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David (Donatello, marble)

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For Donatello's bronze statue, see David (Donatello, bronze).
David
The marble David, pictured at the Museo Nazionale del Bargello, Florence, in 2022.
ArtistDonatello
Year1408–09, 1416
SubjectDavid
Dimensions191.5 cm (75.4 in)
LocationBargello

David is a marble statue of the biblical hero by the Italian Renaissance sculptor Donatello. It was commissioned by the Opera del Duomo for the Florence Cathedral. Made in 1408–09, it was an early work of Donatello's and marked his most important commission up to that point. In 1416, the Signoria of Florence called for the statue to be sent to the Palazzo della Signoria (now known as the Palazzo Vecchio), where it held both a religious and political significance. As part of its relocation, Donatello was asked to make adjustments to the David.

Typical of the International Gothic style, the marble piece is noted to not represent the approach Donatello had toward his work as he matured. The statue is also clothed, unlike the nearly-nude bronze figure of David which Donatello sculpted circa the 1440s. The latter became more widely known than his marble piece; both are now held in the Museo Nazionale del Bargello in Florence.

History

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Biblical background

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Donatello's piece depicts David from the story David and Goliath from the Books of Samuel, specifically 1 Samuel 17.[1] In the biblical narrative, the Israelites are fighting the Philistines, whose champion–Goliath–repeatedly offers to meet the Israelites' best warrior in single combat to decide the whole battle. None of the trained Israelite soldiers are brave enough to fight the giant Goliath, until David, a shepherd boy who is too young to be a soldier, accepts the challenge. Saul, the Israelite leader, offers David armour and weapons, but the boy is untrained and refuses them. Instead, he goes out with his sling, and confronts the enemy before hitting Goliath in the head with a stone, knocking the giant down. He then grabs Goliath's sword and cuts off his head, saving the Isrealites as the Philistines withdraw as agreed. David's special strength comes from God, and the story illustrates the triumph of good over evil.[2]

Commission and initial design

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In 1408, the Opera del Duomo commissioned the statue.[1] At the time, Donatello was in his early twenties and had been active in the workshop of Lorenzo Ghiberti.[3][4] Donatello's earliest known important commission, the marble David statue was to be placed on the tribune of the dome at one of the buttresses on the north side of Florence Cathedral.[5] Nanni di Banco was assigned to carve a companion piece, an equal statue of Isaiah.[4] One of the statues was lifted into place in 1409, but at just under two meters high, was found to be too small to be easily visible from the ground and was taken down; both statues then languished in the workshop of the opera for several years.[6][7][8][9]

Details of the marble David (top) and the head of Goliath (bottom)

The marble piece is a work closely tied to tradition, giving few signs of the innovative approach to representation that the artist would develop as he matured.[4] Although the positioning of the legs hints at a classical contrapposto, the figure holds a swaying Gothic posture that derives from Ghiberti's influence and is particularly representative of the International Style.[4] Alluding to Greek heroism, the figure wears a crown of amaranth.[10] In antiquity, amaranth was associated with Achilles and represented the "undying memory of heroes".[10]

Typical of the International Gothic style and viewed through the lens of expecting naturalism, David's face appears blank, seemingly almost unaware of Goliath's head resting at his feet.[5] Nevertheless, at its time the statue was considered "as an achievement of great significance",[11] and some scholars have seen an element of personality–a kind of cockiness–suggested by the twist of the torso and the akimbo placement of the left arm,[12][13] The head of Goliath, lying at David's feet, "is carved with great assurance and reveals the sculptor's genuinely Renaissance interest in an ancient Roman type of mature, bearded head".[14]

Adjustments and relocation

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In 1416, the Signoria of Florence commanded that the David be sent to the Palazzo della Signoria (also known as Palazzo dei Priori and now known as the Palazzo Vecchio); the statue was installed there in September, in the "Hall of the Clock".[10][15] Against a backdrop of lilies, a Florentine insignia, the marble piece stood in front of the Palazzo Vecchio, specifically in the Medici's private courtyard.[15]

In addition to being a religious hero, a victorious David was seen to have a "special civic value in early fifteenth-century Florence".[10] As a figure, David was an effective political symbol, holding an anti-tyrannical connotation.[15] This Florentine view of David inspired the adjustments Donatello was asked to make to the statue,[10] though the Victoria and Albert Museum has stated it is unclear what changes he made.[1] Art historians Charles Avery & Sarah McHam wrote that upon its acquisition by the Palazzo della Signoria, the statue was "painted, gilded, and set on a pedestal inlaid with mosaic and must have looked highly ornamental".[14]

David "became a symbol of good government", inspiring its pedestal inscription: PRO PATRIA FORTITER DIMICANTIBUS ETIAM ADVERSUS TERRIBILISSIMOS HOSTES DII PRAESTANT AUXILIUM ("To those who fight bravely for the fatherland the gods lend aid even against the most terrible foes").[1][10][16]

