Editing Donatello (section)

==Partnership with Michelozzo==
Around 1425 Donatello entered into a formal partnership with [[Michelozzo]], who is mainly remembered as an architect, but was also a sculptor, especially of smaller-scale works in metal. He had trained with the mint making dies for coins, where he still had a salaried position.  Michelozzo was the younger by about ten years, and they had probably known each other for years. Michelozzo wanted to extract himself from an arrangement with Ghiberti, and Donatello had too much work, and was poor at organizing a workshop, at which Michelozzo seems to have excelled.  Both had very good relations with the [[Medici family]] and so their powerful supporters. The partnership was very successful, and was renewed until it had lasted for nine years, when a dispute that was mostly the fault of Donatello ended it.<ref>Coonin, 80-83, 97; Seymour, 72, 75-76.</ref>

[[File:Donatello, putto danzante, dal 1417.JPG|thumb|220px|Dancing ''spiritelli'' on the Siena font, 1429]]

The partnership's combination of skills in [[monumental sculpture]] and architecture made it well qualified to take on elaborate wall tombs.  From 1425 to 1428, they collaborated on the [[Tomb of Antipope John XXIII]] in the [[Florence Baptistery]]; the executors were [[Giovanni di Bicci de' Medici|Giovanni de' Medici]] and Medici supporters.  Donatello made the recumbent bronze figure of the deceased, and Michelozzo, with assistants, the several figures in stone.  The tomb, elegantly integrating a variety of elements into a narrow vertical space, in a classicizing style, made a great impact and "became the model for the Quattrocento wall-tomb whenever an elaborate or particular impressive expression was wanted" with variations found well into the next century.<ref>Coonin, 81-85; Seymour, 75-77, 76 quoted; Olson, 74-75.</ref>

After his death in 1427, the partnership took on the [[Tomb of Cardinal Rainaldo Brancacci|funerary monument of Cardinal Rainaldo Brancacci]], a Medici ally, at the church of [[Sant'Angelo a Nilo]] in [[Naples]].  The work was done at [[Pisa]] on the coast, and the pieces shipped south. A donkey was purchased to help with transport, and in 1426 Donatello had bought a boat to ship marble from Carrara to Pisa.  Donatello's personal contribution was probably limited to the ''Assumption'' relief discussed above.<ref>Coonan, 97-100.</ref>  Finishing in 1429, for the font at the [[Baptistery of San Giovanni, Siena]], apart from the relief of ''[[The Feast of Herod (Donatello)|The Feast of Herod]]'' (discussed above), he made small bronze statues of ''Faith'' and ''Hope'', and three small bronze ''spiritelli'', naked winged [[putti]]-like figures, classical in inspiration, and highly influential on later art.<ref>Coonin, 88-93.</ref>

Images of the ''[[Virgin and Child]]'', mostly for homes, had long been a staple for Italian painters, and becoming affordable ever lower down the income scale. Now sculptors were producing them as reliefs, in a variety of materials, and with the cheaper terracotta or plaster ones often painted.  The attribution of the large numbers of such images is often difficult, especially as the style of Donatello and contemporaries such as Ghiberti continued to be used for them for a long time.<ref>Coonin, 103-104.</ref>

Another type of work for sculptors was coats of arms and other heraldic pieces for the outsides of the ''palazzi'' of the great families of the city, of which Donatello made a number. Donatello also restored [[Antiquities|antique]] sculptures for the [[Palazzo Medici Riccardi|Palazzo Medici]].<ref>{{Cite web|last=Hesson|first=Robert|date=28 July 2019|title=Collections and restoration of antiquities – Ancient Monuments|url=https://www.northernarchitecture.us/ancient-monuments/collections-and-restoration-of-antiquities.html|access-date=21 September 2020|website=Northern Architecture|language=en}}</ref>

[[File:Donatello and Michelozzo, Dance of Spiritelli (from the Pulpit of the Holy Girdle), 1434-8, Prato, Museo dell'Opera del Duomo.jpg|thumb|Section of the Prato pulpit reliefs, 1434–38]]

The breakup of the partnership with Michelozzo seems to have been partly precipitated by Donatello's delays in doing his part in the commission for an exterior pulpit for [[Prato Cathedral]]; highlights in the year at [[Prato]], close to and controlled by Florence, were when the city's famous relic, the [[Girdle of Thomas]] (''Sacra Cintola''), thought to be the belt the Virgin Mary dropped to [[Thomas the Apostle]] as she rose in the air during her [[Assumption of Mary|Assumption]], was displayed to the population from a high pulpit. This took place five times every year, one coinciding with a trade fair that was important for the city's economy. The commission began in 1428, but Donatello did not begin work on his allotted areas for years, despite relentless chasing by the Prato authorities, and finally [[Cosimo de' Medici]].<ref>Coonin, 104-105, 109, 112; Seymour, 98.</ref>

Donatello's reliefs of dancing children for the pulpit, "a veritable bacchanalian dance of half-nude putti, pagan in spirit, passionate in its wonderful rhythmic movement",<ref>Konant.</ref> were finally delivered in 1438, and it seems that though designed by Donatello, perhaps using his first idea for the Florence ''cantoria'' frieze (see below), they are not believed to have actually been carved by him.  The Prato authorities were unhappy, and the ten years it had taken to get them finished seems to have strained relations with Michelozzo, and the partnership was not renewed in 1434.  The two remained on amicable terms, and were to collaborate later.  The pulpit reliefs are now replaced by replicas, with the rather weathered originals displayed inside the cathedral.<ref>Coonin, 104, 112; Seymour, 98; Avery, 78.</ref>

A factor in the delay was probably Donatello's travelling, which increased from about 1430, after a long period of steady work and residence in Florence after his return from Rome in about 1404. In 1430 he worked with Brunelleschi at [[Lucca]] on the construction of a defensive dyke and wall, and later in the year visited Pisa, Lucca again and finished the year in Rome, where he spent much of his time until 1433. Some of this travel was to see antiquities, and political difficulties had greatly reduced the flow of commissions in Florence.<ref>Coonin, 105-106.</ref>

Michelozzo was also with Donatello in Rome for some of the time, but the few products there of the visits lead art historians to describe the visits as mainly resulting in studying classical works. It is not clear whether anything was actually made there, or executed in Florence and shipped down. There was probably a large papal commission in view, but if so, nothing resulted.<ref>Seymour, 89-90; Coonin, 109.</ref>  The main surviving piece is a [[tabernacle]] surround for [[St. Peter's Basilica|Saint Peter's]] in marble relief, 228&nbsp;cm (89.7&nbsp;in) high, and now in the museum there. The main figurative sections are a ''stiacciato'' panel with the ''[[Entombment of Christ]]'', and a total of sixteen child-angels at various points in the classicising architectural framework.  This "first clearly defines the Early Renaissance wall-tabernacle type" and was very influential.<ref>Avery, 74, 103-104; Seymour, 90 (quoted); Coonin, 109.</ref>

There was also the old-fashioned tomb slab for the cleric Giovanni Crivelli in [[Santa Maria in Aracoeli]], which might well not be attributed to Donatello if he had not signed it. It is not clear whether a workshop was opened in Rome, or if these were carved in Florence and shipped down.<ref>Coonin, 109.</ref>

It has been speculated that the visits led to meetings between Donatello and [[Leon Battista Alberti]], then in Rome, and perhaps writing his ''De Statua''.  There may have been mutual influence, and Donatello seems to have returned from Rome with an interest in a modular system of human proportions. The bronze ''David'' uses proportions very close to those Alberti recommends.<ref>Seymour, 90; Coonin, 130-133.</ref>