The artist known as Donatello was one of the most important sculptors in Italy in the fifteenth century. He is considered one of the founding fathers of the Renaissance. His innovative styles, including making shadow relief sculptures, involved the newly discovered developments in perspectival illusion. Like many budding artists of the time, Donatello had his artistic beginnings in goldsmith. Soon, however, he moved to Rome where he met and studied with the architect Filippo Brunelleschi. The two men together laid the foundation for the emerging Italian Renaissance, while Brunelleschi was taking measurements of the Pantheon Dome and Donatello was developing his style. Their work was characteristic of the spirit of the Renaissance and both the architecture of one and the sculpture of the other would have a profound effect of the painters of the era.
Donatello’s work was innovative and creatively unique. The enormous Saint John the Evangelist, with its realistic humanity, marked a change from late Gothic styles to an age where naturalism and the rendering of human feelings was sought. While the head was still idealized like earlier sculpture, the hands, and legs are very realistic. He also created the first known use of central-point perspective with the bas-relief Saint George and the Dragon. The technique known as stiaciatto, a form of bas-relief, was invented by Donatello and has been explained as “drawing in marble.” In his works following these, mostly niche works and other sculpture for cathedrals, his expression became more and more realistic as well as emotionally charged. He freely used classical examples for inspiration and used themes from the Antique.
In the 1420s , partnering with Michelozzo, he produced a funerary monument for the Antipope John XXIII. This would highly influence tomb design, with its use of classical architectural designs, along with the Three Virtues and Madonna and Child. It was considered to be “picturesque classicism.” Donatello created in 1445 to 1450 the first equestrian monument since classic times. The Gattamallata horseback rider was made for the Piazza del Santo and was made around the same time as the High Altar of the Santo.
The altar contained reliefs with highly perspectival scenes with crowded figures which would later influence painters such as Andrea Mantegna and Michael Pacher. His works such as David (seen above) , Judith and Holofernes, and Mary Magdalene possessed an expressive quality never before seen. He was highly influential in all the arts in Italy over the next century and his power of expression remained unmatched, perhaps until Michelangelo came along.
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