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"Donatello's bronze statue of David
(circa 1440s) is notable as the first unsupported standing work in bronze cast
during the Renaissance period, and the first freestanding nude male sculpture
made since antiquity. It depicts the young David with an enigmatic smile, posed
with his foot on Goliath's severed head just after killing the giant. The youth
is standing naked, apart from a laurel-topped Jewish hat and boots, bearing the
sword of Goliath.
"There are no documents related to the commission or production of the
bronze David. The earliest secure reference to the statue occurred in 1469, when
it was described at the center of the courtyard of the Medici Palace in
Florence. The Medici were exiled from Florence in 1494, and the statue was moved
to the courtyard of the Palazzo della Signoria (the famous marble David also by
Donatello was already in the palazzo). It was moved to the Pitti Palace in the
17th century, to the Uffizi in 1777, and then finally, in 1865, to the Bargello
museum, where it remains today."
Donato di Niccolò di Betto Bardi
(Donatello's Birth Name)
born about 1386
Donatello had an immense impact on
Renaissance art and his statue of David was the first free standing nude statue
of the Christian Era. Donatello invented the shallow relief technique, where the
sculpture seems deep, but is actually done on a very shallow plane. In this
sculpture, Donatello does not have David admiring the head of his slain victim,
Goliath, but rather at his own graceful and powerful body. It is the admiration
of one's self which is the dominant theme in Renaissance Art. |
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