David (Donatello, marble)

For Donatello's bronze statue, see David (Donatello, bronze).
David
The marble David (1408–1409 and 1416), Museo Nazionale del Bargello, Florence. Height 191.5 cm.
ArtistDonatello
Year1408–09, 1416
SubjectDavid
Dimensions191.5 cm (75.4 in)
LocationBargello

David is the title of a marble statue of the biblical hero by the Italian Early Renaissance sculptor Donatello. An early work of Donatello's, the statue features a clothed figure. Made in 1408–09 and 1416, Donatello later made a far more famous bronze figure of David. Both are now in the Museo Nazionale del Bargello in Florence. The marble statue was Donatello's most important commission up to that point, and had a religious context, placed on Florence Cathedral.

Biblical background

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The story of David and Goliath comes from 1 Samuel 17. 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 is 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. He hits Goliath in the head with a stone, knocking the giant down, and then grabs Goliath's sword and cuts off his head. The Philistines withdraw as agreed and the Israelites are saved. David's special strength comes from God, and the story illustrates the triumph of good over evil.[1]

The marble David

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The Marble David (1408–1409 and 1416), Museo Nazionale del Bargello, Florence. Height 191.5 cm.
Marble David, detail
Marble David, detail of the head of Goliath

Donatello, then in his early twenties, was commissioned to carve a marble statue of David in 1408, to be placed on the tribune of the dome at one of the buttresses on the north side of Florence Cathedral. Nanni di Banco was assigned to carve an equal statue of Isaiah. One of the statues was lifted into place in 1409, but with just under two metres 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.[2][3][4][5]

In 1416, the Signoria of Florence commanded that the David be sent to the Palazzo della Signoria; evidently the young David was seen as an effective political symbol, as well as a religious hero. Donatello was asked to make some adjustments to the statue, that would now be seen at close range (especially Goliath's head was worked over), and a pedestal with an inscription was made for it: 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").[6]

The marble David is Donatello's earliest known important commission, and it is a work closely tied to tradition, giving few signs of the innovative approach to representation that the artist would develop as he matured. Although the positioning of the legs hints at a classical contrapposto, the figure stands in an elegant Gothic sway that derives from Donatello's solely documented teacher Lorenzo Ghiberti. the face appears rather blank (that is, if one expects naturalism, but very typical of the International Gothic style), and David seems almost unaware of the head of his vanquished foe that rests between his feet. Nevertheless, at its time the statue was considered "as an achievement of great significance",[7] 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,[8][9] but overall the effect of the figure is rather bland. 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".[10]

The experience with the inappropriate size contingent upon the beholder's point of view was probably decisive for Donatello. The consequence was the Joshua, a five meter high colossal statue made of whitened terracotta (to imitate marble), which was erected in 1412 on one of the buttresses of the dome. However, permanent repairs soon became necessary and finally the decaying sculpture was dismantled in the 18th century.[11] Donatello's friend and colleague Filippo Brunelleschi probably already was involved in the project of the Joshua, because in 1415/16 the opera commissioned both of them to look for alternative material and technical possibilities, to make the twelve actually planned sculptures more resistant to climatic influences, for example by using gilded lead as a protective coating. However, it never came to that.[12]

After another but 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, it was finally Michelangelo who managed to carve a colossal David out of the neglected deformed block,[13] which, however, was not installed on the cathedral either, but in front of the Palazzo della Signoria (today a copy), because again of his vital symbolic meaning for the city-state.[14]

Notes and references

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  1. ^ Frontain, Raymond-Jean and Wojcik, Jan eds. (1980) The David Myth in Western Literature, Purdue University Press, ISBN 0911198555.
  2. ^ Janson, pp. 3–7.
  3. ^ Pope-Hennessey, John (1958), Italian Renaissance Sculpture, London, pp. 6–7.
  4. ^ Poeschke, p. 27.
  5. ^ Caglioti, pp. 34, 112.
  6. ^ 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.
  7. ^ Pope-Hennessey, p. 16.
  8. ^ Poeschke, p. 377.
  9. ^ Omaggio a Donatello, p. 125.
  10. ^ Grove
  11. ^ In addition to written sources, there is only one pictorial representation in a painting by Bernardino Poccetti, Antonio Pierozzi, ordained archbishop, enters the Florentine Cathedral of 1604/5 (Museo Nazionale di San Marco, Chiostro di Sant'Antonino), in which a colossal statue can be seen placed on the second buttress of the North Stand. Cf. Caglioti 2022, fig. 61 on p. 88.
  12. ^ Caglioti, pp. 37f.
  13. ^ 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).
  14. ^ Cf. David (Michelangelo)#Placement.

Bibliography

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  • Avery, Charles; Sarah Blake McHam (2013) [2003]. "Donatello". Grove Art Online. Oxford University Press. Retrieved April 2, 2023.
  • Janson, H.W. (1957). The Sculpture of Donatello. Princeton. ISBN 978-0691003177.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
  • Pope-Hennessy, John (1996) [1958]. Italian Renaissance Sculpture. An Introduction to Italian Sculpture. Vol. 2 (4th ed.). London: Phaidon. ISBN 0-7148-3015-1.
  • Museo Nazionale del Bargello (1985). Omaggio a Donatello, 1386–1986 (in Italian). S.P.E.S. – Studio per Edizioni Scelte.
  • Poeschke, Joachim (1990). Donatello and his World: Sculpture of the Italian Renaissance. New York. ISBN 978-0810932111.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
  • Caglioti, Francesco (ed.) with Laura Cavazzini, Aldo Galli and Neville Rowley (2022). Donatello. The Renaissance. Venice: Marsilio Arte. ISBN 979-12-5463-006-8.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
  • Rowley, Neville (ed.) with Francesco Caglioti, Laura Cavazzini and Aldo Galli (2022). Donatello. Erfinder der Renaissance. Leipzig: E.A. Seemann. ISBN 978-3-86502-482-4.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
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