The Evolution of Donatello's Humanism

The humanism of the Italian Renaissance was a philosophical niche established simultaneously in early quattrocento literature and art. Humanist art treatises, as well as the personal relationships between these authors and artists, advanced the dissemination of humanist ideals. Humanist culture was attributed to the classicist revival in midst of diminishing demand for the Gothic medieval style of art. Humanism emphasized the human experience of life through the study of classical antiquity. These representations of human experience are demonstrated through increasingly naturalized compositions in early fifteenth century art. One such artist who epitomized this humanist style was Florentine sculptor Donato di Niccolo di Betto Bardi. Donatello, as he came to be known, initially worked as an assistant to Lorenzo Ghiberti; famed for his naturalized sculptures. Donatello was known to be associated with humanist circles and had been involved with humanist in their study of ancient art (Wheat 3).

Donatello and the humanist author and artist Leon Battista Alberti had a relationship of mutual respect. Alberti’s treatise, della Pintura, was dedicated to his “”close friend Donato the sculptor (Wheat 3).’” Scholars reasonably assume that in Donatello accompanied Alberti, in his researches. The influences of skilled and learned individuals, such as Ghiberti and Alberti, which guided the humanist artistic path of Donatello’s career, are best reflected in the works from the maturity of his career; the David (c. 1445-50) and the Equestrian Statue of Gattamelata (1453). The later works, Penitent Magdalene (c. 1453-55) and Judith and Holofernes (1460), however, denote an abrupt deviation from the classical renaissance; an apparent renunciation of humanism (Clark 26). Nonetheless, although Donatello departed from classicized humanism, he remained truthful to the principle themes of the artistic experimentation from his youth; while maintaining his serious view on human life with a growing sense of tragedy and unnatural elegance.

In the treatise della Pintura, Alberti criticizes ancient painter Demetrius because he was representing likeness, rather than beauty, and then asserts that artists should “strive to clearly understand, perceive and represent beauty. That withstanding, Alberti still prioritized likeness. Alberti developed his idea of proportional imitation to address sculpture; which set his study of art upon the same naturalistic course that Donatello was following in practice (Gadol 81). For this reason, Bergstein speculates that drawings or models from Donatello’s studio assisted Alberti’s treatise. Therefore, it is evident that the inspiration between humanist artists and authors was communal. The aesthetics’ David and the Equestrian Statue of Gattamelata both formally adhere to the humanist audience of the early Italian Renaissance.

The statue of David is amongst his most celebrated. The bronze sculpture was the first free-standing, life-size nude cast since antiquity. “It revived one of the commonest types of classical sculpture, the victorious athlete (Avery 82).” Donatello uses the human form of the sculpture to express David’s psychological temperament. Accordingly, David is shown in the dynamic contrapposto pose first seen in ancient Greek art. His stance displays relaxed tension in a contemplative moment that reflects Donatello’s knowledge of the classical statue Antonious (Avery 82). His foot rests on Goliath’s severed head just after he has slain the giant, but despite the feat he looks down with uncertainty which can be ascribed to his young age. David’s youth shows him in idealized form in order to represent his eternal beauty.

In David, Donatello successfully personifies both the neo-platonic beauty and likeness essential to classicist humanism. Humanist artists were staunch pupils of the past, and worked with a repertoire of classical forms. Through David’s youthful, prepubescent frame, Giovanna Gaeta Bertelà states David, “shows elegant handling of Praxiteles idea of form.” Furthermore, Alberti thought the objective of sculpture was verisimilitude (Gadol 84); an idea directly echoed from ancient sophist, Philostratus who said that it is not possible to succeed in expressing “movements of the mind” without “conforming to measurements laid down by nature (Baxandall 103).” Giorgio Vasari declared that the statue was so naturalistic it must have been cast from life. Specifically, David’s arms were thought to be cast from a live model. Hence, because Donatello sculpted the David’s exterior the way nature would have intended, he was then able to successfully express the experience of human emotion through the naturalized form.

