Italian sculptor Donatello worked at the dawn of the Renaissance. His works epitomize the beauty and ingenuity of the era and set the standard for sculpture from then on.
Donatello sculpted figures full of life. He did so by looking at the classical sculptures of ancient Rome, and by faithfully copying life itself. His sculptures have realistic human features, gestures, and expressions.
Sculptures made so true to nature had never existed before.
Two of Donatello’s statues, made nearly three decades apart, show how the master departed from the graceful Gothic style of his time, full of idealized figures with elongated limbs, to develop his realistic style.
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