Donatello s David

Hello, my name is Larissa Shaw. I am in class Art of the Western World, Survey 2 with teacher Brian Thigmont. An important sculpture of the Renaissance era was the Sculpture of David, which had first been placed at the Medici Palace in a courtyard after it was finished. The sculpture was believed for its importance due to the victory over Florence with Milan the year 1428. The sculpture known as Donatello spent much time in Rome studying the many works of art that was established during the 15th century. In essence of what Donatello saw in Rome, David was his first piece of artwork that was life-size, in totaling about five feet tall. The story of David and the Goliath comes from the Book of Samuel. The story involves a battle between the Philistines and the Israelites. Goliath asked the Israelites to send their best warrior to fight him in a man-to-man match. This match between the two would then decide the outcome of the battle and the victor and their side would be declared. Between all the Israelite soldiers, all were scared of the magnificent size of the Goliath and they refused to be the chosen one to fight him. Although all soldiers had refused a boy by the name of David, who had no experience at all, only a shepherd's boy stepped forward to fight the Goliath. With one shot, David knocked Goliath to the ground and grabbed his sword and severed his head. Another ending to the story would include that David took a stone and hit the Goliath over the head, knocking him down to the ground and then severing his head with his sword. David was claimed as the victor and so was all the Israelite soldiers. Now since the statue of David was only about five feet tall, very lifelike for that time especially since David was considered a boy fighting this you know Goliath, he was shown in the statue as being probably the same height as he was when he fought the Goliath. This is very interesting to me because the Goliath you know looking at the statue the Goliath looks so massive, so huge. David tends to be a little smaller just because he is a boy. It makes it hard to believe that David had defeated the Goliath. Something had to have been with him to help him through defeating him to be claimed as victor. He was the ultimate one who stepped up to the plate besides all the soldiers. Just makes it hard to believe that David defeated the Goliath. With essence of David's size and what this statue shows is lifelike for him only being five feet tall, this was also the first bronze nude that was completed for European art during the 15th century. Donatello took the chance and for a reason of course he depicted him as being nude on the statue. Donatello had chosen for David to be sculpted being naked. Nakedness during this time was believed to show a sign of a presence of God. So Donatello wanted to express maybe that God was with David during this battle. He was the one who helped him get through this you know for him being so young and so little compared to the Goliath. God maybe helped him find a way to defeat him. So maybe Donatello wanted to really show the emphasis on David being depicted as naked because God was with him. God was the one who helped him through this. Another reason why Donatello might have wanted to show David being naked maybe just to show the contrast between David being with no clothing and the Goliath. He looks very heavily armored you know he's very big massive. If you look at the statue he just looks you know just like he has a lot of armor on him compared to David. He did not have anything you know he was had no experience in fighting. He was only a shepherd's boy. Donatello did show him though with a pair of boots and a hat on. This may show significance because going into battle you likely are going to have hopefully a pair of boots on but also possibly a hat or helmet. So the emphasis on this is not really clear though as to why the boots and the hat was put on him but no shirt or pants compared to the Goliath who just looks heavily armored during this time. Also another feature of showing David with no clothing on during this time it was common for men to be representative of uncircumcised males. That was a common feature of the Italian renaissance paintings and sculptures. So Donatello maybe not considered this when he sculpted David but he wanted probably an emphasis on this. So also why he was naked just because it was just very common during the Italian renaissance. In comparison the story of David and the Goliath in the book of Samuel also can be related to the story of the tortoise and the hare. David on the other hand is more like the tortoise because he is not experienced in fighting. He has never gone to battle. He's only been a shepherd's boy. By the look of how Donatello had depicted him he is very small for his size comparison to the Goliath who is more like the hare. He should be faster. He should be the winner in reality. He is shown as being armored and he's kind of massive compared to the boy. David is the one who comes out in the end though. David has defeated the Goliath. He has severed the head of the Goliath. He has taken over for the Philistines and David is the winner ultimately. Which goes back to the story of the tortoise and the hare where the tortoise beats the hare because the hare gets sidetracked. He doesn't pay attention. He thinks he's going to win ultimately. So it just relates really well to the story because it really shows an emphasis on how the underdog can possibly win always typically in the end for most cases. Although 38 years later after the battle with the Philistines Donatello died in Florence of his unknown causes. Donatello had depicted with a sculpture of David showing a historical timepiece of how the story ended between the Philistines and the Israelites. As for today David remains as a cornerstone of a typical western artwork that has been accomplished.