Virtuosity, Vivacity, and Squashed Relief:Donatello @ the V&A.

Donato di Niccolo di Betto Bardi, better known as Donatello, was alive six hundred years ago. That's a bloody long time ago. So it's understandable that many of the works at the V&A's ongoing Donatello:Sculpting the Renaissance exhibition are attributed as 'possibly', or 'probably' by Donatello. Then there's the fact that he primarily worked in sculpture and the churches and plazas of Florence, Siena, and Padua are, quite understandably, either not keen or unable to loan these works to the V&A for the show.

It at least made the exhibition an easy one to take in. It was very well curated with lots of space between sections which isn't always the case with the V&A. It starts, of course, with a potted history of the artist that Vasari, ever the sycophant, once claimed "made his drawings with such virtuosity and vivacity that they had no equal".

Donatello - Virgin and Child (Pazzi Madonna) (about 1420-25)

Even that's a bit vague. Donatello was born in Florence in, or at least close to, 1386 and had a career as an artist that lasted for six long decades. He was part of the early Renaissance and his fellow turtles Michelangelo and Raphael had not even been born by the time Donatello passed away. Leonardo da Vinci was a teenage boy at the time of his death.

Donatello was inspired by the growing interest in ancient Greece and Rome but he mixed this with more modern techniques and by having his innovative sculptures placed, often, in public settings he managed to make quite a name for himself. Observers at the time felt Donatello captured the essence of human experience in all its pain and passion. He wasn't 'sweet' though. Many a caption board alludes to those that followed Donatello making work that had too much 'sweetness' for Donatello.

I'm not totally sure why sweetness was deemed to be such a bad thing! The Florence of Donatello's youth was a vibrant city where art was flourishing. Ideas pinged backwards and forwards between the city's artists and the young Donatello initially trained as a goldsmith before joining the workshop of the the city's then leading bronze sculptor, Lorenzo Ghiberti.

There he honed his skills and soon established himself as a skilled marble carver. He took commissions for Florence Cathedral. Then, as now, the most prominent building in the city. You can see it, along with various other palaces and churches, in the late 15c panorama below.

Probably by Francesco Rosselli - View of Florence from the South-West (about 1489-95)

Donatello - David (about 1408-09, modified 1416)

One of those commissions was David. Donatello is famous for his Davids. The most famous one is now in the Bargello in Florence but the V&A have got a marble David and he's got a very curious, alert, almost startled, expression on his face. David began his life keeping a vigil outside the cathedral, moved to the even more public Palazzo della Signoria, and then eventually moved indoors at the Bargello.

If the V&A were just showing available Donatello works the exhibition would be a bit slim so they've added a few works by contemporaries and disciples of Donatello and some of them are rather good. It's almost impossible to feel the 'shock of the new', or indeed the 'shock of the old', when looking at works from nearly six hundred years ago so instead it's best to simply appreciate the skills of the artists responsible.

Massacio (1401-1428/9) uses tempera and gold to depict St Jerome and St John the Baptist in deep contemplation for an altarpiece in Rome's Santa Maria Maggiore. They're two figures who crop up quite often in art from that era but the two stars, the two we keep coming back to, are, of course, the virgin and child. Mary and Jesus. There will be a few of them coming up.

Masaccio - St Jerome and St John the Baptist (about 1428-29)

Donatello or unidentified follower - Virgin and Child (Mellon Madonna) (about 1420-25)

Donatallo's, or his follower's - we just can't be sure, terracotta Mellon Madonna shows the virgin Mary as a fairly standard young mum (apart from the virgin bit, that's just weird) and the baby Jesus as a little fat baby sucking his thumb. The reason the curators suspect this may not be a Donatello is because of its 'sweetness'!

Donatello was big on emotion as long as that emotion wasn't sweetness. Dramatic biblical scenes, like the massacre of the innocents, were more his bag. As well as crucifixions and flagellations as seen on the models for an altarpiece relief below.

Unidentified printmaker - The Children of Mercury (about 1460-64)

Possibly by Donatello - Fragment of the Massacre of the Innocents and tabernacle (about 1450)

Donatello and workshop - Crucifixion, Flagellation and predella (base panel) (Forzori Altar) (about 1450)

Beltramino de Zuttis da Rho - God the Father (between 1416 and 1425)

Donatello, of course, mixed with other Florentine artists and architects including Filippo Brunelleschi, the man responsible for the famous dome of Florence Cathedral and often considered to be one of the founding fathers of Renaissance architecture as well being credited as the man who 'rediscovered linear perspective'.

Bit it was Donatello's formal partnership with another Florentine architect, Michelozzo, that was key to the development of his work. Donatello and Michelozzo shared workshops both in Florence and Pisa from which they produced architectural sculptures for various Italian cities. Including a pulpit for the exterior of Prato Cathedral in which, apparently, the Virgin Mary's girdle would be displayed! It's funny how so many Christian relics from the Middle East ended up in Italy!

