Editing Donatello (section)

===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.