Donatello

Donatello

One of the great founding father of the early Italian Renaissance sculpture was Donatello, one of the most influential figures of the 15th century in Italy. He devoted his life to art, and proved himself and exceptional sculptor and a marvelous maker of statuary stucco, in perspective, and in architecture, for which he was highly regarded. His works showed such excellent qualities of grace and design that is was considered nearer what was done by the ancient Greeks and Romans than that of any other artist.
Donato di Niccolo de betto di Bardi, known to prosperity as Donatello, was born in Florence in 1386 into a declining branch of the Bardi family. His father, Niccolo di Betto di Bardo, was a wool carder and had a modest but acknowledged place in the bourgeois society of Florence. When Donatello was seventeen he became a member of the workshop of Lorenzo Ghiberti, a sculptor in bronze in which he assisted the noted sculptor in constructing and decorating the famou...