Reprinted with permission of AAP News, November 2004

Symbolic change

Academy's Della Robbia insignia reflects changes

Editor's note: Following are excerpts from an article originally published in Pediatrics in 1956 by former AAP historian Paul W. Beaven, M.D., FAAP, and an article published in Pediatrics in 2002 by Lawrence Kahn, M.D., FAAP.

The infant in swaddling, also known as the "Della Robbia," has undergone a series of transformations since it first appeared next to the Academy's name.

Shortly after the Academy was organized, a discussion took place to find an appropriate insignia. The first insignia was chosen in the early 1930s by a group of pediatricians from among those who founded the Academy.

The design was derived from one of 10 brightly glazed terra cotta bas-reliefs sculpted by Andrea della Robbia that adorn the "Ospedale degli Innocenti," or Foundling Hospital on the "Piazza della SS. Annunziatia" in Florence, Italy, the oldest known institution continuously devoted to the welfare of children. The Academy's original Della Robbia insignia depicted a sad-looking infant tightly bound in swaddling clothes but with bare feet and with upper extremities extended.

When Henry Helmholz, M.D., FAAP, became a member of the AAP Executive Board (1932-'39; appointed AAP president in 1939), he expressed his disdain for the appearance of the child in the original insignia. In a letter to then-AAP historian Paul W. Beaven, M.D., FAAP, he wrote that the original bambino was a "scrawny youngster," unlike the "bambini" that decorate the hospital in Florence.

Dr. Helmholz pointed out that it differed somewhat in nourishment, as well as in other ways. In the Della Robbia to which Dr. Helmholz objected, the feet are free, which neither ancient lore nor contemporary art nor medical practice allowed.

He acted on his opinion, although the change was not made until the next administration under Joseph Bilderback, M.D., FAAP. Dr. Helmholz asked his cousin, Leo H. Junker, an artist, to design a "bambino" more in keeping with the Italian original and still have it suggest an American infant.

Junker used as his model the only figure by Andrea della Robbia that did not have the feet swaddled. The insignia submitted by Junker was adopted in 1941 and became official in 1955. It still is used today.

Andrea della Robbia, the artist upon whose work the Academy logo is based, was born in 1437 and died in 1528. In 1477, when he was given the commission to make the plaques, the building was 60 years old. The plaques were set in their present position about 10 years later.

The artist took liberties to create the impression he desired. The practice at the time was to swaddle a child for approximately three months. della Robbia's models are not 3 months old, but approximately 18 months old. It is believed that he chose to depict the older children in swaddling because it has greater appeal than an infant and because the medallions were to be viewed at some height from the onlooker, and a small baby would not lend itself well to this type of presentation.

della Robbia did not enclose the arms. And in all the medallions, save the one used by Junker as the type he thought most appropriate, the feet are completely swathed, as was the custom. In this one, della Robbia took the liberty of partially exposing half the thigh and the legs and feet, which was not done in practice at all.

What della Robbia had in mind with this one variation is hard to say. Perhaps the loosened swaddling clothes represent liberation from the constraining stigma of the foundling origins of the "bambino." Some might consider the unwrapped swaddling clothes as liberating children from illness. Modern pediatricians might consider it a symbol of emancipation from health care practices based on ignorance - a belief held as strongly today as it was 75 years ago with the founding of the Academy.

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