Donatello
Donatello
Born: c. 1386
Florence, Italy
Died: c. 1466 Florence, Italy
Italian artist and sculptor
The Italian sculptor Donatello was the greatest Florentine sculptor before Michelangelo (1475–1564), and was certainly the most influential individual artist of the fifteenth century in Italy.
Early life of a master
Donato di Niccolò Bardi, called Donatello, was born in 1386 in Florence, Italy. Little is known about his life, although many short stories about his life are recorded by Giorgio Vasari in his Lives of the Artists (1550). In Florence Donatello learned the basics of sculpting at the Stonemasons' Guild, where he learned other crafts as well. Donatello then became an apprentice (a person who works to learn a trade) to Lorenzo Ghiberti (c. 1378–1455). In 1403, at the age of seventeen, Donatello was working for the master on the bronze reliefs (sculpting from a flat surface) of the doors of the Florentine Baptistery. By 1407 he had left Ghiberti for the workshops of the Cathedral in Florence.
Early works
One of Donatello's earliest known works is the life-sized marble David (1408; reworked in 1416; now in the Bargello, Florence). Intended to decorate part of the Cathedral, in 1414 it was set up in the Palazzo Vecchio (a historic government building) as a symbol of the Florentine republic, which was then engaged in a struggle with the king of Naples. The David, dramatic in posture and full of youthful energy, possesses something of the graceful late Gothic (an artistic movement between the twelfth and fifteenth centuries) feeling of a figure by Ghiberti.
Rapidly maturing, Donatello produced a strong and original style in two works: the large marble figure St. Mark on the outside of Orsanmichele, completed between 1411 and 1413; and the seated St. John the Evangelist for the facade (front) of the Cathedral (now in the Museo dell'Opera), finished in 1415. These powerful, over-life-sized figures established the sculptor's reputation. The St. Mark broke with tradition in its classical stance and became a stunning symbolic portrait of a noble Florentine hero in the republic of Donatello's day.
Donatello's new style was confirmed in the famous St. George, carved in marble around 1416 and 1417 for the exterior of Orsanmichele. Even more significant is the little marble relief St. George and the Dragon, that decorates the base. The marble was ordered in 1417, and the relief was completed shortly afterward. This is an important date, for the relief is the earliest example in art of the new science of perspective used to create a measurable space for the figures. Up to this time artists had conceived of a flat background in front of which, or in which, the figures were placed; now the low, pictorial forms seem to emerge from atmosphere and light.
Middle period
Donatello was requested to create many pieces or works, which he often executed with other artists. An unusual work is the Marzocco, the lion of the Florentines, carved in sandstone. It was ordered in 1418 for the papal (of the pope) apartments in Saint Maria Novella (now in the Museo Nazionale). Donatello's style in relief sculpture reached its height in the bronze Feast of Herod, completed in 1427 for the font in the Baptistery, Siena. Ghiberti, Jacopo della Quercia (c. 1374–1438), and other sculptors also executed reliefs for the front of the Baptistery. In Donatello's very low relief composition he nearly, but purposefully, avoided the accurate construction of one-point architectural perspective.
Around 1425 Donatello entered into partnership with Michelozzo, a sculptor and architect, with whom he made a trip to Rome after 1429. (Vasari states that Donatello went to Rome with architect Filippo Brunelleschi [1377–1446]. This would have been much earlier, perhaps in 1409; but there is no document to confirm such a trip.) With Michelozzo he produced a series of works, including the tomb of Pope John XXIII in the Baptistery, Florence, and the tomb of Cardinal Brancacci in Saint Angelo a Nilo, Naples, both of which were in progress in 1427. The first of these established a type of wall tomb (burial chamber) that would influence many later Florentine examples.
Probably just after the trip to Rome, Donatello created the well-known gilded limestone Annunciation tabernacle (place of worship) in Sta Croce, Florence, enclosing the pair of Gabriel and the Virgin Mary. He was also commissioned to carve a Singing Gallery for the Cathedral to match the one already begun by Luca della Robbia (both now in the Museo dell'Opera). Using marble and mosaic, Donatello presented a classically inspired frieze (a decorative band) of wildly dancing putti. It was begun in 1433, completed six years later, and installed in 1450.
Later works
Much of Donatello's later work demonstrates his understanding of classical art. For example, the bronze David in the Bargello is a young boy clothed only in boots and a pointed hat. This enigmatic figure is in all probability the earliest existing freestanding nude since antiquity (ancient times).
