THE revolutionary Florentine artist Donato di Niccolò di Betto Bardi, otherwise known as Donatello, is popularly considered to be the greatest Italian Renaissance sculptor of all time. He invented techniques that set sculptural practice on a new path and influenced his successors, including the peerless Michelangelo. His interest in portraiture saw him create empathetic figures based on careful observation of antique Roman statues. He introduced the use of low-relief ‘flattened’ carving (rilievo schiacciato), allowing him to achieve greater drama and apparent depth in his work. And he designed beautiful works of art in multiple materials, including marble, bronze, terracotta and wood. To him we owe the creation of the first freestanding nude male statue since antiquity—the extraordinary bronze David, alive with contrapposto.
It may be said of this man that he worked as much with his judgement as with his hands
(Giorgio Vasari)
Donatello’s success was hard won. He was a working-class artist whose father,
