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The Magic of Donatello Andrew Butterfield The Magic of Donatello Andrew Butterfield Sculpture in the Age of Donatello: smith Lorenzo Ghiberti, and another Renaissance Masterpieces from young Florentine goldsmith, Filippo Florence Cathedral Brunelleschi—the future architect— an exhibition at the Museum of came in second. A new era in the his- Biblical Art, New York City, tory of art had begun. February 20–June 14, 2015. Like all revolutions, the transfor- Catalog of the exhibition edited by mation of the arts in early-fifteenth- Timothy Verdon and Daniel M. Zolli. century Florence can never be fully Museum of Biblical Art/Giles, explained; at best we can only identify 200 pp., $49.95 some contributing causes. Stimulated in part by the city’s soaring prosperity The Museum of Biblical Art, lodged and growing hegemony, around 1400 in a relatively small space on Broad- the wealthy merchants who ran Flor- way near Lincoln Center, is now show- ence began to pour unprecedented ing nine sculptures by Donatello, one amounts of cash into new buildings, of the greatest of all Renaissance art- paintings, and sculptures. They were ists. Never before have so many of his proud of the architectural splendor best works been shown together in the of Florence and saw it as a sign of the United States. Antonio Quattrone/Opera di Santa Maria del Fiore, Florence city’s manifest destiny. This attitude Among the works on view is Don- was given voice by Leonardo Bruni, atello’s large sculpture of the Old Tes- who wrote around 1403–1404 in his tament prophet Habakkuk. “Speak, Panegyric to the City of Florence: damn you, speak!” Donatello, we are told, repeatedly shouted at the statue As soon as [visitors] have seen . while carving it. The dream of a statue the grandeur of its buildings, its that can speak or breathe or move splendor and magnificence, the is a fantasy shared by many cultures lofty towers, the marble churches, throughout time, and the story may the domes of the basilicas . they be apocryphal. Still, it points to the are no longer amazed by the great- fundamental appeal of Donatello’s ness and most important exploits sculptures: by some strange magic they accomplished by Florence. Rather, seem to capture the phantom of life. everyone immediately comes to Nowhere is this more evident than in believe that Florence is indeed the Habakkuk, which Vasari praised worthy of attaining dominion and as “finer than anything else he ever rule over the entire world. made.” Even today it is often said to be the most important marble statue of As the Florentine merchant and phi- the fifteenth century. losopher Matteo Palmieiri stated some This sublimely harrowing work is years later, it was the duty of “great at the heart of the exhibition “Sculp- men” to spend “on things that are hon- ture in the Age of Donatello.” All orific and full of glory, not private, but twenty-three items in it were made for public things, such as buildings and the the cathedral of Florence in the late decoration of churches.” fourteenth and early fifteenth centu- No one ranked higher in Florentine ries and are on loan from its museum, society than the members of the in- the Museo dell’Opera del Duomo, ternational wool merchants’ guild, the which is currently closed for renova- Arte della Lana, who patronized the tion. None of the sculptures has been Duomo. Starting in the 1390s, they shown in the US before. Along with ‘Prophet’ (possibly Habakkuk), known as the ‘Zuccone’; sought to put up more statues, on a works by Donatello, the exhibition fea- marble sculpture by Donatello, 1427–1436 larger scale and more quickly, than ever tures sculptures by his contemporaries before in Florentine history. The scope Nanni di Banco, Luca della Robbia, placement on the exterior of the ca- Europe in the early fifteenth century. of effort was colossal. It occurred, how- Giovanni d’Ambrogio, and others, as thedral and its bell tower, this setting This flourishing is all the more remark- ever, at a moment when many cities, well as architectural models by Filippo could have proved very unsympathetic. able when we consider how sudden it including Milan and Venice, were also Brunelleschi. Fortunately, the works are beautifully was. In Florence both arts had lain dor- erecting enormous cathedrals and pal- The show reminds us why Donatello lighted, and the bases are high enough mant for much of the previous century; aces, and as a result experienced sculp- is so often ranked among the greatest to suggest their original exalted posi- the few major projects there in building tors and masons were in demand all sculptors. Born in Florence around tion yet low enough to allow the viewer and sculpting had been commissioned over Italy. The overseers of the Duomo 1386, the son of a wool carder, he to stand in close proximity