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DONATELLO (diminutive of Donato) (c. ...

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Originally appearing in Volume V08, Page 408 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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DONATELLO (diminutive of Donato) (c. 1386-1466) , See also:Italian sculptor, was the son of Niccolo di Betto Bardi, a member of the Florentine Woolcombers' Gild, and was See also:born in See also:Florence probably in 1.386. The date is conjectural, since the scanty contemporary records of Donatello's See also:life are contradictory, the earliest documentary reference to the See also:master bearing the date 1406, when a See also:payment is made to him as an See also:independent sculptor. That Donatello was educated in the See also:house of the Martelli See also:family, as stated by See also:Vasari, and that he owed to them his introduction to his future friend and See also:patron, Cosimo de' See also:Medici, is very doubtful, in view of the fact that his See also:father had espoused the cause of the Albizzi against the Medici, and was in consequence banished from Florence, where his See also:property was confiscated. It is, however, certain that Donatello received his first training, according to the See also:custom of the See also:period, in a See also:goldsmith's workshop, and that he worked for a See also:short See also:time in See also:Ghiberti's studio. He was too See also:young to enter the competition for the See also:baptistery See also:gates in 1402, from which Ghiberti issued victorious against See also:Brunelleschi, Jacopo della Quercia, Niccolo d'See also:Arezzo and other rivals. But when Brunelleschi in his disappointment See also:left Florence and went to See also:Rome to study the remains of classic See also:art he was accompanied by young Donatello. Whilst pursuing their studies and excavations on classic See also:soil, which made them talked about amongst the See also:Romans of the See also:day as " treasure seekers," the two young men made a living by working at the goldsmiths' shops. This See also:Roman sojourn was decisive for the entire development of Italian art in the 15th See also:century, for it was during this period that Brunelleschi undertook his measurements of the See also:Pantheon See also:dome and of other Roman buildings, which enabled him to construct the See also:noble See also:cupola of S. Maria del Fiore in Florence, while Donatello acquired his knowledge of classic forms and ornamentation. The two masters, each in his own See also:sphere, were to become the leading See also:spirits in the art See also:movement of the 15th century. Brunelleschi's buildings and Donatello's monuments are the supreme expression of the spirit of the See also:early See also:Renaissance in See also:architecture and See also:sculpture and exercised a potent See also:influence upon the painters of that See also:age.

Donatello probably did not return to Florence before 1405, since the earliest See also:

works in that See also:city that can be traced to his See also:chisel are two small statues of " prophets " for the See also:north See also:door of the See also:cathedral, for which he received payment in See also:November 1406andin the beginning of 1408. In the latter See also:year he was entrusted with the important commissions for the See also:marble " See also:David," now at the Bargello, and for the See also:colossal seated figure of " St See also:John the Evangelist," which until 1588 occupied a See also:niche of the old.cathedral See also:facade, and is now placed in a dark See also:chapel of the Duomo. We find him next employed at Or See also:San Michele, where between 1340 and 1406 only four of the fourteen niches had been filled. As the result of a reminder sent by the Signory to the See also:gilds who had undertaken to furnish the statues, the services of Ciuffagni,Nanni di Banco, Ghiberti and Donatello were enlisted, and Donatello completed between 1412 and 1415 the" St See also:Peter," the"St See also:George" (the See also:original, now in the Bargello, has been replaced by a copy) and the " St See also:Mark." He probably also assisted Nanni di Banco in his See also:group of four See also:saints. To this early period—in spite of Dr ' See also:Bode's contention, who places it about twenty years later—belongs the wooden crucifix in S. Croce, the most striking instance of Donatello's See also:realism in rendering the human See also:form and his first See also:attempt at See also:carving the nude. It is said that this crucifix was executed in rivalry with Brunelleschi's noble See also:work at S. Maria Novella, and that Donatello, at the sight of his friend's work, exclaimed, " It has been left to you to shape a real See also:Christ, whilst I have made a See also:peasant." In this early group of statues, from the prophets for the cathedral door to the " St George," can be followed the See also:gradual advance from See also:Gothic stiffness of attitude and draping to a forceful rendering of the human form and of movement, which is a distinct approach to the classic ideal; from the massiveness of the heavily draped figure to easy poise and See also:muscular litheness. All these figures were carved in marble and are admirably conceived in relation to their architectural setting. In fact, so strong is this tendency that the " St Mark," when inspected at the master's workshop, was disapproved of by the heads of the Gild of See also:Linen-weavers, but aroused public See also:enthusiasm when placed in situ, and at a later date received See also:Michelangelo's unstinted admiration. Between the completion of the niches for Or San Michele and his second See also:journey to Rome in 1433, Donatello was chiefly occupied with statuary work for the campanile and the cathedral, though from this period See also:dates the See also:bronze figure of the Baptist for the christening See also:font of See also:Orvieto Cathedral, which was never delivered and is now among the treasures of the See also:Berlin museum. This, and the " St See also:Louis of See also:Toulouse," which originally occupied a niche at Or San Michele and is now badly placed at S.

