Everything about Donatello totally explained
» This page is about the artist. For other references to Donatello, see Donatello (disambiguation).
Donatello (
Donato di Niccolò di Betto Bardi; c. 1386 –
December 13,
1466) was a famous early
Renaissance Italian artist and
sculptor from
Florence. He is, in part, known for his work in
basso rilievo, a form of shallow relief sculpture that, in Donatello's case, incorporated significant 15th-century developments in perspectival illusionism.
Early years
Donatello was the son of Niccolo di Betto Bardi, who was a member of the Florentine Wool Combers Guild, and was born in Florence, most likely in 1386. Donatello was educated in the house of the Martelli family. He apparently received his early artistic training in a goldsmith's workshop, and then worked briefly in the studio of
Lorenzo Ghiberti.
While undertaking study and excavations with
Filippo Brunelleschi in Rome (1404-1407), work that gained the two men the reputation of treasure seekers, Donatello made a living by working at goldsmiths' shops. Their Roman sojourn was decisive for the entire development of Italian art in the 15th century, for it was during this period that Brunelleschi undertook his measurements of the Pantheon dome and of other Roman buildings. Brunelleschi's buildings and Donatello's sculptures are both considered supreme expressions of the spirit of this era in architecture and sculpture, and they exercised a potent influence upon the painters of the age.
Work in Florence
In Florence, Donatello assisted
Lorenzo Ghiberti with the statues of prophets for the north door of the
Battistero di San Giovanni, for which he received payment in November 1406 and early 1408. In 1409-1411 he executed the colossal seated figure of
Saint John the Evangelist, which until 1588 occupied a niche of the old cathedral facade, and is now placed in a dark chapel of the Duomo. This work marks a decisive step forward from late-
Gothic Mannerism in the search for naturalism and the rendering of human feelings. The face, the shoulders and the bust are still idealized, while the hands and the pannings over the legs are more realistic.
In 1411-1413 Donatello worked on a statue of
St. Mark for the church of
Orsanmichele. In 1417 he completed the
St. George for the
Confraternity of the Cuirass-makers. The elegant
St. George and the Dragon relief on the statue's base, executed in
schiacciato (also known as
bas-relief or
basso rilievo) is one of the first examples of
central-point perspective in sculpture.
From 1423 is the
St. Louis of Toulouse, now in the Museum of the
Basilica di Santa Croce. Donatello had also sculpted a tabernacle for this work, but it was sold in 1460 to house the
Incredulity of St. Thomas by
Verrocchio.
Between 1415 and 1426, Donatello created five statues for the
campanile of
Santa Maria del Fiore in Florence, also known as the
Duomo. These works are the
Beardless Prophet;
Bearded Prophet (both from 1415); the
Sacrifice of Isaac (1421);
Habbakuk (1423-1425); and
Jeremiah (1423-1426); which follow the classical models for orators and are characterized by strong portrait details. From the late teens is the
Pazzi Madonna relief in
Berlin. In 1425, he executed the notable
Crucifix for Santa Croce; this work portrays Christ in a moment of the agony, eyes and mouth partially opened, the body contracted in an ungraceful posture.
Between 1425-1427, Donatello collaborated with
Michelozzo on the funerary monument of the
Antipope John XXIII for the
Battistero in Florence. Surely by Donatello is the recumbent bronze figure of the deceased, under a shell. In 1427, he completed in
Pisa a marble panel for the funerary monument of Cardinal
Rainaldo Brancacci at the church of
Sant'Angelo a Nilo in
Naples. In the same period, he executed the relief of the
Feast of Herod and the statues of
Faith and
Hope for the
Baptistery of
Siena. The relief is mostly in stiacciato, while the foreground figures are done in bas-relief.