to them. mostly from foreign artists who came had no choice but to rely more than be- worked in his teens assisting Lorenzo Moreover, several of the statues have to the city specifically for the task, fore on a group of untested locals, many Ghiberti on the bronze doors of the recently been freed from decades of and often left even before the job was of whom had been initially trained as Baptistery, but very soon after emerged soot and grime by cleaning; for the first done. For instance, the new cathedral goldsmiths, not as stone carvers. as one of the preeminent artists of the time in living memory they are close of Florence was begun in 1296 by Ar- It is rarely remarked how very Renaissance. His most admired sculp- to their original color and luster. They nolfo di Cambio, a Sienese artist who young these artists were. At the time tures include the fiery Saint George are shown to better effect in New York had trained in Pisa, and the first bronze of the competition for the Baptistery carved for the church of Orsanmichele than ever before. doors for the Baptistery, made around doors Ghiberti was only about twenty- around 1416, the sleek bronze David A system of translucent white cur- 1330, were designed by a sculptor from one, and Brunelleschi twenty-four. made for the Medici, probably in the tains divides the room into bays for the Pisa and cast by a founder from Venice. Donatello was only about twenty when late 1430s, and the proud equestrian different sections of the show, allowing Effectively, there was no local tradition he began his earliest independent com- statue of the Venetian condottiere the visitor to concentrate on individual in making sculpture or architecture. mission, a prophet for the cathedral, Erasmo da Narni, known as Gattame- items, but also to take in the entire ex- When work on the cathedral en- which is on view in the exhibition. lata, erected in Padua between 1447 hibition at a glance. The visual experi- tered a new phase of high activity at Nanni di Banco, Donatello’s main and 1453. Sources tell us little about ence is compressed yet illuminating. the end of the fourteenth century, rival in these years in marble carving, Donatello’s personality, although one Standing in one spot, simply by turning non-Florentines still were predominant was also in his early or mid- twenties writer describes him as being “rough your head, you can see the evolution of in its creation—one leading sculptor when he made the pendant to this fig- and very straightforward.” In his art, art in Florence during the first decades for the Duomo was from Germany. ure. Their youthful freedom from the too, he favored forcefulness of expres- of the Renaissance. The last instance of this tendency was weight of tradition helped these art- sion and cared little for tradition and the famous competition held in 1401 ists to re imagine the possibilities and convention. to make a new set of bronze doors techniques of sculpture, and the urgent The objects in New York are dis- Continuing efforts to build and deco- for the Baptistery; most of the con- demand for new work meant they were played in just one medium-sized room. rate the Florentine Duomo made it the testants were from Siena and other forced into continual collaboration and Since some of the sculptures are larger most important site for the develop- Tuscan towns. Yet this competition competition—a perfect setting for in- than life and most were intended for ment of sculpture and architecture in was won by the young Florentine gold- novation. The sculpture workshop of 12 The New York Review the cathedral became a laboratory of his sacrifice of his son. With one hand Among Donatello’s first attempts vine vision: “When I heard, my belly constant experimentation and advance. Abraham still grasps Isaac’s hair at the to represent a holy person in this way trembled; my lips quivered at the voice: back of his head, but with the other he was the marble of Habbakuk, which rottenness entered into my bones, and I turns the blade away from Isaac’s neck, he carved for the Campanile likely trembled in myself.” Donatello’s statue The exhibition opens with an An- and his grip on the knife has begun to between 1427 and 1436. It represents embodies the sense of spiritual and nunciation group of the Archangel relax. The sculpture’s strong illusion of the prophet whose short book in the physical terror in the biblical account. Gabriel and the Virgin Mary, made at movement was aided by drilling clear Old Testament concerns the rise and There is a tendency in the study of the end of the fourteenth century, and through the block of marble at sev- advance of the Chaldeans against the Donatello to praise his classicism and commonly attributed to the sculptor eral points so that Abraham’s massive Jews in the seventh century BC.
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