From 1443 to 1453 Donatello was in Padua, Italy, where in the Piazza del Santo he created the colossal bronze equestrian (with horse) monument to the Venetian condottiere called Gattamelata. It was the first important sculptural repetition of the second-century equestrian statue of Marcus Aurelius in Rome. Donatello portrayed Gattamelata as the ideal man of the Renaissance, a period marked by artistic awakening between the fourteenth and sixteenth centuries. Another major commission in Padua was the high altar of Saint Antonio, and was decorated with four large narrative reliefs representing the life of Saint Anthony, smaller reliefs, and seven life-sized statues in bronze, including a seated Madonna and Child and a bronze Crucifixion (a representation of Christ on the cross). Donatello had earlier made remarkable experiments with illusions of space in his large stucco medallions for the Old Sacristy of Saint Lorenzo in Florence; now his major bronze Paduan reliefs present an explosive idea of space with sketchy figures and a very excited and busy surface. The influence of these scenes on painters in northern Italy was to prove enormous and long lasting.
Back in Florence, the aged Donatello carved a haunting, unhealthy Mary Magdalen from poplar wood for the Baptistery (1454–1455). Romantically distorted in extreme ugliness, the figure of the saint in the wilderness originally had sun-tanned skin and gilding (a thin coat of gold) on her monstrous hair. In 1456 Donatello made an equally disturbing group in bronze of Judith cutting off the head of Holofernes. Now in the Piazza della Signoria, Florence, it was originally commissioned, apparently as a fountain, for the courtyard of the Medici Palace.
On Donatello's death on December 13, 1466, two unfinished bronze pulpits (platforms for preaching) were left in Saint Lorenzo, Florence. On one are relief panels, showing the torture and murder of Christ by means of distorted forms and wildly emotional actions. Finished by his pupil Bertoldo di Giovanni, the pulpit scenes reveal the great master's insight into human suffering and his exploration of the dark realms of man's experience.
For More Information
Bennett, Bonnie A., and David G. Wilkins. Donatello. Mt. Kisco, NY: Moyer Bell, 1984.
Greenhalgh, Michael. Donatello and His Sources. New York: Holmes & Meier, 1982.
Pope-Hennessy, John Wyndham. Donatello: Sculptor. New York: Abbeville Press, 1993.
Donatello
Donatello
The Italian sculptor Donatello (1386-1466) was the greatest Florentine sculptor before Michelangelo and certainly the most influential individual artist of the 15th century in Italy. Nearly every later sculptor and numerous Florentine and Paduan painters were indebted to him.
Though Donatello was a descendant of a branch of the important Bardi family, he was brought up in a more plebeian tradition than his older contemporary Lorenzo Ghiberti. Gifted with humanistic insight and a quality of will that were highly prized in the early Renaissance, Donatello revealed the inner life of his heroic subjects, memorable images which have conditioned our very conception of 15th-century Florence. Sharing neither Ghiberti's feeling for line nor Filippo Brunelleschi's interest in proportion, Donatello worked creatively with bronze, stone, and wood, impatient with surface refinements and anxious to explore the optical qualities he observed in the world about him. His later art, saturated with the spirit of Roman antiquity, is frequently disturbing in its immediacy as it attains a level of dramatic force hitherto unknown in Italian sculpture.
Donato di Niccolò Bardi, called Donatello, was born in 1386 in Florence. Little precise biographical information has come down to us, although many anecdotes are recorded by Giorgio Vasari in his Lives. Donatello was apprenticed to Ghiberti, and in 1403, at the age of 17, Donatello was working for the master on the bronze reliefs of the First Doors of the Baptistery. By 1407 he had left Ghiberti for the workshops of the Cathedral.
Early Works
One of Donatello's earliest known works is the lifesized marble David (1408; reworked 1416; now in the Bargello, Florence). Intended to adorn a buttress of the Cathedral, in 1414 it was set up in the Palazzo Vecchio as a symbol of the Florentine republic, which was then engaged in a struggle with the king of Naples. Dramatic in posture and full of youthful energy, the David possesses something of the graceful late Gothic feeling of a figure by Ghiberti, though Donatello now admits us to a world of psychological tensions.
