The Early Renaissance




 

Donatello [Donato di Niccolo di Betto Bardi]

(b Florence, 1386 or 1387; d Florence, 13 Dec 1466). Italian sculptor. He was the most imaginative and versatile Florentine sculptor of the early Renaissance, famous for his rendering of human character and for his dramatic narratives. He achieved these ends by studying ancient Roman sculpture and amalgamating its ideas with an acute and sympathetic observation of everyday life. Together with Alberti, Brunelleschi, Masaccio and Uccello, Donatello created the Italian Renaissance style, which he introduced to Rome, Siena and Padua at various stages of his career. He was long-lived and prolific: between 1401 and 1461 there are 400 documentary references to him, some for nearly every year. However, there is no contemporary biography, and the earliest account, in Vasari’s Vite (1550), is confused.

 

David
1409
Marble
Museo Nazionale del Bargello, Florence

David (detail)
1409
Marble
Museo Nazionale del Bargello, Florence

St Rossore
1425-27
Museo Nazionale di San Matteo, Pisa

Pazzi Madonna
1420-30s
Marble
Staatliche Museen, Berlin

Annunciation
1430
Sandstone
Santa Croce, Florence

Crucifix
1412-13
Wood
Santa Croce, Florence

Marzocco
c. 1419
Stone
Museo Nazionale del Bargello, Florence