Major commissions in Florence
Around 1430,
Cosimo de' Medici, the foremost art patron of his era, commissioned from Donatello the
bronze David (now in the
Bargello) for the court of his
Palazzo Medici. This is now Donatello's most famous work. At the time of its creation, it was the first known free-standing
nude statue produced since ancient times. Conceived fully in the round, independent of any architectural surroundings, and largely representing an allegory of the civic virtues triumphing over brutality and irrationality, it was the first major work of
Renaissance sculpture. Also from this period is the disquietingly small
Love-Atys, housed in the Bargello.
When Cosimo was exiled from Florence, Donatello went to Rome, remaining until 1433. The two works that testify to his presence in this city, the
Tomb of Giovanni Crivelli at
Santa Maria in Aracoeli, and the
Ciborium at
St. Peter's Basilica, bear a strong stamp of classical influence.
Donatello's return to Florence almost coincided with Cosimo's. In May of 1434, he signed a contract for the marble pulpit on the facade of
Prato cathedral, the last project executed in collaboration with
Michelozzo. This work, a passionate, pagan, rhythmically-conceived bacchanalian dance of half-nude putti, was the forerunner of the great
Cantoria, or singing tribune, at the Duomo in Florence on which Donatello worked intermittently from 1433 to 1440 and was inspired by ancient sarcophagi and Byzantine ivory chests. In 1435, he executed the
Annunciation for the Cavalcanti altar in Santa Croce, inspired by 14th century iconography, and in 1437-1443, he worked in the Old Sacristy of the
San Lorenzo in Florence, on two doors and lunettes portraying saints, as well as eight stucco tondoes. From 1438 is the wooden statue of
St. John the Evangelist for
Santa Maria Gloriosa dei Frari in
Venice. Around 1440, he executed a bust of a
Young Man with a Cameo now in the Bargello, the first example of a lay bust portrait since the classical era.
In Padua
In 1443, Donatello was called to Padua by the heirs of the famous condottiero
Erasmo da Narni, who had died that year. Completed in 1450 and placed in the square facing the
Basilica of St. Anthony, his equestrian statue of Erasmo (better known as the
Gattamelata, or "Honey-Cat") was the first example of such a monument since ancient times. (Other equestrian statues, from the 14th century, hadn't been executed in bronze and had been placed over tombs rather than erected indepedently, in a public place.) This work became the prototype for other equestrian monuments executed in Italy and Europe in the following centuries.
For the Basilica of St. Anthony, Donatello created, most famously, the bronze Crucifix of 1444-7 and additional statues for the choir, including a
Madonna with Child and six saints, constituting a
Holy Conversation, which is no longer visible since the renovation by
Camillo Boito in 1895. The
Madonna with Child portrays the Child being displayed to the faithful, on a throne flanked by two
sphinxes, allegorical figures of knowledge. On the throne's back is a relief of Adam and Eve. During this period -- 1446-50 -- Donatello also executed four extremely important reliefs with scenes from the life of St. Anthony for the high altar.
Last years in Florence
Donatello returned to Florence in 1453.
Until 1456, he worked on a wooden
Mary Magdalene now in the Duomo's museum, an unusually expressionistic work depicting the saint in her late, hermetic period and characterized by meagerness of body and a face marked by fatigue, pain, and intense asceticism. From 1455-1460, dates the
Judith and Holofernes, begun for the
Duomo di Siena but later acquired by the Medici.
Until 1461, Donatello remained in Siena, where he created a
St. John the Baptist, also for the Duomo, and models for its gates, now lost.
For his last commission in Florence, Donatello produced reliefs for the bronze pulpits in the church of San Lorenzo, with help from students
Bartolomeo Bellano and
Bertoldo di Giovanni. Donatello provided the general design and personally executed the
Martyrdom of St. Lawrence and the
Deposition from the Cross; he worked on the reliefs of
Christ before Pilate and
Christ before Caiphus, with Bellano. This work is characterized by an intense, free, indeed sketchy and suggestively unfinished -- in Italian a
non-finito -- technique that heightens the dramatic effect of the scenes and emphasizes their spiritual intensity.
Donatello died in Florence in 1466 and was buried in the Basilica of San Lorenzo, next to Cosimo de' Medici the Elder.
Main works
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