Editing Donatello (section)

==In Padua==
===Equestrian Monument of Gattamelata===
[[File:Erasmus Gatamelata 1317 (cropped).jpg|thumb|''[[Equestrian Monument of Gattamelata]]'', 1450]]

In 1443, Donatello was called to [[Padua]] by the heirs of the famous [[Condottieri|condottiere]] [[Erasmo da Narni]] (better known as the {{lang|it|Gattamelata}}, or 'Honey-Cat'), who had died that year.  Designing and planning his ''[[Equestrian Monument of Gattamelata]]'' probably began that year or the next, with the casting mostly done in 1447 or 1448, and the bronze work finished in 1450, although it was not installed on its high stone pedestal until 1453.<ref>Seymour, 124-125; Coonin, 171-172.</ref> 

Padua was a prosperous city with a university, long under the control of Venice, and generally friendly to the Medici and their artists; Cosimo had almost certainly given his blessing to Donatello's stay.<ref>Coonin, 169-170.</ref>  The commission is slightly mysterious; Gattamelata's will specified a relatively modest tomb inside the church, where he was indeed buried.  It was unexpected that the Venetian government then ordered a grand public monument for a general who had served them for less than a decade, with rather mixed success.<ref>Coonin, 171-172; Seymour, 123-124.</ref>  The cost, which must have been enormous, was shared by the Venetian government and the family executors, who handled the works, but it is not clear in what proportions.<ref>Seymour, 13; Avery, 88.</ref> 

A factor may have been a competing commission in nearby [[Ferrara]] for an [[equestrian statue]] of [[Niccolò III d'Este, Marquis of Ferrara]], another condottiere, by two Florentine sculptors, one a pupil of Donatello. This was slightly smaller than life-size, with the marquis in civilian dress rather than armour. He had died at the end of 1441, and the monument was in place by 1451, before being destroyed by the French in 1796 (a replica is now in place).<ref>Coonin, 173; Seymour, 13, 124.</ref>   

The Gattamelata was placed on the square outside the [[Basilica of Saint Anthony of Padua|Basilica of St Anthony]], a famous pilgrimage church (locally called ''il Santo''), in ground then used as a cemetery.<ref>Seymour, 124-125; Coonin, 184.</ref>  As with other works outside Florence, it was signed.<ref>"OPVS DONATELLI.FLO" ("The work of Donatello the Florentine"), quoted Coonin, 178</ref> It is the first life-size equestrian statue since antiquity.  Donatello may have seen the [[Regisole]] at [[Ravenna]], a late Roman example which was another victim of the French, and he certainly knew the ''[[Equestrian Statue of Marcus Aurelius]]'' (c. 175) in Rome.  Donatello's work is strongly classicising, with Roman motifs on the armour and saddle (almost impossible to see ''in situ''), and the horse perhaps derived from the ancient [[Horses of Saint Mark]] in Venice.  Andrea del Caldiere, a Paduan metalworker, led the team doing the actual casting for this and his other Paduan bronzes.<ref>Seymour, 124; Coonin, 173–179.</ref>  Other equestrian statues, from the 14th century, had not been executed in bronze and had been placed over tombs rather than erected independently, in a public place. This work became the prototype for other equestrian monuments executed in Italy and Europe in the following centuries.

===Other work in Padua===
[[File:Donatello, miracolo del figlio pentito.jpg|thumb|''The Miracle of the Angry Son'', from the life of St. Anthony]]
 
Donatello was based in Padua for ten years, though he returned to Florence soon after the ''Gattamelata'' was finally in place in 1453.<ref>Seymour, 125.</ref> He had a studio near the ''Santo'', and several assistants.<ref>Coonin, 172, 190; Seymour, 125.</ref>  Decades later Padua was for some time the leading Italian centre for small "table bronzes", which was probably partly a legacy of the stimulus given by Donatello's visit.<ref>Olsen, 138–140; Wilson, 61; Seymour, 201-203.</ref> He did not stay in the city the whole time, and he is documented in Florence at some points, and in 1450 is recorded visiting [[Mantua]] and [[Modena]] for commissions that never came off; in 1451 he was paid by the Bishop of Ferrara for a work he never finished.<ref>Coonin, 172, 179–-180.</ref>

[[File:Donatello, Imago Pietatis, 1449-50, Sant'Antonio, Padua.jpg|thumb|''[[Man of Sorrows]]'' relief for the altar of  ''il Santo'', 1449–50]]

In Padua itself, he completed several works for ''il Santo'', including the first life-sized [[Basilica del Santo Crucifix|bronze crucifix]] (with a wooden cross, 1444–1449), which originally hung well down the nave.<ref>Coonin, 180-182.</ref>  In 1895 it was moved to hang over the high altar, for which Donatello had made a bronze enthroned ''Virgin and Child'' and six flanking saints, constituting a [[Sacra Conversazione|Holy Conversation]], and a total of twenty-one bronze reliefs and one in marble, an ''Entombment''.  All these were begun in 1446 and nearly complete by June 1450, though some of the statues seem not quite finished, and other sculptors seem to have done some of the work.  The four reliefs of scenes from the ''Life of Saint Anthony'', with highlights in gold, are of a uniform high standard.<ref>Coonin, 184–196; Avery, 88–91.</ref><ref>Janson 1963 II, [https://archive.org/details/sculptureofdonat00jans/page/164/mode/2up 162–187].</ref>

After more than one rearrangement, the first in 1582, the original disposition of the statues is uncertain, but they were probably closer together, in one row, than they are now, with two now placed on a railing below and forward of the others.<ref>Seymour, 125–127 illustrating five possible layouts; Coonin, 184, 196.</ref>

The ''Madonna and Child Enthroned'', between St. Francis and St. Anthony, in bronze ({{circa|1448}}), portrays the Christ Child being displayed to the faithful by the Madonna, who wears a crown. The Madonna is neither standing nor sitting on the throne but is portrayed in the act of rising. She is flanked by two saints, [[Anthony of Padua]] and [[Francis of Assisi]]. Shown at the base of her throne, to each side of the Madonna, are [[sphinx]]es, allegorical figures of knowledge. On the throne's back is a relief of the ''[[Fall of Man]]'', depicting [[Adam and Eve]].<ref>Janson 1963 II, [https://archive.org/details/sculptureofdonat0001hwja/page/n29/mode/1up xxiv]; the crucifix is shown on [https://archive.org/details/sculptureofdonat0001hwja/page/n277/mode/2up plates 242, 243]; the ''Virgin and Child'' is shown on [https://archive.org/details/sculptureofdonat0001hwja/page/n325/mode/2up plates 290{{ndash}}293]; ''Adam and Eve'' are shown on [https://archive.org/details/sculptureofdonat0001hwja/page/n330/mode/1up 295a and b].</ref>