Thursday, November 12, 2015

THE RENAISSANCE ARTISTS & THEIR MASTERPIECES

Donato di Niccolò di Betto Bardi (c. 1386 – December 13, 1466), better known as Donatello, was an early Renaissance sculptor from Florence. He studied classical sculpture, and used this to develop a fully Renaissance style in sculpture, which his periods in Rome, Padua and Siena introduced to other parts of Italy over his long and productive career. He worked in stone, bronze, wood, clay, stucco and wax, and had several assistants, with four perhaps a typical number. Though his most famous works are mostly statues in the round, he developed a new, very shallow, type of bas-relief for small works, and a good deal of his output was larger architectural reliefs.


THE MASTERPIECES


David is the title of two statues of the biblical hero by the Italian early Renaissance sculptor Donatello, an early work in marble of a clothed figure (1408-09), and a far more famous bronze figure that is nude between its helmet and boots, and dates to the 1430s or later. Both are now in the Museo Nazionale del Bargello in Florence.


Donatello's Saint Mark (1411–1413) is a marble statue that stands approximately seven feet and nine inches high in an exterior niche of the Orsanmichele church, Florence. Donatello was commissioned by the linen weavers' guild to complete three pieces for the project. St. Mark was the first of his contributions. The niche itself was not of Donatello's hand, but created most probably by two stone carvers named Perfetto di Giovanni and Albizzo di Pietro. Today, a copy of the statue stands in the original's place, while the real St. Mark is housed inside the church's museum.


Lo Zuccone is a marble statue by Donatello. It was commissioned for the bell tower of the Florence Cathedral of Florence, Italy and completed between 1423 and 1425. It is also known as the Statue of the Prophet Habakkuk, as many believe it depicts the Biblical figure Habakkuk.

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