260. Donatello (1386-1466), Italian, David,
c. 1440-1443. Bronze, height: 158 cm.
Museo Nazionale del Bargello, Florence.
Donatello’s David stands, victorious, over the head of the dead giant. He holds the large sword of the giant and wears a hat and boots. The statue caused a small scandal when it was first displayed because of the nudity of the figure. While nudity was not unknown in sculpture, it seems gratuitous here, not required by the subject, as it would be in a portrayal of Adam, for example. David’s nudity is also accentuated by his hat and boots, which seem incongruous in the absence of other clothing. The statue is also notable in being cast of bronze, showing the advance in that technology. While the contrapposto stance is derived from classical models, the figure is more feminine looking than male sculptures from the Greek or Roman worlds.
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Donatello (Donato di Niccolo di Betto Bardi) (1386 Florence – 1466 Florence)
The Italian sculptor, Donatello, was born in Florence and received his first artistic training in a goldsmith’s studio, later working for a short while in the studio of Ghiberti. Too young to participate in the competition to create the doors of the baptistery in 1402, he accompanied Brunelleschi who, disappointed, left Florence for Rome to study the relics of classical art. During this period, Brunelleschi recreated the measurements of the dome of the Pantheon that permitted him to build the cupola of the Santa Maria del Fiore in Florence, while Donatello did his classical forms and ornamentation apprenticeship. The two masters, each one in his domain, would become the motors of the artistic style of the fifteenth century.
After returning to Florence, around 1405, Donatello was entrusted with important commissions for a marble sculpture of David and a colossal seated representation of Saint John the evangelist. Around 1415, he will have achieved his Saint Peter, Saint George, and Saint Mark. Between his creation of the apses of the Orsanmichele and his second voyage to Rome in 1433, Donatello was principally concerned with creating the marble statuaries of the bell tower and the cathedral. Among these statues, we can admire the Saint John the Baptist, Jeremy, and the depiction of Il Zuccone (Habacuc). During this period, he executed works for the Saint Giovanni of Sienna collections that Jacopa della Quercia and his assistants had already began in 1416. The relief, The Feast of Herod, illustrates his powerful, dramatic narration and his talent for expression. In May 1434, Donatello retuned once again to Florence and immediately signed a contract for a marble capital destined for the façade of the Cathedral of Prado, but his greatest achievement during this period was the bronze sculpture of David, the first nude sculpture of the Renaissance, perfectly proportioned, superbly symmetrical and remnant of Greek art because of the simplicity of its form. In 1443, he was invited to Padua to make his own interpretations of the decoration of the altar of San Antonio. In this same year, the famous Condotierre Erasmo da Narni, known under the name Gattamelata, had died and it was decided to commemorate his death by commissioning an equestrian statue in his honour. This commission and the relief and figures destined for the grand altar kept Donatello in Padua for almost a decade. Le Gattamelata was finished and inaugurated in 1453, and formed a powerful and majestic masterpiece.
Donatello spent the remaining years of his life in Florence. |