Probably by Ughetto Lorenzoni (active about 1380-90)

Donatello and Michelozzo - Two panels with dancing spiritelli and a pilaster from the pulpit of Prato Cathedral (1434-38)

Donatello and Michelozzo - Capital from the pulpit of Prato Cathedral (1433)

When he wasn't working on capitals and panels for Tuscan churches, Donatello, like many other artists of the early Renaissance, would, it is believed, make portrait busts inspired by classical influences but with a humanist, individual, approach. For perhaps the first time in history, busts were being made of people who were not rulers.

I add the caveat "it is believed" because only one bust in the V&A, or anywhere else, has ever been directly attributed to Donatello. It is a firmly held belief by Renaissance scholars, however, that Donatello was instrumental to the revival of the art form, an art form that desired to not just capture the likeness of the sitter but to distil their very essence.

Of course there were still busts of saints and the likes. Donadino da Brugnone's chased silver St Donatus even contains a fragment of the patron saint of epileptics and bakers' skull. Donatello's San Rossore reliquary's also got a bit of skull in it. This time from the fantastically named saint, Luxorius, a man who is believed to have been beheaded on the orders of the Roman emperor Diocletian.

Donadino de Brugnone - Reliquary bust of St Donatus (1374)

Donatello - Reliquary bust of San Rossore (1422-about 1425)

Probably by Donatello - Bust of a man (about 1455-60)

 Desiderio da Settignano - Virgin and Child (Panciatichi Madonna) (about 1453-60)

Cold blooded old times! But there was also 'tender realism' too. Donatello's 'rilievo schiaccito' (literally:- 'squashed relief') technique conjured a sense of space and depth with fairly minimal and shallow marble carvings. In Desiderio da Settignano's Panciatichi Madonna, the infant Christ's toes are formed by the most delicate of scratches and in Donatello's own Ascension the sculpting is so minimal and smooth you're tempted to run your hand along its surface.

The invigilators, one imagines, would not have been impressed with such behaviour. This style led itself to a degree of wispiness and seemed to suit ethereal or airy settings. Donatello's Madonna of the Clouds, the clue is in the title, is all wind and flying angels yet with the virgin and child themselves providing a stillness at the centre of the airborne chaos.

Donatello - Ascension with Christ giving the Keys to St Peter

Donatello - Virgin and Child with angels (Madonna of the Clouds) (about 1425-35)

Ugolino de Nerio - The Betrayal of Christ (possibly 1325-28)

The curators inform us that Donatello had been influenced by an earlier artist, Ugolino de Nerio, and his Betrayal of Christ. But the demand of the market at the time was for virgin and child images and lots of them - so Donatello made more. As did his followers. Reproductions helped meet a demand that had been generated by the belief that these images acted as some form of religious protection for their owners.

Accordingly, there are so many virgin and child images in the V&A that I got a  bit fed up with them. There are temperas, there are tondos, and there are marble reliefs. Talking of relief, I was relieved to come to a (temporary) end of the umpteen virgin and childs and find a map. I love a map and this one shows the cities in Italy where Donatello lived and worked (marked in blue and including Florence, Rome, Siena, and Padua) and from where he received commissions (the red dots, among them Venice, Naples, Mantua, and Orvieto).

Filippo Lippi - Virgin and Child (about 1465)

Lippo di Dalmasio - Madonna of Humility (about 1390)

Possibly workshop of Antonio Rossellino or Benedetto da Maiano - Column (about 1450-70)

Donatello - Attis-Amorino (about 1435-40)

One of those works, normally on display in Florence at the Bargello, is Attis-Amorino. A young man with his 'breeches' open to display his willy. He's named after the Phrygian shepherd Attis and a young cupid, or amorino, which is where the wings on his back come from. He's also got the tail of a faun, the winged feet of Mercury and there's a snake in there somewhere too. It's all going on.

When it came to bronze, a material Donatello excelled in, subjects both sacred and secular were fair game. It cost an arm and a leg though so it was important to make art that somebody, ideally somebody rich, would pay for. The Medicis, then the most powerful family in Florence, were the perfect patrons and sure enough they became sponsors of Donatello and footed the bills for some of his work.

In bronze, Donatello carved pensive eyed prophets, rotund cherubs, winged putti standing on tortoises and holding fantastic fishes that squirt water from their dicks, Donatello's disciple Bertoldo even made a sculpture of wine god Dionysus's companion Silenius and gave it to Piero de Medici who was known as 'the gouty'. Limping round the V&A with my own bout of gout, that seemed a bit close to the bone.

Donatello - Head of a bearded man, possibly a prophet (about 1455)

Probably by Donatello - Winged Putto with a a fantastic fish (about 1435-40)

Donatello - Spiritello (about 1434-39)

Donatello was born, and died, in Florence and it is, of course, the city he is most associated with but at the peak of his powers, in 1443, he moved north to Padua where he lived for a decade. There he interacted with the local artistic community and its leading light Francesco Squarcione. He collaborated with a local artist, Andrea Conti, and together they made the first monumental free standing equestrian statue, the Gattamelata, since antiquity.