As with David, Donatello worked with the concept of the heroic figure from antiquity to sculpt Gattamelata. Donatello addressed the classical motif of secular equestrian monuments with Gattamelata; it is the first surviving Renaissance equestrian statue and the first to reintroduce the magnificence of Classical equestrian portraiture (Gardener, Kleiner 551). Thus, the Equestrian Monument of Gattamelata is thematically comparable, both extrinsically and intrinsically to the ancient Roman equestrian statue of Marcus Aurelius (c. 175 BCE). Like Marcus Aurelius, Erasmo da Narni – “Gattamelata” – is in total control of his horse, and does so with imperturbable grace, yet definite force. In particular Gattamelata’s serious facial expression and emotion reinforces the notion that he is a poised and vigilant leader. Austrian art historian Leo Planiscig, believed the exposed head of Gattamelata seemed “‘like a physiognomical study’” and that “‘the victorious captain’s face is the type of perfect condottiero – hero conqueror then being celebrated by Renaissance literature (Bertelà 64).’” Donatello’s depiction of Gattamelata’s powerful character and the reference to the self-contained power of existent individuals made a declarative humanist statement; he did not need to embellish whom Gattamelata was – the naturalistic portrayal of the real man was sufficient to convey his force.

Although humanists were concerned with the human as individuals, as art critics they had their own guidelines for the portrayal of animals based in the studies of classical antiquity. Byzantine humanist Manuel Chrysoloras was the principle agent in the introduction of Greek studies (Baxandall 80); logically, his literature reached Renaissance humanist. In a letter, Chrysoloras says that “‘many people would willingly have given many living and faultless horses to have one stone horse by Phidias or Praxiteles’” (Baxandall, 82); this shows how imperative the studies of classical antiquity were to early Renaissance humanists. Alberti calls for animals, especially horses, to be humanized by transfixing human qualities to the animal. Gattamelata’s horse mirrors his alert, self-contained and courageous disposition. Alberti’s treatise De equo animante, he states that a horse on the battlefield should always show “‘the excellence of glory and the decorum of liberty’” in his demeanor, and that “‘such a horse had to be trained to tolerate great physical efforts in order to … defeat his enemies, for the dignity and glory … He had to be ferocious and disciplined in battle (Bergstein, 864).’” Notably, the proportions of Donatello’s horse are more reconciled with Alberti’s prescription in De equo animante, than classical predecessors (Equestrian statue of Marcus Aurelius). Alberti stresses that a perfect quattrocento horse must have: a large body and backbone, solid and brawny limbs, and legs broadly distant one from the other (Bergstein 864).

While works from the pique of Donatello’s career faithfully integrated the objectives of early quattrocento humanism, his artistic maturity ushered in a style which blatantly rejected the notions of Renaissance humanism and violently contrasted preceding works. Donatello composed the sculptures Penitent Magdalene and Judith and Holofernes concentrated on dramatic and tragic seriousness; which Clark claims had no impact on Florentine art at the time because “the taste for grace and sweetness continued in Botticelli and Filippino art (Clark 36).” Of Donatello’s “Last Years,” Bertelà says, “many years were to pass until the Mannerist culture of the mid-16th century his qualities became fully accepted and highly esteemed (Bertelà 66).” Mannerism prioritized intellectually sophisticated intricacy and brilliance. The compositional tension and instability of Mannerist art challenged the balance and clarity of earlier Renaissance art. In the Renaissance conflict between classicism and mannerism, it is certain that Alberti would have been a classicist because of his humanist philosophies on art that were developed in the examination of classical antiquity (Clark 95). Clark theorizes that the shift in Donatello’s style was the result of his profound disturbance by the horrors of 1453, “a year of earthquakes, tempests, assaults on the Pope, and finally the fall of Constantinople. He may even have been influenced by the anti-humanist Archbishop of Florence (Clark 26).”

The Penitent Magdalene highlights the remnants of prior ideological objectives from his career, but the stylistic departure is unmistakable. The sculpture rejected the customary idealized depiction of Mary as a beautiful young woman. Instead, in Penitent Magdalene, she is portrayed as an emaciated woman who has been wasted away by her fasting and abstinence. Her face is animated by the expression of anguish and grief. Vasari said that Donatello demonstrated his expert knowledge by the perfect accuracy of every part of the figure (Bertelà 66). Vasari’s claim corroborates the accounts of the Penitent Magdalene’s popularity due to her realism. Moreover, Alberti’s system of proportions, exempeda, sought to achieve that exact beauty, which is only granted through nature (Gadol 82). Donatello updated and rebranded his knowledge of the human anatomy. It is obvious that he was well versed in the classical concepts of the human form; he simply approached the sculpture with an increasingly tragic seriousness that was still out of style at the time in the Renaissance. Conversely, like Donatello’s wood sculpture, Saint John the Baptist (c. 1450-1455), Magdalene’s limbs were elongated; so, as real as she appeared to be, her proportions would not fit Alberti’s system.

