Sculpture
DONATELLO
DONATELLO'S DAVID.
So too is Donatello's bronze David (fig.
578), an even more
revolutionary achievement: the first free-standing lifesize nude statue
since antiquity. The Middle Ages would surely have condemned it as an
idol, and Donatello's contemporaries must also have felt uneasy about
it. For many years it remained the only work of its kind. The early
history of the figure is unknown, but it must have been meant for an
open space where it would be visible from every side, probably standing
on top of a column.
The key to its significance is the elaborate helmet of Goliath with
visor and wings, a unique and implausible feature that can only refer to
the dukes of Milan, who had threatened Florence about
1400 and were now warring against
it once more in the mid-1420s. The statue, then, must be understood as a civic-patriotic public monument identifying David—
weak but favored by the Lord—with
Florence, and Goliath with Milan. David's nudity is most readily
explained as a reference to the classical origin of Florence, and his
wreathed hat as the opposite of Goliath's helmet: peace versus war.
Donatello chose to model an adolescent boy, not a full-grown youth like
the athletes of Greece, so that the skeletal structure here is less
fully enveloped in swelling muscles. Nor does he articulate the torso
according to the classical pattern (compare figs.
185 and
186). In fact his David resembles an
ancient statue only in its beautifully poised contrapposto. If the
figure nevertheless conveys a profoundly classical air, the reason lies
beyond its anatomical perfection. As in ancient statues, the body speaks
to us more eloquently than the face, which by Donatello's standards is
strangely devoid of individuality.
578.
DONATELLO.
David,
ñ.
1425-30.
Bronze, height 62
1/4"
(158 cm). Museo
Nazionale del Bargello, Florence
578.
DONATELLO.
David,
(details)
DONATELLO.
David. 1409. Marble, height: 191 cm. Museo Nazionale del
Bargello, Florence
DONATELLO.
David of Casa Martelli
1432-34.
Marble
National Gallery of Art, Washington
DONATELLO.
St Rossore. 1425-27.
Museo Nazionale di San Matteo, Pisa
DONATELLO.
Pazzi Madonna. 1420-30s.
Marble.
Staatliche Museen, Berlin
DONATELLO.
Annunciation. 1430.
Sandstone.
Santa Croce, Florence
DONATELLO.
Faith.
1427-29.
Bronze.
Baptistry, Siena |
DONATELLO.
Hope.
1427-29.
Bronze.
Baptistry, Siena |
|
DONATELLO.
Funeral Monument to John XXIII. c. 1435.
Gilded pietra serena.
Baptistry, Florence
DONATELLO.
Funeral Monument to John XXIII (detail).
c. 1435.
Gilded pietra serena.
Baptistry, Florence
|
|
DONATELLO.
Funeral Monument to John XXIII
(detail).
c. 1435.
Gilded pietra serena.
Baptistry, Florence
|
DONATELLO.
Bust of Niccolo da Uzzano. 1430s.
Polychrome terracotta.
Museo Nazionale del Bargello, Florence
DONATELLO.
Allegoric Figure of a Boy. 1430s.
Bronze.
Museo Nazionale del Bargello, Florence
DONATELLO.
Candelabra Angels. 1430s.
Bronze.
Musee Jacquemart-André, Paris
|