Croce, were the first works in bronze which owed their origin to the See also:

partnership of Donatello with Michelozzo, who undertook the casting of the See also:models supplied by his See also:senior. The marble statues for the campanile, which are either proved to be Donatello's by documentary See also:evidence or can be recognized as his work from their See also:style, are the " See also:Abraham," wrought by the master in See also:conjunction with Giovanni di Bartolo (il Rosso); the " St John the Baptist "; the so-called " Zuccone " (See also:Jonah?);" See also:Jeremiah''; " Habakuk " (?); the unknown " See also:prophet " who is supposed to See also:bear the features of the humanist See also:Poggio See also:Bracciolini; and possibly he may have had a See also:share in the completion of the " See also:Joshua " commenced by Ciuffagni in 1415. All these statues, and the " St John " at the Bargello, mark a bold departure from the statuesque See also:balance of the " St Mark " and " St 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 no longer, as it were, impersonal, but almost cruelly realistic See also:character portraits of actual See also: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 S. Giovanni in See also:Siena, which Jacopo della Quercia and his assistants had begun in 1416. Though the Florentine's share in it is confined to a See also:relief which may have been designed, or even begun, by Jacopo, and a few statuettes, it is of considerable importance in Donatello's life-work, as it includes his first attempt at relief sculpture–except the marble relief on the socle of the " St George "—his first See also:female figures,—" Faith " and " See also:Hope," and his first putti. The relief, " See also:Herod's Feast," shows already that See also:power of dramatic narration and the skill of expressing the See also:depth of space by varying the treatment from plastic roundness to the finest stiacciato, which was to find its mature expression in the panels of the See also:altar of S. See also:Antonio in See also:Padua and of the See also:pulpit of S. 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 the next two monumental works, in the designing of which Donatello had to See also:face a new problem—the See also:tomb of John See also:XXIII. in the baptistery (begun about 1425), and that of See also:Cardinal Brancacci at S.

Angelo a Nilo in See also:

Naples (executed in See also:Pisa, 1427). The noble recumbent figure of the defunct on the former, the relief on the See also:sarcophagus, and the whole architectural See also:design, are unquestionably due to Donatello; the figure of the See also:pope is the most beautiful tomb figure of the 15th century, and served as the See also:model oh which See also:Rossellino, Desiderio, and other sculptors of the following period based their treatment of similar problems. Donatello's share in the Naples See also:monument is probably confined to the characteristic See also:low relief of the "See also:Ascension." The baptistery tomb shows how completely Donatello had mastered the forms of Renaissance architecture, even before his second visit to Rome. An earlier See also:proof of his knowledge of classic art is his niche for the " St Louis " at Or S. Michele, now occupied by Verrocchio's " Christ and St See also:Thomas." Similar in treatment to the " Ascension " relief is the " See also:Charge to St Peter" at See also:South See also:Kensington, which is almost impressionistic in its See also:suggestion of distance and intervening See also:atmosphere expressed by the extreme slightness of the relief. Another important work of this period, and not, as Vasari maintains, of Donatello's youth, is the " See also:Annunciation " relief, with its See also:wealth of delicately wrought Renaissance motifs in the architectural setting. When Cosimo, the greatest art patron of his time, was exiled from Florence in 1433, Michelozzo accompanied him to See also:Venice, whilst Donatello for the second time went to Rome to drink once more at the source of classic art. The two works which still testify to his presence in this city, the " Tomb of Giovanni See also:Crivelli " at S. Maria in Aracoeli, and the " See also:Ciborium" at St Peter's, bear the See also: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 See also:contract for the marble pulpit on the facade of See also:Prato cathedral, the last work executed in collaboration with Michelozzo, a veritable bacchanalian See also:dance of See also:half-nude putti, See also:pagan in spirit, passionate in its wonderful rhythmic movement—the forerunner of the " singing See also:tribune " for Florence cathedral, at which he worked intermittently from 1433 to 1440, and which is now restored to its original See also:complete form at the museum of the See also:Opera del Duomo. But Donatello's greatest achievement of his " classic period " is the bronze " David " at the Bargello, the first nude statue of the Renaissance, the first figure conceived in the See also:round, independent of any architectural surroundings—graceful, well-proportioned, superbly balanced, suggestive of See also:Greek art in the simplification of form, and yet realistic, without any striving after ideal See also:pro-portions.

