Donatello Painting by Paul Meijering

About "Donatello Painting"

by Paul Meijering

About the artwork

Realistic acrylic painting of the Italian Sculptor Donatello, painted by teh Dutch fine artist Paul Meijering - the original painting is 120 x 90 cm.

Donatello (Florence, 1386 - there, 13 December 1466) was an Italian sculptor working in the early Renaissance. His real name was Donato di Niccolò di Betto Bardi, but he was called Donatello by intimates. His vast oeuvre is not surpassed in versatility and innovation by any Renaissance artist.

Donatello was one of the greatest sculptors in Florence before Michelangelo and the favourite of the Medici family. He was also the inventor of the dramatic style based on Christian pathos and classical Roman forms.

Independently, he produced several sculptures for Florence Cathedral.

The relief of St George and the dragon from 1417, under the statue of St George in a niche of the Orsanmichele, is one of the first examples of perspective in a bas-relief. This is further developed in the relief of Feast of Herod in the baptistery of Siena from 1427.

Until about 1420, Donatello made mostly standing figures in marble, then mostly sculptures in bronze. From 1443 to 1453, Donatello was in Padua where he made the equestrian statue of Gattamelata, the first important bronze equestrian statue since antiquity, based on the equestrian statue of Marcus Aurelius from 176 AD. Donatello was very good at depicting human emotions, as can be clearly seen in the wooden statue of Mary Magdalene, on display in the Museo dell'Opera del Duomo.

Donatello is buried in the crypt of the Basilica San Lorenzo in Florence.