Saint John the Baptist | |
---|---|
Artist | Donatello |
Year | 1438 |
Medium | Wood |
Location | Santa Maria Gloriosa dei Frari, Venice |
Saint John the Baptist is a painted wood statue of 1438 by the Florentine Italian Renaissance sculptor Donatello. It remains in its original site in the Frari Church in Campo del Friari in the San Polo district of Venice, Italy.
The sculpture was restored in 1973, at which time the sculptor's signature and dating of the work were rediscovered, and again in 2024 by Save Venice Inc.. Carved in Florence, it is the sculptor's only work in Venice. Although the original installation of the statue is unclear, it is presently located on the altar of the chapel of the Florentine community in the Basilica dei Frari, on the right side of the transept. [1] [2] [3]
The saint is shown in a hair shirt with animal pelts, with a golden cloak atop. Extending from his right hand is an unfurled scroll which reads ECCE AGNUS DEI ('Behold the Lamb of God'). [4]
Donato di Niccolò di Betto Bardi, known mononymously as Donatello, was an Italian sculptor of the Renaissance period. Born in Florence, he studied classical sculpture and used his knowledge to develop an Early Renaissance style of sculpture. He spent time in other cities, where he worked on commissions and taught others; his periods in Rome, Padua, and Siena introduced to other parts of Italy the techniques he had developed in the course of a long and productive career. His David was the first freestanding nude male sculpture since antiquity; like much of his work it was commissioned by the Medici family.
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The decade of the 1430s in art involved some significant events.
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Italian Renaissance sculpture was an important part of the art of the Italian Renaissance, in the early stages arguably representing the leading edge. The example of Ancient Roman sculpture hung very heavily over it, both in terms of style and the uses to which sculpture was put. In complete contrast to painting, there were many surviving Roman sculptures around Italy, above all in Rome, and new ones were being excavated all the time, and keenly collected. Apart from a handful of major figures, especially Michelangelo and Donatello, it is today less well-known than Italian Renaissance painting, but this was not the case at the time.
Nanni di Bartolo, also known as "il Rosso", was a Florentine sculptor of the Early Renaissance, a slightly younger contemporary of Donatello. His dates of birth and death are not known, but he is recorded as an active master from 1419 to 1451.
The following catalog of works by the Florentine sculptor Donatello is based on the monographs by H. W. Janson (1957), Ronald Lightbown (1980), and John Pope-Hennessy (1996), as well as the catalogs of the 2022/2023 exhibitions in Florence, Berlin and London. In the case of unsigned or documented works, the attributions and dates are, as is usual, based predominantly on stylistic criteria and analogies to secured works. Many of the works attributed to Donatello were created in collaboration with other artists and with specialists in specific techniques.