Rapidly maturing, Donatello produced a strong, original, dynamic style in two works: the large marble figure St. Markin a niche on the exterior of Orsanmichele, completed between 1411 and 1413, and the seated St. John the Evangelist for the facade of the Cathedral (now in the Museo dell'Opera), finished in 1415. These powerful, over-life-sized figures established the sculptor's reputation. The St. Mark broke with tradition in its classical stance, realistically modeled drapery, and concentrated face with such optical subtleties as a detailed analysis of the eye. It became a stunning symbolic portrait of a noble Florentine hero in the embattled republic of Donatello's day.
Donatello's new style was confirmed in the famous St. George, carved in marble about 1416-1417 for the exterior of Orsanmichele (later replaced by a bronze copy; the original is in the Bargello). Resolute in stance, the Christian saint has the face not of an ideal hero but of a real one. Even more significant is the little marble relief St. George and the Dragon, that decorates the base of the niche. The marble was ordered in 1417, and the relief was completed shortly afterward. This is an important date, for the relief is the earliest example in art of the new science of perspective used to create a measurable space for the figures. Up to this time artists had conceived of a flat background in front of which, or in which, the figures were placed; now the low, pictorial forms seem to emerge from atmosphere and light. Donatello was probably influenced by the contemporary theoretical studies in perspective of the architect Brunelleschi.
Between 1415 and 1435 Donatello and his pupils completed eight life-sized marble prophets for niches in the Campanile of the Cathedral (now in the Museo dell'Opera). The most impressive of the group are the so-called Zuccone ("big squash" or "baldy"), perhaps representing Habakkuk, and the Jeremiah, in both of which there is great psychological tension and a convincing, deliberate ugliness.
Middle Period
Donatello received many commissions, which he often executed in collaboration with other artists. An unusual work is the Marzocco, the emblematic lion of the Florentines, carved in sandstone and imbued with a grand contrapuntal vigor; it was ordered in 1418 for the papal apartments in S. Maria Novella (now in the Museo Nazionale). Donatello's optical principles and his vigorous style in relief sculpture reached a climax in the gilded bronze Feast of Herod, completed in 1427 for the font in the Baptistery, Siena; Ghiberti, Jacopo della Quercia, and other sculptors also executed reliefs for the baptismal font. In Donatello's very low relief composition he approximated, but deliberately avoided the accurate construction of, one-point architectural perspective.
About 1425 Donatello entered into partnership with Michelozzo, sculptor and architect, with whom he made a trip to Rome after 1429. (Vasari states that Donatello went to Rome with Brunelleschi. This would have been much earlier, perhaps in 1409; but there is no document to confirm such a trip.) With Michelozzo he produced a series of works, including the tomb of Pope John XXIII in the Baptistery, Florence, and the tomb of Cardinal Brancacci in S. Angelo a Nilo, Naples, both of which were in progress in 1427. The first of these established a type of wall tomb that was decisive for many later Florentine examples.
Probably just after the trip to Rome, Donatello created the well-known gilded limestone Annunciation tabernacle in Sta Croce, Florence, enclosing a lyrical pair of Gabriel and the Virgin Mary. He was also commissioned to carve for the Cathedral a Singing Gallery to match the one already begun by Luca della Robbia (both now in the Museo dell'Opera). Using marble and mosaic, Donatello presented a classically inspired frieze of wildly dancing putti. It was begun in 1433, completed 6 years later, and installed in 1450.
Later Works
Much of Donatello's later work manifests his understanding of classical art, for example, the bronze David in the Bargello, a preadolescent boy clothed only in boots and a pointed hat. This enigmatic figure is in all probability the earliest existing freestanding nude since antiquity.
From 1443 to 1453 Donatello was in Padua, where he created the colossal bronze equestrian monument to the Venetian condottiere called Gattamelata in the Piazza del Santo. It was the first important sculptural repetition of the 2d-century equestrian statue of Marcus Aurelius in Rome. Donatello portrayed Gattamelata as the ideal man of the Renaissance. Another major commission in Padua was the high altar of S. Antonio, decorated with four large narrative reliefs representing the life of St. Anthony, smaller reliefs, and seven life-sized statues in bronze, including a seated Madonna and Child and a bronze Crucifixion. Donatello had earlier made remarkable experiments with illusionistic space in his large stucco medallions for the Old Sacristy of S. Lorenzo in Florence; now his major bronze Paduan reliefs present an explosive conception of space with sketchy figures and a very excited continuous surface. The influence of these scenes on painters in northern Italy was to prove enormous and long lasting.
