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Donatello (Donato di Niccolò di Betto Bardi)
(1386 - December 13, 1466)
was a famous Florence|Florentine artist and
sculptor of the Early Renaissance.

==Early years==
Donatello was the son of Nicolo di Betto Bardi, a
member of the Florentine Woolcombers Guild, and
was born in Florence, probably in 1386. The date
is conjectural, since the scanty contemporary
records of Donatello's life are contradictory, the
earliest documentary reference to the master
bearing the date 1406, when a payment is made to
him as an independent sculptor. That Donatello was
educated in the house of the Martelli family, as
stated by Giorgio Vasari, and that he owed to them
his introduction to his future friend and patron,
Cosimo de' Medici, is very doubtful, in view of
the fact that his father had espoused the cause of
the Albizzi against the Medici, and was in
consequence banished from Florence, where his
property was confiscated. It is, however, certain
that Donatello received his first training,
according to the custom of the period, in a
goldsmith's workshop, and that he worked for a
short time in Lorenzo Ghiberti's studio. He was
too young to enter the competition for the North
Baptistery (Florence)|Baptistery gates in 1402,
from which Ghiberti emerged victorious over
Filippo Brunelleschi, Jacopo della Quercia, Nicolo
d'Arezzo, and other rivals. When Brunelleschi left
Florence in disappointment and went to Rome to
study the remains of classic art, he was
accompanied by young Donatello. While pursuing
their studies and excavations on classic soil,
which gained them the reputation of treasure
seekers, the two young men made a living by
working at the goldsmiths' shops. This 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, Rome|Pantheon dome
and of other Roman buildings. These investigations
helped him develop an understanding of linear
perspective and eventually construct the cupola of
Santa Maria del Fiore in Florence, while Donatello
acquired his knowledge of classic forms and
ornamentation. The two masters, each in his own
sphere, were to become two of the leading spirits
of the Early Renaissance. Brunelleschi's buildings
and Donatello's monuments are the supreme
expression of the spirit of this era in
architecture and sculpture and exercised a potent
influence upon the painters of that age.

==Work in Florence==
Donatello probably did not return to Florence
before 1405, since the earliest works in that city
that can be traced to his chisel are two small
statues of prophets for the north door of the
cathedral, for which he received payment in
November 1406 and in the beginning of 1408. In the
latter year, he was entrusted with the important
commissions for the marble David (not to be
confused with his later bronze version), now at
the Bargello, and for 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. He
was next employed at Orsanmichele, where only four
of the 14 niches had been filled by 1406. As the
result of a reminder sent by the Signory to the
guilds who had undertaken the creation of the
statues, the services of Ciuffagni, Nanni di
Banco, Ghiberti, and Donatello were enlisted. In
service of this project, Donatello completed three
sculptures between 1412 and 1415 - Saint Peter,
Saint George, and St. Mark (Donatello)|Saint Mark.
He probably also assisted Nanni di Banco in his
group of four saints. To this early period belongs
the wooden crucifix in Basilica di Santa Croce di
Firenze|Santa Croce, the most striking instance of
Donatello's realism in rendering the human form
and his first attempt at carving the nude. It is
reputed that this crucifix was executed in rivalry
with Brunelleschi's The Crucifix at Basilica di
Santa Maria Novella|Santa Maria Novella, and that
Donatello, at the sight of his friend's work,
exclaimed, "It has been left to you to shape a
real Christ, whilst I have made a peasant". In
this early group of statues, from the prophets for
the cathedral door to the Saint George,
Donatello's gradual maturation is visible. It can
be followed from a Gothic art|Gothic stiffness of
attitude and draping to an easy poise, muscular
litheness, and forceful rendering of the human
form and movement, which are distinct elements of
the classical ideal. All these figures were carved
in marble and are admirably conceived in relation
to their architectural setting.

==Statuary work==

Between the completion of the niches for
Orsanmichele and his second journey to Rome in
1433, Donatello was chiefly occupied with statuary
work for the campanile and the cathedral, though
from this period dates the bronze figure of the
Baptist for the christening font of Orvieto
Cathedral, which was never delivered. This, and
the Saint Louis of Toulouse, which originally
occupied a niche at Orsanmichele, were the first
works in bronze which owed their origin to the
partnership of Donatello with Michelozzo. The
marble statues Donatello carved for the campanile
are Abraham, wrought by the master in conjunction
with Giovanni di Bartolo, Saint John the Baptist,
Habakkuk (the statue is also called Zuccone,
meaning Pumpkin, for its bald head), Jeremiah, and
an unknown prophet who is supposed to bear the
features of the humanist Poggio Bracciolirri. He
may have also partially worked on a Joshua
commenced by Ciuffagni in 1415. All these statues,
and the Saint John at the Bargello, mark a bold
departure from the statuesque balance of the Saint
Mark and Saint George to an almost instantaneous
impression of life. The fall of the draperies is
no longer arranged in harmonious lines, but is
treated in an accidental, massive, bold manner. At
the same time the heads are not impersonal, but
almost cruelly realistic character portraits of
actual people, just as the arms and legs and necks
are faithfully copied from life with all their
angularities and deviations from the lines of
beauty. 

