Donatello facts for kids
Quick facts for kids
Donatello
|
|
---|---|
Donatello, in a 15th-century portrait by an unknown artist
|
|
Born |
Donato di Niccolò di Betto Bardi
c. 1386 Republic of Florence
|
Died | 13 December 1466 Republic of Florence
|
(aged 79–80)
Nationality | Florentine |
Education | Lorenzo Ghiberti |
Known for | Sculpture |
Notable work
|
Saint George, David, Equestrian Monument of Gattamelata |
Movement | Early Renaissance |
Donato di Niccolò di Betto Bardi (c. 1386 – 13 December 1466), better known as Donatello, was an Italian sculptor of the Renaissance period.
He studied classical sculpture and used this to develop a complete Renaissance style in sculpture. He spent time in in Rome, Padua, Siena, and other Italian cities, and while there he worked on commissions and taught others.
Contents
Life and death
Donatello was born in Florence, probably in the year 1386. He was the son of Niccolò di Betto Bardi, who was a member of the Florentine Arte della Lana. 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.
In Pistoia in 1401, Donatello met the older Filippo Brunelleschi. They likely went to Rome together around 1403, staying until the next year, to study the architectural ruins. Brunelleschi informally tutored Donatello in goldsmithing and sculpture. Brunelleschi's buildings and Donatello's sculptures are both considered supreme expressions of the spirit of this era in architecture and sculpture.
He worked in Florence from about 1406 through 1430. After that, he spent some time in Rome and returned to Florence around 1433-1434. Until 1443 he worked in Prato and Venice.
In 1443, he was invited to work in Padua. He remained there until 1453, when he returned to Florence.
The cause of Donatello's death is not known, but it is known that he died on December 13, 1466 in Florence.
Artistic style
Donatello's work was inspired by ancient sculpture. He was the first sculptor of his time to celebrate the human body, an idea that had died out after Greek and Roman times.
His life-size statue of David is his best-known work. The David is the first known free-standing nude statue made since antiquity. Much of his work was done for display in grand churches. Between 1415 and 1426, he made five statues for the Florence Cathedral, also known as the Duomo.
Donatello was a realist: an artist whose sculpture showed the subjects as real people. Naturalism and the showing of human feelings are his influences.
Interesting facts about Donatello
- He worked with stone, bronze, wood, clay, stucco, and wax.
- Donatello had several assistants, with four perhaps being a typical number.
- His best-known works mostly were statues, but he also created small and large bas-reliefs.
- He sculptured statues for churches, covents and private houses, for Cosimo de' Medici, and for various city authorities.
- Donatello has been featured in popular culture in various forms such as movies, TV shows, and video games.
- A character in the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles franchise is named after him.
Gallery
-
Saint John the Evangelist (1408-1415), which until 1588 occupied a niche of the old Florence Cathedral façade, now at the Museo dell'Opera del Duomo
-
Madonna and Child, painted terracotta, c. 1440, Louvre
-
Equestrian Monument of Gattamelata (1445–1450), Padua
-
Statue of St. John the Baptist in the Duomo di Siena, c. 1455
Works
Title | Form | Material | Year | Original location | Current location |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Crucifix | Statue | Wood, polychromed | 1407–1408 | Florence, Santa Croce | Florence, Santa Croce, Cappella Bardi di Vernio |
Prophet | Statue | Marble | 1410, before | Florence, Santa Maria del Fiore, Porta della Mandorla | Florence, Museo dell'Opera del Duomo |
David (with the head of Goliath) | Statue (originally with sling) | Marble | 1408–1409 | Florence, Santa Maria del Fiore, planned for butress, Palazzo Vecchio (1416) | Florence, Museo nazionale del Bargello |
John Evangelist | Statue in niche, sitting | Marble | 1408–1415 | Florence, Santa Maria del Fiore, façade | Florence, Museo dell'Opera del Duomo |
Joshua | Statue (5.5 mts high) | Terracotta, whitened | 1410, before | Florence, Santa Maria del Fiore, north tribune | disintegrated |
Saint Mark | Statue in niche | Marble | 1411–1413 | Florence, Orsanmichele | Florenz, Orsanmichele museum |
St. Louis of Toulouse | Statue in niche | Bronze, gilded (ormolu) | 1411–1415 | Florence, Orsanmichele | Florence, Santa Croce (since the 1450s) |