Back in Florence, the aged Donatello carved a haunting, emaciated Mary Magdalen from poplar wood for the Baptistery (1454-1455). Romantically distorted in extreme ugliness, the figure of the penitent saint in the wilderness originally had sun-tanned skin and gilding on her monstrous hair. In 1456 Donatello made an equally disturbing group in bronze of Judith cutting off the head of Holofernes. Now in the Piazza della Signoria, Florence, it was originally commissioned, apparently as a fountain, for the courtyard of the Medici Palace.
At his death on Dec. 13, 1466, Donatello left two unfinished bronze pulpits in S. Lorenzo, Florence. On one are relief panels, showing the torture and murder of Christ by means of distorted forms and wildly emotional actions. Finished by his pupil Bertoldo di Giovanni, the pulpit scenes reveal the great master's insight into human suffering and his pioneering exploration of the dark realms of man's experience.
Further Reading
The best scholarly study of Donatello in English is H. W. Janson, The Sculpture of Donatello (2 vols., 1957; 1 vol., 1963). Recommended for the reproduction of wonderful photographic details of selected sculptures are Ludwig Goldscheider, Donatello (1941), and the small but compendious book by Luigi Grassi, All the Sculpture of Donatello (1958; trans., 2 vols., 1964), which includes many works of debatable authenticity. □
Donatello
Donatello
Circa 1386-1466
Sculptor
Early Career. Donatello, born in Florence around 1386, was the son of a wool-carder. A leading sculptor in the early Renaissance, his work was noted for its versatility in conveying human drama. He was a friend of the humanist theorist Leon Battista Alberti and architect Filippo Brunelleschi. Donatello traveled to Rome with Brunelleschi, but the date of their trip is disputed. Both men had a strong interest in classical antiquity. Donatello's work demonstrated his understanding of Roman portrait sculpture as well as the heroic nude. Donatello was trained as a goldsmith in the workshop of Lorenzo Ghiberti, where the bronze reliefs for the doors of the Florence Baptistery were being developed. His early work included commissions of guild saints for San Michele in Florence (1411-1414). Among these was a statue of St. Mark for the Linen Drapers’ Guild and a statue of St. George for the Armorers’ Guild. The poses of these figures created a sense of animation through their weight shift and gestures. The marble St. George wore a metal helmet and sword provided by the guild. The finely carved relief, showing the slaying of a dragon by St. George, marked new developments in conveying the optical experience of distance. Donatello also began carving marble statues of two prophets for the bell tower niches of the Cathedral of Florence in 1415. These figures were based upon antique statues of Roman senators. The gilt bronze reliquary (a container for sacred relics) for the head of St. Rossore, an early Christian martyr, was cast for the friars of Ognisanti in Florence in 1422. This soldier-saint had been decapitated for his faith. Donatello's interpretation gave the sculpture of the saint a distinct personality, derived from the traditions of the Roman portrait bust. Many of his sculptures demonstrated his ability to reinvent classical forms or to challenge conventions of representation by fresh interpretations of standard subject types.
Classical Interpretations. Donatello's influence spread beyond Florence. He worked in Pisa, Rome, and Padua as well. The large bequest of funds from a merchant enabled the friars of the Santo (the basilica of St. Anthony) to commission a new high altar in bronze (1447-1448). This elaborate alter included six life-size standing figures of patron saints surrounding the Virgin and Christ Child. Several of the bronze relief scenes record the Miracles of St. Anthony. In one instance, a man's donkey is shown kneeling in adoration of the host as the saint celebrates mass. In another, St. Anthony reattaches the foot that a son had cut off in penance for insulting his mother. These examples encouraged lay devotion by choosing events from hagiography rather than the Bible. While at Padua, Donatello made a bronze equestrian statute of Erasmo da Narni, the former captain-general of the Venetian army. The general's wife and son sponsored the commission (1447-1453) for the public square outside the Santo. Donatello based his interpretation of the general on horseback from the tradition of public Roman equestrian monuments. Erasmo, known by his nickname Gattamelata, was shown as a model warrior rather than an individual personality. The general's gesture of authority and his control over his horse modeled the ideal of a military leader.
