Donatello :: Biography

Donatello was born in Florence, Italy in1386. The full name of Donatello is Donato di Niccolo di Belto Bardi (â€Å"Donatello† par 1, 2, 3). His dad was a wool comber (â€Å"Donatello† par 1, 2). There was not much information found on his mom. He had a first job and that in the workshop of Lerenzo Ghilberti, a gothic sculptor, between 1404 and 1407(â€Å"Donatello† par 1, 2, 3). After that job he worked at a Florence Cathedral in 1407. At the Cathedral he decorated tombs and pulpits and made portrait busts and monuments (â€Å"Donatello† par 1, 2). An inspiration for his work was by ancient visual examples (â€Å"Donatello† par 1). He achieved his full intensity in the beginning of the 15th century (â€Å"Donatello† par 1, 2, and 3). In the later part of his life he studied Roman Ruins and became a Humanist (Blood par 1). In Donatello’s lifetime he had many accomplishments weather it was sculpting or just huge achievements. Donatello sent a while on his famous sculptor, Saint George, which was sculpted from 1416 to about 1420(ward par 2, 3, 4). 1428 was when the town put up a ancient Roman Pillar in the market place and that they asked him to make a statue because they believed he was the best sculptor(Morley 13,18). One of the monuments he created was Padua and he created that between 1443 and 1453. A well know sculptor of his was the statue Zuccone which people say showed the effective use of realism(Ward par 2,3,4). Donatello created many bronze sculptures. A huge achievement was his gilt bronze Herod’s feast. Another gilt bronze he made was St. Louis of Toulouse sculpture. One huge milestone was he made the first freestanding bronze naked bronze sculpture (Lewine par 2, 4). He designed twin bronze pulpit for San Lorenzo. The most important bronze sculpture was David was his first free-standing nude statue of the renaissance (â€Å"Donatello† par 2, 4). A huge famous sculpture he did was Gattamelata. That statue was supposed to represent a no ruler (â€Å"Donatello â€Å"par 2, 4). His statue called St. George was so good that even Michelangelo complemented it (Hale 109). John Pope Henessy, a great author, he noted that he was one of the greatest sculptors that ever lived. Following his sculptor called St. Gorge, he made St.Gorge and the dragon. St George was his first attempt at portraying a three dimensional scene on a flat surface (â€Å"Donatello† par 5, 7).