Donatello: Sculpting the Renaissance review – a ‘first-rate exhibition’
The V&A has opened ‘the first substantial exhibition’ of the Italian sculptor’s work ever mounted in Britain
Donatello (c.1386-1466) was “the most revolutionary of all Italian sculptors”, said Laura Cumming in The Observer. “Industrious”, “prolific” and long-lived, the Florence-born master is credited with almost single-handedly creating the sculptural aesthetic of the Italian Renaissance and paving the way for Michelangelo.
“Donatello’s most famous figure is probably the young David in black bronze, the first standing male nude in Renaissance art.” Like no one before him, he “could turn stone into something as supple as warm skin and velvet”, creating “some of the strangest sculptures in art” – “outlandish hybrids of ancient and modern” that fused medieval Catholic imagery with any number of tricks borrowed from classical tradition.
This month, the V&A opened “the first substantial exhibition” of his art ever mounted in Britain, a show that promises to be an “epochal” event. Bringing together a wealth of key sculptures created in a wide range of materials, from marble to bronze to wood, as well as examples of work by Donatello’s followers and contemporaries, it explores the entirety of his trailblazing career. For any art lover, it represents “the chance of a lifetime”.
Subscribe to The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.
Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
By any standard, this is a “first-rate exhibition”, said Alastair Sooke in The Daily Telegraph. Highlights abound: we see an early marble sculpture of David on loan from Florence; “a finger-sucking Christ practically fused with his mother”; and, the “star turn” here, a “notoriously peculiar” bronze of a dancing cherub known as the Attis-Amorino (c.1435-40). Complete with “winged sandals”, “tiny tail” and “odd leggings that leave his genitals exposed”, this “pint-sized hedonist” is an intoxicatingly odd creation.
Donatello, it is rightly stressed, was preternaturally gifted at manipulating materials: originally trained as a goldsmith, he was as adept at metalwork as he was fashioning images from terracotta or “hard, crystalline marble”. Frequently, the results are alchemical. His reliefs, often just a few millimetres deep, conjure “an astonishing sense of spatial recession”.
“There’s a limit, however, to the number of seraphic Virgins and Child you can take,” said Mark Hudson in The Independent. After a while, the show’s masterpieces begin to “blur into one”. Moreover, there are confusing ambiguities of attribution: I lost count of the number of works described as “possibly by Donatello”.
Nevertheless, many exhibits are powerful enough to stop you in your tracks: a “blackened bronze” of the crucifixion from Padua is an “essay in ravaged muscularity”; the so-called Madonna of the Apple endows the “sprawling, sulky” infant Christ with “almost casual, everyday realism”. Donatello himself remains elusive throughout. Yet the works assembled here are remarkable enough to make this “an essential exhibition”.
V&A, London SW7. Until 11 June
Create an account with the same email registered to your subscription to unlock access.
Sign up for Today's Best Articles in your inbox
A free daily email with the biggest news stories of the day – and the best features from TheWeek.com
-
If comedy gives lessons, you're doing it wrong
Opinion Jerry Seinfeld wonders if his show would have made it in our moralistic era
By Mark Gimein Published
-
6 unique homes with an A-frame design
Feature Featuring a smart home in Vermont and a wall of windows in Wisconsin
By The Week Staff Published
-
Cynthia Carr's 6 favorite books that explore social issues
Feature The former culture writer recommends works by Ling Ma, Olga Tokarczuk, and more
By The Week US Published
-
The Idea of You review: 'impossible escapism' starring Anne Hathaway
The Week Recommends Steamy romcom about a 40-year-old who falls for a boy band singer
By The Week UK Published
-
Expressionists: a 'rousing' exhibition at the Tate Modern
The Week Recommends Show mixes 'ferociously glowing masterpieces' from Kandinsky with less well-known artwork
By The Week UK Published
-
The Buddha of Suburbia: an 'orgiastic odyssey'
The Week Recommends Emma Rice brings Hanif Kureishi's 1990 novel to the stage
By The Week UK Published
-
6 stylish homes in Portland, Oregon
Feature Featuring a wall of windows in Collins View and a historic ballroom in Portland Heights
By The Week US Published
-
Tom Crewe's 6 favorite works that challenge societal norms
Feature The novelist recommends works by Margaret Oliphant, Patrick White, and more
By The Week US Published