Frieze on the façade (detail)

Two substantial commissions that can be associated with Bertoldo are the glazed terracotta frieze on the fa�ade of the Medici villa at Poggio a Caiano and a group of 12 stucco reliefs in the courtyard of the Florentine palazzo of Bartolomeo Scala, Chancellor of the Florentine Republic. Bertoldo’s role in both may have been confined to supplying small-scale models. The Poggio a Caiano frieze was executed in the workshop of Andrea della Robbia. Bertoldo’s style is especially detectable in details,. The programme of the whole is couched in terms of the divisions of Time but also alludes to Lorenzo de’ Medici’s role in ushering in a Golden Age.

The low-relief style and format - white figures with golden-yellow accents against a blue ground - as well as specific motifs reveal Bertoldo’s familiarity with the Medici collection of antique cameos. The frieze must owe much to Giuliano da Sangallo, the architect responsible for the villa, who had returned from Rome full of ideas about the role of the relief in Classical buildings.