Charlotte Hubbard
Conservation Research Fellow, supported by the Robert H. Smith Family Foundation
Four Renaissance Terracotta Sculptures: Technical and Art Historical Findings
I have had a life-long interest in clay. This interest was fostered during my career at the V&A where I was Head of Sculpture Conservation until 2019, involved in preventive and interventive conservation of a wide variety of traditional sculptural materials in the European and Asian collections (polychrome wood, terracotta, stone, ivory, amber, plaster etc), as well as technical studies of groups of objects. I am currently a freelance sculpture conservator and consultant. The present study of The Virgin with the Laughing Child, possibly by Antonio Rossellino, continues unfinished research that was begun over twenty years ago.
Publications
Risdonne, V., Hubbard, C., López Borges, V.H., and Theodorakopoulos, C., ‘Materials and Techniques for the Coating of Nineteenth-century Plaster Casts: A Review of Historical Sources’, Studies in Conservation 67, 4, 2022, pp. 186–208
Hubbard, C. and Motture, P., ‘The Making of Terracotta Sculpture: Techniques and Observations’, in Earth and Fire, Italian Terracotta Sculpture from Donatello to Canova, Yale University Press, 2001, pp. 85–99
Conferences
‘Decision-making and Display: The Case of Two Architectural Works by Luca della Robbia’, delivered at The Renaissance Society of America Annual Meeting, 2017
Image: Detail of The Virgin with the Laughing Child, V&A: 4495–1858 © Victoria and Albert Museum, London