Judith and Holofernes followed suit. Donatello’s previous statues were sculpted in the round for finishing purposes and can be viewed from all angles. Judith and Holofernes was sculpted for the purpose of being seen from all angles, which is another characteristic of Mannerist sculpture. The goal of the statue is not naturalism or realism; it is the intellectual symbolism.

“The carefully calculated composition gives the group a feeling of hieratic symbolism instead of realistic action, but this in part reflects the fact that the subject matter was regarded as symbolic of the victory of Humility over Pride and vice, as we know from a record of a lost inscription on the original base (Avery, 93).”

Donatello retains his intense understanding of the complexity of human life how human beings react to emotional forces (Clark 26). Holofernes’ countenance exposes the effect of wine and sleep to the viewer; death is given an active presence through his limp and cold limbs as his soul departs (Bertelà 66). Judith’s stance is remarkably parallel to figures in successive Mannerist sculptures, such as, Giambologna’s Samson Slaying a Philistine (1562), and Pietro Francavilla’s Apollo Victorious over the Python (1591). She is not standing in a modest contrapposto; she has her equipped right arm raised high in the air, moments before she beheads Holofernes. This over-emphatic gesture between stillness and movement is of the nature that Alberti himself is careful to warn against (Clark 95).

Renaissance humanism showed the way in which art might concern itself with the great issues of human life through the study of classical antiquity. Donatello’s strength was in his ability to humanize the expression of character and articulating the “subtlest nuances of drama and emotion (Avery 84).” In the first portions of his career he worked conscientiously with the style and themes prescribed by the humanist culture. Consequently, Donatello’s earlier works strictly exemplify the outcomes of this study. David and Gattamelata focus on expressing the human experience through the human body using classical motifs, such as the contrapposto and the victorious equestrian hero. The primary objective of these works, dated before approximately 1453, was naturalism. Yet, while the pursuit of flawlessly naturalized-classical art took other Florentine artists in the direction of the High Renaissance, Donatello developed his own unique style that foreshadowed the Mannerism from many decades later. Donatello was always concerned with the complexity of the human as an individual and their experience, his style of expressing this sentiment just became less classicized, as his life and artistry advanced. As a result, in the context of the time, Penitent Magdalene and Judith and Holofernes possessed anti-humanist treatments. In retrospect his accents on human emotion, even in the aforementioned statues, qualify all his works to be classified as humanist. As Paul Schubring summarizes the artist, “those who love the compelling power of the will and the strength of the human form will find refreshment and delight” in the works of Donatello (Schubring 6).

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Works Cited

Avery, Charles. Florentine Renaissance Sculpture. London: J. Murray, 1970.

Baxandall, Michael. Giotto and the Orators: Humanist Observers of Painting in Italy and the Discovery of Pictorial Composition. Oxford: Clarendon, 1971.

Bergstein, Mary. “Donatello's ‘Gattamelata’ and Its Humanist Audience.” Renaissance Quarterly 55.3 (2002): 833-68. Accessed November 14, 2015. http://www.jstor.org/stable/1261558.

Bertelà, Giovanna Gaeta. Donatello. Florence: Scala, 1991.

Clark, Kenneth. The Art of Humanism. New York: Harper & Row, 1981.

Finocchio, Ross. “Mannerism: Bronzio (1503–1572) and his Contemporaries”. In Heilbrunn Timeline of Art History. New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2003. Accessed November 14, 2015. http://www.metmuseum.org/toah/hd/zino/hd_zino.htm.

Gadol, Joan. Leon Battista Alberti: Universal Man of the Early Renaissance. Chicago: University of Chicago,1969.

Gardner, Helen, and Fred Kleiner. Art through the Ages. New York: Harcourt, Brace, 1959.

Janson, H. W., and Jenö Lányi. The Sculpture of Donatello. Princeton, NJ: Princeton UP, 1963.

Schubring, Paul. The Work of Donatello. New York: Brentano's, 1913.

Wheat, Shayla. “Classicism and Humanist Ideology in Donatello’s ‘Gattamelata’ and ‘David’.” Best Integrated Writing 7th ser. 1 (2014): 1-9. Wright State University. Accessed November 12, 2015. http://cowrescholar.libraries.wright.edu/biw.

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