Donatello . 111 donato scvltore FlO RENT. ?^^^lE 3^^ DONATELLO. Woodcut in the second edition of Vasari, 1568. PREFACE. A description of Donatellos life and work within the restricted spaceof these monographs is a particularly fascinating, but also a particularlydifficult, task. Numerous problems force themselves upon the author. Theyconcern the date of some of the masters most important original worksand the authenticity of others passing under his name. These questionscan only be lightly touched upon. The chief aim of this book is to extractthe most fruitful information about Donatellos art
Donatello . 111 donato scvltore FlO RENT. ?^^^lE 3^^ DONATELLO. Woodcut in the second edition of Vasari, 1568. PREFACE. A description of Donatellos life and work within the restricted spaceof these monographs is a particularly fascinating, but also a particularlydifficult, task. Numerous problems force themselves upon the author. Theyconcern the date of some of the masters most important original worksand the authenticity of others passing under his name. These questionscan only be lightly touched upon. The chief aim of this book is to extractthe most fruitful information about Donatellos art from those works whoseauthenticity has been estabUshed beyond doubt. The works themselvesare to be placed in the foreground, for they are immortal possessionsTheir sequence will be determined not so much by reasons of probabilityof traditional dating, as by their inner connection. A biography is nota chronological table. ALFRED GOTTHOLD Fig. 1. St. George and the Dragoon. Socle-relief on the niche of the St. Or San Michele. (To pages 14 and 50.) DONATELLO. THE first-born among the great masters of Italy was a sculptor: NiccoloPisano lived a generation before Giotto. In the 15th century, too, Italian art again first attains to its full developmentin sculpture. In painting it commences with Masaccios frescoes in theBrancacci Chapel in Florence, but Donatella was the creator of the newrace that now appears in Florentine art. His statue of St. George stands at the gates of the early youthful hero is such an advance towards artistic freedom, that theentire world of form of Florentine art at that period is suddenly relegatedto the past. With freshness and strength he materializes the most absolutebalance of forces: a first act of deliverance. Heroical, like this St. George, Donatello himself enters the arenaof art. He breaks the fetters of mediaevalism; he opens a new era. But he does not
Size: 2402px × 1040px
Photo credit: © The Reading Room / Alamy / Afripics
License: Licensed
Model Released: No
Keywords: ., bo, bookcentury1900, bookdecade1900, booksubjectdonatello13861466
