He earned his first significant recognition as an artist when he joined the legendary 1401 competition for the building of the Baptistery doors in Florence. Mark on the exterior of the Orsanmichele church, Florence Donatello, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commonsĭonatello, similar to some other Florentine artists like Benvenuto Cellini and Lorenzo Ghiberti, received his initial creative instruction in a goldsmith’s workshop. One of Donatello’s most significant commissions would be the church’s external adornment.ĭonatello’s statue of St. The guild’s headquarters were connected to the Orsanmichele church by a gallery, which was funded by the guilds of the city. He was educated as a youngster at the home of the Martelli family, counted amongst Florence’s wealthiest families.ĭonatello the artist’s father was a member of the Arte della Lana wool guild, one of Florence’s seven main guilds in the 14th century.įlorence’s government was ostensibly democratic, with guilds having a major part in the city’s administration. The date is based on a statement of revenue given by the artist in 1433, in which he stated his age as 47. He broke innovative ground by implementing new aesthetics in line with the prospering Renaissance Humanism movement of the time – a revolution that underscored a break from medieval theology and preferred deep immersion in the humanities, culminating in the art that looked beyond the secular context of religion to start exploring man’s position in the natural world.ĭonatello was one of the most prominent sculptors in Italy in the 15th century, as well as one of the first forerunners of the Italian Renaissance, because of his distinctive, lifelike, and intensely emotive paintings.Ī portrait of Donatello from Giorgio Vasari’s T he Lives of the Most Excellent Painters, Sculptors, and Architects (1648) Giorgio Vasari, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commonsĭonato di Niccolò di Betto Bardi is assumed to have possibly been born in Florence in 1386. The Biography of Donato di Niccolò di Betto Bardi Nationalityĭonatello would go down in history as the most important artist to resurrect classical sculpture from the abyss of antiquity, thanks to a revitalized style that broke away from the flat iconography of the Gothic period.
4.1 Donatello: Sculptor (1993) by John Wyndham.3.6 Donatello Worked on Two Bronze Pulpits for the Church of San Lorenzo in His Later Years.3.5 Donatello Was Securely Positioned in the Cradle of the Renaissance as an Artist in Florence.3.4 Donatello Was Not Well-Liked as a Person.3.3 Donatello, Unlike Today’s Image of a Starving Artist, Achieved Recognition.
3.2 Donatello Spent Many Years in Rome Early in the 15th Century.3.1 Donatello Promoted a Novel Way of Expressing Motion in Ordinarily Inert Stone.1 The Biography of Donato di Niccolò di Betto Bardi.