Donatello: The Renaissance

The first thorough overview of the artist in many years, Donatello: The Renaissance reconstructs the outstanding career of one of the greatest sculptors in Western art. Famed for his incredibly sensual sculpture of David―the first freestanding nude male sculpture since antiquity―Donatello (c. 1386–1466) also made reliefs, but was best known for statues in the round.

Accompanying a truly historic exhibition at the Palazzo Strozzi and Museo Nazionale del Bargello in Florence, and featuring a wealth of color plates of the artist’s key works, this volume also contextualizes Donatello’s innovations by juxtaposing them with masterpieces by other Renaissance masters such as Brunelleschi, Masaccio, Andrea Mantegna, Giovanni Bellini, Raphael and Michelangelo. These revelatory, expert juxtapositions help define Donatello’s style: for example, comparison of his Madonna col Bambino relief with Giovanni di Pietro da Pisa’s Madonna col Bambino shows how Donatello eschewed decorative gestures (such as putti, garlands and vases) in favor of a more vital simplification of form.