1. Donatello. David (bronze). Museo Nazionale del Bargello, Florence, Italy. Alinari/Art Resource, NY. DONATELLO'S DAVID, OR FLESH MADE SPIRIT

TERRANCE WALSH, S.J. Gregorian University, Rome

For Magdalena, who showed me what is essential.

enigmas in art history have proven to be as fruitful a source of Faesthetic ew and philosophical reflection as that which continues to sur- round the identity and meaning of Donatello's bronze David. Acknowledged to be the first full-standing nude since antiquity, lack of documentation and stylistic ambiguities have contributed to its problematic and controversial character. We know nothing, for instance, apart from scholarly conjecture, about the patron, circumstances of commission, or original location. Its dating, still a matter of contention, is generally placed between 1428-1442.1 Moreover, it is at least a full generation after its execution that an historical document establishes its presence in the courtyard of the new Palazzo Medici in 1469, whence it was 2 moved in 1495 to the courtyard of the Palazzo Vecchio.Z Stylistically, the work seems to confound each attempt at comprehensive elucidation. Adroitly playing both on and against the viewer's expectations for the classical nude, David is unique among quattrocentro sculpture for its dependence upon, and subversion of, Greek sources. Begging comparison, it jealously resists classification. Its elusive and paradoxical quality is evident even to the most cursory inspection. For Donatello, renowned in his lifetime for the intense psychological individuality of his figures, has imbued this David with startling iconographic originality and naturalness3: its sleek, almost fragile, nakedness, dramatically framed and enhanced by a country hat (galero) and a pair of military boots, or greaves, invites the thought, "This is no typical biblical hero, perhaps not David at all." Not surprisingly, Vasari, impressed by the statue's vitality, thought it certainly constructed on a live model.4 Furthermore, the juxtaposition of frank sensuality and cool indifference towards the slain foe at the figure's feet suggests classical inspiration, or at least willful indulgence in pagan hubris. Swayed by this aspect, the judicious Kenneth Clark interpreted the figure as a young Greek god, perhaps Dionysus "with a dreamy smile and flexible pose, and the