Donatello di Niccolo di Betto Bardi, better known as simply Donatello, is arguably one of the most influential sculptors from the Italian Renaissance. He was born in 1386 or 1387 in Florence, Italy. The exact date is unknown.
Donatello’s father was Niccolo di Betto Bardi. The Bardi family was commercially successful and Niccolo Bardi was a wool carder that had earned a modest place in Florence’s bourgeois society. This social rank likely earned Donatello an apprenticeship around 1400 to learn stone-carving with one of the many sculptors who worked nearby during the construction of the Florence’s cathedral, the Duomo.
Between approximately 1404-1407 Donatello found employment as a member of Lorenzo Ghiberti’s workshop. Ghiberti was well known for his International Gothic style of bronze sculpture and excelled at creating gracefully subtle lines in his work. Donatello’s first statue depicting David is one of his earliest known works and in many respects pays homage to Ghiberti’s style. Other early works include his marble St. John the Evangelist for the Duomo’s facade and a crucifix made from wood for nearby Santa Croce’s church.
As Donatello refined his skill as a sculptor he also gained a reputation as being somewhat emotionally volatile. (….)
Donatello created his own form of relief in sculpted marble panels called “schiacciato.” This translates in English as “flattened out.” This technique allowed a far shallower carving that gave a sense of depth. The principal subjects of the panel appeared to pop off the sculpted work. He used this technique to great success in many works such as St. George Killing the Dragon and The Ascension, with Christ Giving the Keys to St. Peter.
During the same period of time in which he was developing his work within marble panels, Donatello had also become accomplished at casting figures in bronze. (…)
In the 1440s Donatello was invited to Padua to work on a series of bronze works. (…)
While Donatello did take on a few more important commissions for the Church of San Antonio in Padua, he also seems to have gone through a personal crisis or illness in the small Venetian town.
When Donatello returned to Florence his work had changed, reflecting perhaps his own realization of his mortality. Figures like his statue of Mary Magdalene revealed withered skin and an aging sensibility that seemed to reveal Donatello’s perception of himself.
He spent his last years working on two bronze pulpits for the church of San Lorenzo. Though they displayed enormous spiritual complexity and mastery of his craft, Donatello did not complete these pieces before his death in 1466.
Source: www.donatello.net