Later provenance and exhibitions

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Both Donatello's marble and bronze Davids later found their way to be apart of the Museo Nazionale del Bargello's collection in Florence. In 2022, the Victoria and Albert Museum announced it would be displaying the marble David as part of its "Donatello: Sculpting the Renaissance" exhibition.[3] Marking the first time the piece was displayed in the United Kingdom, the exhibition ran February 11 to June 11, 2023.[1][3]

Influence and subsequent projects

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A view of Donatello's bronze David statue

The experience with the inappropriate size contingent upon the beholder's point of view was probably decisive for Donatello. The result was the Joshua, a five meter high colossal statue of the Biblical figure, made of whitened terracotta (to imitate marble) and erected in 1412, on one of the buttresses of the dome.

Around the 1440s, Donatello produced his nearly-nude bronze statue of David, which art historians now consider an iconic Renaissance sculpture.[1] Donatello later worked on another marble statue of David, this one belonging to the Martelli family.[1] The sculptor began work on the statue, though other artists significantly reworked it.[1] Donatello is believed to have gifted the statue to the Martellis, allies of the Medicis, and in 1489, the statue was described as being set into a wall in the Martelli palace, though Donatello received no attribution.[1] The statue is referenced in Portrait of Ugolino Martelli (1536 or 1537) by Bronzino.[1]

Attempts by other sculptors to construct a marble David included an abruptly aborted attempt in 1464, by Agostino di Duccio, on a huge block of marble that had been acquired by the opera, and a short-lived engagement by Antonio Rossellino ten years later. However, it was Michelangelo who finally managed to carve his colossal David out of the neglected deformed block.[17] Michelangelo's piece was not installed on the cathedral either, but in front of the Palazzo della Signoria (today a copy), once again because of David's vital symbolic meaning for the city-state.[18]

Notes and references

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  1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j "Donatello's 'David'". Victoria and Albert Museum. 2023. Retrieved September 20, 2024.
  2. ^ Frontain, Raymond-Jean; Wojcik, Jan, eds. (1980). The David Myth in Western Literature. Purdue University Press. ISBN 0911198555.
  3. ^ a b c Khomami, Nadia (October 25, 2022). "Donatello's David sculpture to go on display in UK for first time". The Guardian. Retrieved September 20, 2024.
  4. ^ a b c d Trachtenberg, Mike (October 30, 2014) [1968]. "An Antique Model for Donatello's Marble David". The Art Bulletin. 50 (3): 268–269. doi:10.1080/00043079.1968.10789158. Retrieved September 20, 2024 – via Taylor & Francis Online.
  5. ^ a b Meyer, Isabella (January 6, 2024) [May 19, 2022]. "Donatello "David" – Looking at Donatello's Two "David" Sculptures". Art in Context. Retrieved September 20, 2024.
  6. ^ Janson, pp. 3–7.
  7. ^ Pope-Hennessey, John (1958), Italian Renaissance Sculpture, London, pp. 6–7.
  8. ^ Poeschke, p. 27.
  9. ^ Caglioti, pp. 34, 112.
  10. ^ a b c d e f Leach, Patricia (Spring 1993). "Donatello's Marble David: Leonardo Bruni's Contribution". Source: Notes in the History of Art. 12 (3). University of Chicago Press. doi:10.1086/sou.12.3.23203390.
  11. ^ Pope-Hennessey, p. 16.
  12. ^ Poeschke, p. 377.
  13. ^ Omaggio a Donatello, p. 125.
  14. ^ a b Avery, Charles; McHam, Sarah Blake (2013) [2003]. "Donatello". Grove Art Online. Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/gao/9781884446054.article.T023249. Retrieved April 2, 2023.
  15. ^ a b c Graham, Heather (August 10, 2021). "Donatello, David". Smarthistory. Retrieved September 20, 2024.
  16. ^ Documents on the statue may be found in Janson, pp. 3–4, and Omaggio a Donatello, pp. 126–127. On the political implications of David for early-modern Florence, see Maria Monica Donato, "Hercules and David in the Early Decoration of the Palazzo Vecchio: Manuscript Evidence," Journal of the Warburg and Courtauld Institutes 54 (1991), pp. 83–98; Andrew Butterfield, "New Evidence for the Iconography of David in Quattrocento Florence," I Tatti Studies 6 (1995), pp. 114–133.
  17. ^ Milanesi, Gaetano (1875), Le lettere di Michelangelo Buonarroti pubblicati coi ricordi ed i contratti artistici, Florence, pp. 620–623. For a translation of the text, see the citation in David (Michelangelo).
  18. ^ Cf. David (Michelangelo)#Placement.

Bibliography

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