Prophets | Statues in niche (two of four) | Marble | 1415 and 1418–1420 | Florence, Santa Maria del Fiore, Campanile | Florence, Museo dell'Opera del Duomo |
St. George (with Saint George Freeing the Princess) | Statue and niche with predella in relief | Marble | 1416, circa | Florence, Orsanmichele | Florence, Museo Nazionale del Bargello (with niche) |
Marzocco | Statue | Sandstone | 1418–1420 | Florence, Santa Maria Novella, papal apartment | Florence, Museo Nazionale del Bargello |
Pazzi Madonna | Relief, low | Marble | 1420, circa | uncertain | Berlin, Bode Museum, Skulpturensammlung |
San Rossore Reliquary | Bust | Bronze, gilded | 1422–1427 | Florence, Ognissanti | Pisa, Museo nazionale di San Matteo |
Jeremiah | Statue in niche (third of four) | Marble | 1423, circa | Florence, Santa Maria del Fiore, Campanile | Florence, Museo dell'Opera del Duomo |
Zuccone (Prophet Habakkuk) | Statue in niche (last of four) | Marble | 1423–1425 | Florence, Santa Maria del Fiore, Campanile | Florence, Museo dell'Opera del Duomo |
The Feast of Herod | Relief | Bronze | 1423–1427 | Siena, Baptistry of San Giovanni, Baptismal font | Siena, Baptistry |
Madonna of the Clouds | Relief | Bronze | 1425-1435 | Boston, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston | |
Tomb of Cardinal Rainaldo Brancacci | Tomb monument with Statues, reliefs, partly gilded and polychrome | Marble | 1426–1428 | Naples, Sant'Angelo a Nilo | Neapel, Sant'Angelo a Nilo |
Dovizia (on the Colonna dell'Abbondanza) | Statue on column | Marble (with a working bell) | 1431 | Florence, Piazza della Repubblica | deteriorated and destroyed in a fall in 1721 (replaced with a version by Giovanni Battista Foggini that was replaced by a copy) |
David (with head of Goliath) | Statue | Bronze, partly gilded | 1430s–1450s (?) | Florence, Casa Vecchia de' Medici | Florence, Museo Nazionale del Bargello |
Pulpit, Cantoria | Pulpit with high reliefs | Marble, mosaic, bronze | 1433–1438 | Florence, Santa Maria del Fiore | Florence, Museo dell'Opera del Duomo |
Pulpit, external | Reliefs | Marble | 1434–1438 | Prato, cathedral | Prato, Cathedral Museum |
Old Sacristy (doors, lunettes, tondi and frieze) | Reliefs, low | Bronze (doors), polychromed stucco | 1434–1443 | Florence, San Lorenzo | Florence, San Lorenzo |
Cavalcanti Annunciation | Relief, high, in an aedicula | Pietra serena (Macigno) and terracotta, whitened and gilded | 1435, circa | Florence, Santa Croce | Florence, Santa Croce |
John the Baptist | Statue | Wood, painted partially gilded | 1438 | Venice, Santa Maria Gloriosa dei Frari | Venice, Santa Maria Gloriosa dei Frari |
Amor-Attys (Notname) | Statue | Bronze | 1440, circa | Florence | Florence, Museo Nazionale del Bargello |
Penitent Magdalene | Statue | Wood and stucco pigmented and gilded | 1440–1442 (?) | Florence | Florence, Museo dell'Opera del Duomo |
Madonna and Child | Relief, low | Terracotta, pigmented | 1445 (1455) | unknown | Paris, Louvre |
Equestrian Monument of Gattamelata | Statue, equestrian monument | Bronze | 1445–1450 | Padua, Piazza Sant'Antonio | Padua, Piazza Sant'Antonio |
High altar with Madonna with Child, six statues of Saints and four episodes of the life of St. Anthony | Statues (seven) and 21 reliefs | Bronze (and one stone relief) | 1446, after | Padua, Basilica di Sant'Antonio | Padua, Basilica di Sant'Antonio (reconstruction) |
Judith and Holofernes | Statue group | Bronze | 1453–1457 | Florence, Palazzo Medici, garden | Florence, Palazzo Vecchio |
John the Baptist | Statue | Bronze | 1455, circa | Siena, Cathedral | Siena, Cathedral |
Virgin and Child with Four Angels or Chellini Madonna | Relief, low, tondo | Bronze, gilded | 1456, before | Florence | London, Victoria and Albert Museum |
Pulpits, one with scenes of the Passion, one with post-Passion scenes | Reliefs | Bronze | 1460, after | Florence, San Lorenzo | Florence, San Lorenzo |
2020 discovery
In 2020 art historian Gianluca Amato, as part of his research on wooden crucifixes crafted between the late thirteenth and the first half of the sixteenth century for his doctoral thesis at the University of Naples Federico II, discovered that the crucifix of the church of Sant'Angelo a Legnaia was sculpted by Donatello.
This discovery has been evaluated historically. Silvia Bensì performed restoration work on the crucifix.
Related pages
See also
In Spanish: Donatello para niños