The same tendencies are to be noted in the bronze putto at the Bargello. In 1443 Donatello was invited to Padua to undertake the decoration of the high altar of S. Antonio, but in the period preceding his departure he not only assisted Brunelleschi in the decoration of the See also:

sacristy of S. Lorenzo, towards which the bronze doors are his See also:chief contribution, but found time to chisel, or model in See also:wax or terra-See also:cotta, for Cosimo and other private patrons, most of the portrait busts and small reliefs, which are now distributed over the museums of the See also:world. His first work in Padua was the bronze crucifix for the high altar, a work immeasurably See also:superior to the early wooden crucifix at S. Croce, both as regards See also:nobility of expression and subtlety of form. In the very year when Donatello arrived in Padua the famous See also:Condottiere Erasmo de' See also:Narni, called Gattamelata, had died, and when it was decided to See also:honour his memory with an equestrian statue, it was only natural that this master should be chosen to undertake a task from the difficulties of which all others may well have shrunk—had shrunk, indeed, since classic times. This See also:commission, and the reliefs and figures for the high altar, kept Donatello in Padua for ten years, though during that time he visited Venice (where he carved the wooden " St John " at the Frari) and probably See also:Mantua, See also:Ferrara and See also:Modena. At least, he was in communication with Borso d' See also:Este of Modena about a project for an equestrian statue, and had to give See also:expert See also:opinion about two equestrian statues at Ferrara. In his workshop in Padua he gathered around him quite a small See also:army of assistants, See also:stone-carvers, See also:metal-workers, painters, gilders and bronze-casters. The Gattamelata was finished and set up in 1453—a work powerful and majestic in its very repose; there is no striving for dramatic effect, no exaggerated muscular See also:action, but the whole thing is dominated by the strong, energetic See also:head, which is modelled with the searching realism of the Zuccone and the Poggio heads. The high altar, for which Donatello executed twenty-two reliefs, seven statues and the crucifix, was completed in 1450, but had subsequently to undergo many changes, in the course of which the original disposition of the sculptures was entirely lost sight of, the See also:present arrangement being due to Camillo See also:Boito (1895).

The chief features of the altar are the wonderfully animated and dramatic bronze reliefs, four in number; of the " Miracles of St See also:

Anthony." With the exception of another visit to Siena in 1457, of which the bronze " St John " in the cathedral is a reminder, Donatello spent the remaining years of his life in Florence. Closely akin to the rugged " St John " at Siena, and therefore probably contemporaneous, is the repulsively ugly, emaciated "Magdalen" at the baptistery in Florence. The dramatic intensity of the " See also:Judith " group in the Loggia de' See also:Lanzi, which was originally placed in the See also:court of the Medici See also:Palace, marks it as belonging to the See also:post-Paduan period of the master's life. His last work of importance was the bronze reliefs for the pulpit of S. Lorenzo, commissioned about 146o, and finished after Donatello's See also:death by his See also:pupil Bertoldo. The reliefs of the " Flagellation " and " Crucifixion " at the See also:Victoria and See also:Albert Museum are typical examples of the master's style at this closing period of his life. He died on the 13th of See also:December 1466. As happened subsequently to See also:Velazquez and Frans See also:Hals, Donatello, whose supreme mastery had been acknowledged by Michelangelo, See also:Raphael and the other giants of the See also:late Renaissance, almost sank into oblivion during the 18th and early 19th centuries, and only in comparatively See also:recent times has he been restored to the eminent position which is his due in the See also:history of art. The full power of his See also:genius was only revealed to the world when, at the quincentenary celebration of his See also:birth, the greater See also:part of his life-work was brought together in Florence. The large See also:hall at the Bargello has ever since been devoted to the display of his works, the numerous original bronzes and See also:marbles and terracottas being supplemented by casts of works at other places, such as the colossal Gattamelata monument.

End of Article: DONATELLO (diminutive of Donato) (c. 1386-1466)

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