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Sculpture and Donatello

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	 Donatello (1386-1466) was a master of sculpture in bronze and marble and was considered one of the greatest Italian Renaissance artists of his time. There is much more to know about him, though then the name alone. He has created some of the greatest works of art, not only in the Italian renaissance, but human history as well.

A lot is known about his life and career but little is known about his character and personality. Donatello never married and seems to be a man of ‘simple tastes'. Patrons often found him hard to deal with and he demanded a lot of artistic freedom.

	Early career.

	Donatello, born Donato di Niccolò di Betto Bardi, was the son of Niccolo di Betto Bardi, a Florentine wool …show more content…

Francis are outstanding and the finest of the reliefs are the four miracles of St. Anthony. Donatello was great in handling large numbers of figures (one relief has more than one hundred), which predicts the construction standards of the High Renaissance.

Donatello was not doing much work the last three years at Padua, the work for the S. Antonio altar was unpaid for and the Gattamelata monument not placed until 1453. Offers of other places reached him from Mantua, Modena, Ferrara, and even Naples, but nothing came of them. He was clearly passing through a crisis that prevented him from working. He was later quoted as saying that he almost died "among those frogs in Padua." In 1456 the Florentine physician Giovanni Chellini noted he had successfully treated the master for a protracted illness. Donatello only completed two works between 1450 and 1455, the wooden statue "St. John the Baptist" and a figure of Mary Magdalen. Both works show new reality; Donatello's formerly powerful bodies have become withered and spidery. When the " Magdalen" was damaged in the 1966 flood at Florence, restoration work revealed the original painted surface, including realistic flesh tones and golden highlights throughout the saint's hair.

	Late Florentine period.

	During his absence, a new generation of sculptors who excelled in the treatment of marble surfaces had rose in Florence. With the change in Florentine taste, all of

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