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Donatello: Lorenzo Ghiberti
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Donatello was a great Italian sculptor, who was born in Florence, Italy, in 1386, and died at the age of 80 in 1466. He did not marry and had no children. He started practicing at the age of 20 and worked in Lorenzo Ghiberti's shop. Later in his life he studied Roman ruins and became a humanist. Donatello ... had a shop in Florence where he created many of his masterpieces.
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Donato di Niccolò di Betto Bardi, called Donatello, was the preeminent genius of early Renaissance sculpture in Italy. Donatello was born in Florence, the son of a wool comber. When he was 17 years old, he assisted the noted sculptor Lorenzo Ghiberti in constructing and decorating the famous bronze doors of the baptistery of San Giovanni, Florence. Later, Donatello was ... an associate of the noted architect Filippo Brunelleschi, with whom he reputedly visited Rome in order to study the monuments of antiquity.
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Donatello's return to Florence almost coincides with Cosimo's. In May 1434, he signed a contract for the marble pulpit on the facade of Prato cathedral, the last work executed in collaboration with Michelozzo, a veritable bacchanalian dance of half-nude putti, pagan in spirit, passionate in its wonderful rhythmic movement, the forerunner of the (cantoria) singing tribune for Florence cathedral, at which he worked intermittently from 1433 to 1440. This work was inspired to ancient sarcophagi and ivory Byzantine chests. In 1435 he executed the Annunciation for the Cavalcanti altar in Santa Croce, inspired to 14th century iconography. In 1437-1443 he worked to the Old Sacristy of San Lorenzo in Florence, with two doors and lunettes portraying saints, as well as eight stucco tondoes. From 1438 is the wooden statue of St. John the Evangelist for Santa Maria Gloriosa dei Frari in Venice.
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One thing is for certain, Donatello received his first training in a goldsmiths workshop and he worked for a short time in Lorenzo Ghibertis studio. Shortly after Filippo Brunelleschi was beaten by Ghiberti inthe competition for North Baptistery gares, young Donatello followed the disappointed man to Rome, to study the remains of classic art. At first, their studies and excavations led them to be labeled treasure seekers, but soon, this became the paving ground for Donatellos accomplishments in life.
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In Florence, Donatello assisted Lorenzo Ghiberti with the statues of prophets for the north door of the Battistero di San Giovanni, for which he received payment in November 1406 and early 1408. In 1409-1411 he executed the colossal seated figure of Saint John the Evangelist, which until 1588 occupied a niche of the old cathedral facade, and is now placed in a dark chapel of the Duomo. This work marks a decisive step forward from late-Gothic Mannerism in the search for naturalism and the rendering of human feelings. The face, the shoulders and the bust are still idealized, while the hands and the pannings over the legs are more realistic.
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The last two years of Donatello's life were spent designing pulpits for San Lorenzo in the style which was most approved by viewers of the day. He became ill and died before their completion in 1466, having not fully realized the extent of his artistic potential. However, Donatello's sculptures would serve as the model which all artists of the High Renaissance would work from. His techniques and visions would be refined to the point of excellence.
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Lorenzo Ghiberti