Civic Statues. Two commissions Donatello executed for the Medici family in the 1460s represented the civic virtues that formed part of the Florentine ethos. The dating of the bronze David has been disputed because the work is undocumented, but it was displayed on a pedestal in the Medici palace courtyard for the wedding of Piero de’ Medici's son in 1469. Donatello's David is the first freestanding bronze nude of the Italian Renaissance. Its use of nudity for a biblical hero is also rare. Scholarly opinions have linked the work with Florentine traditions, where David was a symbol of the city; others have suggested it is more closely related to the Neoplatonic ideals of the Medici philosophical academy. David's nudity represented the ideals of heavenly love. The bronze statue of Judith and Holofernes (1455-1460) may have been intended as a fountain sculpture for the Medici garden. A lost but recorded inscription by Piero de’ Medici stated, “Piero, son of Cosimo, had dedicated the statue of this woman to that liberty and fortitude bestowed on the republic by the invincible and constant spirit of its citizens.” Cosimo, the father of Piero, was a generous patron to Donatello and ensured that he would receive a pension from the family in his old age. He also requested that the artist be buried in the Medici family tomb at San Lorenzo near Cosimo.
Sources
Bonnie A. Bennett and David G. Wilkins, Donatello (Oxford: Phaidon, 1984).
Roberta. J. M. Olson, Italian Renaissance Sculpture (London: Thames & Hudson, 1992).
Joachim Poeschke, Donatello and His World: Sculpture of the Italian Renaissance photographs by Albert Hirmer and Irmgard Ernstmeier-Hirmer, translated by Russell Stockman (New York: Abrams, 1993).
Jane Turner, ed., The Dictionary of Art (New York: Grove, 1996).
Donatello (1386–1466)
Donatello (1386–1466)
A sculptor who revolutionized the art in Florence during the early Renaissance. Born as Donato di Niccolo Bardi, he was an apprentice in the workshop of Lorenzo Ghiberti, and assisted Ghiberti in creating the famous bronze doors of the Baptistry of Florence. Donatello's first known work is a marble sculpture of the biblical figure of David that was intended for display on the exterior of the cathedral of Florence. Impressed by the work, and seeing in it a symbol of the entire city, the leaders of the city ordered it to be placed in the front of the Palazzo Vecchio, the seat of government. His reputation secured by this work, Donatello was given commissions to complete a marble Saint Mark for the church of Orsanmichele and statue of Saint John for the cathedral. Both of these were large, realistic works that broke with medieval sculptural tradition, which elongated and idealized the human face and figure. A statue of Saint George completed in 1417 was raised over a smaller relief of Saint George slaying the dragon, the first sculpture to use perspective to create a realistic illusion of space.
Donatello gave his figures lifelike and vigorous poses. His sculpture surprised and impressed viewers with its mastery of small details, such as facial expression and drapery, and the way it used and commanded the surrounding space. He brought out the inner emotions and character of his subjects, subtly distorting figures for dramatic effect, and mastered several different sculptural media, including wood, bronze, and marble. His reputation spread throughout Italy and he traveled often at the invitation of wealthy patrons. In the 1420s he completed a bronze Feast of St. Herod for the Baptistery of Siena. In this work he created a new sculptural technique, schiacciato, or shallow relief, which creates an illusion of depth through distortion of the figures.
Donatello spent several years in Rome, investigating ancient ruins with his friend and mentor Filippo Brunelleschi. In 1443 Donatello moved to Padua, a city near Venice, where he was commissioned to raise an equestrian statue of Erasmo da Narni, a famous condottiere (mercenary soldier) known better by his nickname Gattamelata. This was an imitation of a well-known statue of the emperor Marcus Aurelius. It was placed in a central square of Padua and began a craze for equestrian statues that continued throughout Europe well after the time of the Renaissance. Also in Padua he decorated the high altar of the church of San Antonio with an impressive series of reliefs representing the life of Saint Anthony.
In 1432 Donatello created his most famous work, a bronze statue of David, the first freestanding nude statue created since the time of ancient Rome. The statue, a symbol of Renaissance virtue triumphing over the superstition and violence of the past, was meant to stand independently and be seen from all sides. Later in life he continued experimenting in the form and expression of his subjects. He completed a dramatic series of bronze pulpits for the church of San Lorenzo. For the Baptistery of Florence he carved a striking portrait of Mary Magdalene in wood that represents her as thin, ugly, and a pathetic woman lost in the wilderness. A group of figures in bronze illustrates the biblical tale of Judith slaying Holofernes, a work originally intended for a courtyard in the palace of the Medici rulers.
See Also: Florence; Ghiberti, Lorenzo; sculpture