Donatello, David

Donatello, David, 1420 AD-1460 AD, bronze. 185 cm, Early Renaissance, Florence, Italy.

There are many factors that drove the Renaissance beside the learning from ancient Greek and Roman, and the establishment of European Capitalism is one of them, which brought significant progress in economic development through trading, credit exchanging and commodities. The developed and settled economy and lifestyle offers the artists during the Renaissance the opportunities to fully concentrate on the learning and developing of techniques for different art forms, also the revival of classic forms and styles of art. Techniques such as linear perspective and contrapposto became popular during this period and classic styles were also being applied to many art works. David was created by Donatello during Early Renaissance at around 1460 CE. “Donatello’s David possesses both the relaxed contrqapposto and the sensuous beauty of nude Greek gods.” (ATTA, pg 238). David is a typical example of Renaissance sculptures that shows the revival of classic style during this period. Beside the fact that David approaches Greek style sculptures, it is also full of naturalism and movement. The left foot of the sculpture stepping on the head of Goliath sets the sculptures in motion. The harmonic proportions and well balanced scales provide the sculpture with realism.