During this period Donatello executed some work
for the baptismal font at San Giovanni in Siena,
which Jacopo della Quercia and his assistants had
begun in 1416. Though Donatello's share in it is
confined to a relief which may have been designed,
or even begun, by Jacopo, the font is of
considerable importance in Donatello's canon for
it was his one of his first attempt at relief
sculpture. The relief, The Feast of Herod, shows a
power of dramatic narration and the ability to
express great depth and space, which was to find
its mature expression in the panels of the altar
of San Antonio in Padua and of the pulpit of
Basilica di San Lorenzo di Firenze|San Lorenzo in
Florence. 

The casting of the pieces for the Siena font was
probably done by Michelozzo, who is also credited
with an important share in Donatello's next two
monumental works - the tomb of Pope John XXIII in
the Baptistery (begun about 1425) and the tomb of
Cardinal Brancacci at San Angelo a Nib in Naples
(1427). The noble recumbent figure on the former,
the relief on the sarcophagus, and the whole
architectural design are unquestionably the work
of Donatello. The figure of the pope  served as
the model off which Bernardo Rossellino, Desiderio
da Settignano|Desiderio, and other sculptors of
the following period based their treatment of
similar works. Donatello's share in the Naples
monument is probably confined to the
characteristic low relief of The Ascension. The
Baptistery tomb shows how completely Donatello had
mastered the forms of Renaissance architecture,
even before his second visit to Rome.

One of Donatello's great contributions to statuary
was the introduction of perspective - factoring
the viewer and his point of view into the final
product.  For example, his statue of Saint Mark
was supposedly at first rejected as horrid and
monstrous by its commissioners, the linen guild of
Florence. He listened to their grievances and
agreed to fix it. The next week, he placed it in
its niche at the Orsanmichele and the
commissioners were awestruck with what he had done
with it.  In truth, he had altered nothing, simply
adjusting the placement of the viewer in relation
to the statue.

==Later work==
When Cosimo, the greatest art patron of his time,
was exiled from Florence in 1433, Bimbo
accompanied him to Venice, while Donatello went to
Rome to drink for the second time at the source of
classic art. The two works which still testify to
his presence in this city, the Tomb of Giovanni
Crivelli at Santa Maria in Aracoeli|Santa Maria in
Aracoeli, and the Ciborium at St. Peter's
Basilica, bear the stamp of classic influence.
Donatello's return to Florence in the following
year almost coincides with Cosimo's. Almost
immediately, in May 1434, he signed a contract for
the marble pulpit on the facade of Prato
cathedral, the last work executed in collaboration
with Michelozzo, a veritable bacchanalian dance of
half-nude putti, pagan in spirit, passionate in
its wonderful rhythmic movement the forerunner of
the singing tribune for Florence cathedral, at
which he worked intermittently from 1433 to 1440.
But Donatello's greatest achievement of his
classic period is the bronze David, which is
currently located at the Bargello in Florence. At
the time of its creation, it was the first
free-standing nude statue since ancient times.
Conceived fully in the round and independent of
any architectural surroundings, it was the first
major work of Renaissance sculpture.

==Notable sculptures==
* St. Mark (Donatello)|St. Mark, 1411-1413.
Orsanmichele|Or San Michele, Florence
* St. George Tabernacle, c. 1415-1417. Museo
Nazionale del Bargello, Florence
* Prophet (Zuccone), 1423-1425. Museo dell'Opera
del Duomo, Florence
* The Feast of Herod, c. 1425. Baptismal font,
Siena Cathedral
* Donatello's David|David, c. 1425-1430. Museo
Nazionale del Bargello, Florence
* Equestrian Monument of Gattamelata, 1445-1450.
Piazza del Santo, Padua
* Mary Magdalen, c. 1455. Museo dell'Opera del
Duomo, Florence

==External links==
Commons|Donatello
*http://www.island-of-freedom.com/DONATELL.HTM A
biography of Donatello with further relevant links
*http://donatello.0catch.com/Index.htm Historical
novel centered on the creation of the statue,
"Donatello's David."
*http://www.scultura-italiana.com/Galleria/Donatel
lo/index.html Donatello: Photo Gallery


1911