Donatello
Donatello
Donatello (Donato di Niccolò di Betto Bardi, c. 1386–1466) was an Italian sculptor of the early Renaissance in Florence and a pioneer in reviving the realism and dignity of classical sculpture. He trained as a goldsmith and assisted Lorenzo Ghiberti on the bronze doors of the Florence Baptistery, and by tradition studied the ruins of ancient Rome with the architect Filippo Brunelleschi, a formative experience. His marble Saint Mark and Saint George for Orsanmichele gave saints a new natural presence, and he developed a very shallow relief called schiacciato. His bronze David was one of the first freestanding bronze statues since antiquity, and his equestrian monument to Gattamelata in Padua (1453) revived the ancient mounted statue. Late works such as the wooden Penitent Magdalene show deep spiritual feeling. A friend of Cosimo de' Medici, he was buried near him in San Lorenzo.
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Masters of the Renaissance
Donatello revived the spirit of classical sculpture in early fifteenth-century Florence, preparing the way for the High Renaissance. Leonardo painted The Last Supper and the Mona Lisa, Michelangelo carved David and painted the Sistine Chapel ceiling, and Raphael created The School of Athens in the Vatican. North of the Alps, Albrecht Dürer absorbed Italian ideas on journeys to Venice and exchanged works with Raphael, carrying the Renaissance to Germany.
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