Lecture 11: Early Renaissance Sculpture in Florence
The greatest Florentine sculptor of the 15th century, and probably the most
inÀ uential artist in Italy at the time, was Donato di Niccolò Bardi, known
as Donatello (1386–1466). He apprenticed with Ghiberti and worked on the
preparation of the north doors for the baptistery, but his artistic temperament
was quite different. He had technical genius in both marble and bronze, and
throughout his life, his work was endlessly inventive and deeply moving.Our example shows Donatello’s marble sculpture St. George (c. 1415),
which was commissioned for a niche on the exterior of the civic guild hall in
Florence, known as Orsanmichele. The guilds that controlled the niches were
required to commission sculptures for them. The Armorer’s Guild chose the
warrior ¿ gure of St. George to represent its members and commissioned
Donatello to carve what became his most important early work. The sculpture
is heroic and lifelike. It was originally crowned by a real helmet and held a
real sword, both made by the Armorer’s Guild.The St. George and the Dragon is a marble relief sculpture (c. 1415–1417)
below the niche of the St. George sculpture. The shallow carving in the
background is unprecedented. This À attened relief is Donatello’s invention
and his means of suggesting atmospheric effects. This technique was
remarkably inÀ uential; in fact, Ghiberti used the sculptural illusionism
brilliantly in his Gates of Paradise.In the Feast of Herod (c. 1427, Siena, Baptistery), Herod is presented with
the head of St. John the Baptist. The work is infused with emotion and horror.
Donatello’s most famous work is probably his bronze David (c. early 1430s).
The Medici owned this sculpture, but we don’t know if they commissioned
it. It was the ¿ rst life-size, freestanding, fully-in-the-round, bronze male
nude statue since antiquity.Luca della Robbia (1400–1482) was also one of the great sculptors of
the Florentine Renaissance, yet his name often does not garner the same
attention as Donatello. This may be because he made many glazed terracotta
sculptures, popular art sometimes slighted as “decorative art.” Luca invented
the means of applying the fused lead and glass compounds used by potters
to terracotta sculpture, and his family kept the process secret for centuries,