (1483-1554) are beginning to emerge from historical obscurity, even though their oeuvres are still awaiting reconstruction. The importance of this larger project of rediscovering vernacular art forms in Florence renders obtuse any apology for bringing to light a group of new archival discoveries that integrate our knowledge of Agnolo di Polo's career and biography. [Abridged Publication Abstract]