That stands, to this day, in Padua's Piazza del Santo but the V&A have at least got a giant bronze horse's head on display. Bulging eyes, wide open mouth, flared nostrils, ears like antennae, the horse follows you round the room. There are also engravings of a starved mule and a dead Christ (with angels) from Donatello's time in Padua for the visitor to ponder.

Donatello - Horse's head (Carafa Protome) (about 1452-58)

Donatello - The Miracle of the Mule (about 1446-49)

Giovanni Bellini - Dead Christ supported by two angels (about 1465)

Niccolo Baroncelli and Domenico di Paris - St George (1450-54)

Donatello - Crucifix (1444-49)

Juraj Culinovic, known as Giorgio Schiavone - Virgin and Child (about 1456-61)

When Donatello was making dead Christs or virgins and children he always had in mind an idea that his art should inspire empathy and bring the faithful closer to their God. The crucified Jesus, above, is said to represent Christ not after death but just before it. The interpretation has been made because Donatello made the loin cloth appear to be flickering.

I suppose that could just be the wind. I hear it can get quite blustery up on those Golgotha hills. In Florence, during Donatello's time, it was not uncommon for performers to act out scenes from Christ's life and those involved borderline blackmailed the audience into Christian belief. One actor is quoted as saying "if you do not weep when you see this, I don't know if you truly believe in Jesus Christ". Which is rather showing off.

I can't say any of the Donatellos on show at the V&A had me blubbing but I was impressed with his skill in executing them. He's captured the agony of Christ's mother as well as the pliant and still youthful flesh of the dead Christ with both an exquisite precision and an all too human sense of loss.

 

Donatello - Lamentation over the Dead Christ (about 1455-60)

 

Domenico Veneziano - Miracle of St Zenobius (about 1442-48)

 

Donatello - Crucifixion (Medici Crucifixion) (about 1453-60)

 

Donatello and Desiderio da Settignano - St John the Baptist (Martelli Baptist) (about 1454-57)

His John the Baptist looks a bit of a dick though. It's a rare example of a part of the show where Donatello is eclipsed by one of his followers. I don't think I'd even heard of Bartolomeo Bellano before but his marble Lamentation over the Dead Christ has an intensity and a power about it that is lacking in some of the other works on display. Dead Jesus is surrounded by a grieving crowd with mouths agape, barely able to believe the enormity of what they've just witnessed.

Don't worry guys, he'll be back in a few days. How appropriate that I should visit this exhibition on Easter Sunday. It was a lovely, sunny, Easter Sunday too and towards the end my mind was on getting outdoors and having an ice cream (a Magnum, thanks for asking) so it was almost a relief, see what I did there?, to reach the final section. One devoted to artists who have paid homage to Donatello since his death in 1466.

 

Bartolomeo Bellano - Lamentation over the Dead Christ (about 1470-75)

 

Donatello, reworked by unidentified followers - David with the head of Goliath (David of the Case Martelli) (possibly 1430-40, reworked from 1460 and later)

 

Workshop of Giovanni della Robbia - Dovizia ('Abundance') (about1520)

 

Baccio Bandinelli - Lamentation over the Dead Christ (about 1548-58)

 

It wasn't until the 19th century that he was really promoted into the top league of Renaissance artists (alongside Leonardo, Michelangelo etc;) and that era saw contemporary, if not modern, artists trying to ape his style. In this section there are early homages, like a replication (of sorts) of Donatello's Dovizia (the first free standing female statue of the entire Renaissance and one which was eventually destroyed) and Baccio Bandinelli's riff on the Lamenation over the Dead Christ in gilded and painted stucco but there are also works from that revival period and even one from the 20th century.

As there were so few Donatellos available for museums and collectors, a thriving industry in imitations and tributes sprung up. Some of the works were so well made that they were mistaken for works by the master himself. There's a camp David (my old nickname), a rather lovely Virgin and Child c/o Alceo Dossena, and, last of all - quite appropriately I suppose, a Richard Redgrave design for a mosaic that was to be displayed in the South Kensington Museum.

A museum now better known as the V&A and a museum I was in right at that moment. But not for much longer. I'd enjoyed looking at Donatello's art, and that of his contemporaries and disciples, but it had not converted me to Christianity. Nevertheless I continued to enjoy my Easter holiday and as I've now spent a fairly large portion of my Easter Monday writing, admittedly sometimes sarcastically, about religious art hopefully, should I be wrong about the non-existence of God, I'll be given a pass by St Peter at the Pearly Gates. The fact my name is David might help too.

 

Unidentified maker, after an original by Donatello - David (about 1885)

 

Alceo Dossena - Virgin and Child (1929)

 

Richard Redgrave - Donatello:design for a mosaic in the Museum (part of the Kensington Valhalla) (about 1866)