Donatello David

Donatello also creates one of the great sculptures of David that we're going to see, and we're going to see a few Davids over the next couple of chapters. Now in this case, this is the first depiction of a nude male in statuary since ancient times. In fact, it's very classical in its form. We have that sense of contrapposto. We have a very young boy, which we're going to get to shortly. And the exact date is unknown, but the bronze was probably cast between 1440 and 1460. He's actually using the lost wax method, which is something that hadn't been used much since classic times. Now, I say much, I mean the doors, the bronze doors at Hildesheim, etc. come to mind, but this is really one of the first full uses of the lost wax method since antiquity. Now, it was originally created for the courtyard of the Medici Palace, which means he can push the bounds a little bit. The people who are going to see it are going to be his patrons, the Medici, not necessarily the general public. With David, Donatello has reinvented the classical nude. The subject itself, the David, suggests that the Medici identified themselves with David and felt responsible for the prosperity and freedom of Florence. The classical pose also appealed to the Medici ideas of humanism, getting back to those ideas of the Greeks and the Romans. So, what are we looking at? First of all, we see a sculpture with a great deal of contrapposto, and you can see I've drawn in the lines, both the weight line and then the various joint articulations. You see them going back and forth, and the more that I can articulate the body, in this case looking very much like the spear bearer from ancient Greece, the more that I can articulate the body, the more interesting the image is. You could imagine if David was just standing stiff and frontal and rigid, looking straight at us with both feet equally planted at shoulder width, it wouldn't be a terribly interesting image, nor would it be particularly natural. The central beauty and proportions really make the work stand out. Now, let's look at a few elements of the work. First of all, when we look at David here, what you're seeing is David having been victorious. He has already won the battle. How do we know? Well, he's standing on Goliath's head. That kind of gives it away. If you're standing on the heads of your enemy, then you're probably victorious. And you see a wreath around the bottom of the sculpture. The wreath is a wreath of victory. It tells us again that he is victorious. Along the helmet of the Philistine Goliath, we see an image showing just how tough he is, showing his war-like capabilities. We also run into another issue, which is, of course, the feather and the age. Now, when you look at it, he's holding a rock. We're told that he stuns Goliath with a rock. He's holding Goliath's sword, which appears too big for him. He's got this strange dainty helmet on, giving a sense of youth. But think about how old this boy is. He's probably, what, 12? Kind of touchy. Now, biblically, he's a young man. But here's where we start getting into some issues. This is an incredibly controversial sculpture. The controversy comes from this feather. There are feathers on either side of Goliath's helmet. One just sort of sits down here, but the other one is strangely stretched right up along David's inner thigh, pointing directly to his nude buttocks. Now, at the time, this is very controversial. In fact, the church nearly has an inquisition in Florence because of this sculpture. They believe that it is pushing ideas that should not be appropriate in the Christian world. Now, even today, this piece is controversial for much the same reason, although today we tend to look at the age of the boy as much as the eroticism of the feather. Now, Donatello is intentionally pushing social boundaries here with his provocative pose and his use of nudity. That is, his combination of a lack of clothing and the presence of boots and a hat. And this is in order to challenge his viewer. The fact that he revived the lost-wax bronze technique was also innovative for the time and enhanced the sensuality of his surface texture. After all, it takes on the texture of almost young human skin. Donatello was able to experiment in this way because he had the support and the protection of the Medici who would have prevented anything happening to him. So he can push those bounds. He can be controversial. And you say, well, why is he being so controversial? That's ridiculous. But let me remind you that later in this class, we're going to look at a lot of controversial pieces. Pieces that are still controversial today. And usually it's because artists are pushing bounds. In the moment, in the time, people would have seen this as controversial, but very quickly, within a generation, they would have seen this as passé, as, well, yep, that's a great sculpture by Donatello. Let's move on to the next great controversy. And of course, this is very much how the world works today. We do the same thing. The controversy of yesterday is passé tomorrow. So keep that in mind. Keep context in mind when you look at these pieces.