From the News Release:
V&A opens first major UK exhibition to explore the work of the Renaissance master Donatello, including over 50 artworks never seen before in the UK
Donatello: Sculpting the Renaissance
Sainsbury Gallery
11 February - 11 June 2023
Opening this Saturday, Donatello: Sculpting the Renaissance is the first major UK exhibition to explore the exceptional talents of the Renaissance master, Donatello. It offers a fresh vision of the artist and his impact on both the cultural and artistic development of this crucial time in the history of art. Featuring many works that have never been on display in the UK, the exhibition explores Donatello’s innovations, collaborations and inspirations within the vibrant artistic and cultural context of fifteenth-century Italy, and his influence on subsequent generations of artists.
Arguably the greatest sculptor of all time, Donatello (c.1386-1466) was in the vanguard of a revolution in sculptural practice in the early Renaissance. Working in the full range of sculptural materials and techniques, including marble, bronze, wood, terracotta and stucco, he contributed to major commissions of church and state; was an intimate of the Medici family and their circle in Florence, and was highly sought after in other Italian centres.
The exhibition showcases works never seen before in the UK including Donatello’s early marble David and bronze Attis-Amorino from the Museo Nazionale del Bargello, Florence, as well as the spectacular reliquary bust of San Rossore from the Museo Nazionale di San Matteo, Pisa, and bronzes from the High Altar of the Basilica of St Anthony in Padua. For the first time, the V&A’s exquisitely carved shallow relief of the Ascension with Christ giving the keys to St Peter is displayed alongside the Madonna of the Clouds from the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, and Desiderio da Settignano’s Panciatichi Madonna from the Museo Nazionale del Bargello, providing an exclusive opportunity to see these works together. Through these and other exceptional loans, the exhibition offers visitors a unique vision of Donatello’s genius and central role at this critical time in European culture. Focusing primarily on Donatello’s lifetime
and immediate followers, the exhibition combines a thematic approach with chronology,
encompassing the inter-relationship between sculpture, paintings, drawings and goldsmiths’
work. Donatello’s innovative technique and his ability to combine ideas from both classical
and medieval sculpture to create works that were novel, yet with an element of the traditional,
are expressed throughout the exhibition.
Key works by the master himself are complemented by carefully selected works by Donatello’s
contemporaries and followers that explore and expand on the sculptor’s major place within
the development of Renaissance art and its context, as well as inter-relationships across
materials. Comprising around 130 objects, the exhibition also incorporates a significant
number of objects from the V&A’s own collections - including the most extensive holdings of
Italian Renaissance sculpture outside Italy - notably from the Medieval & Renaissance
Galleries. These are complemented by copies of Italian Renaissance sculptures, including
several by Donatello, in The Weston Cast Court.
Donatello: Sculpting the Renaissance is the last in a series of exhibitions made possible through
collaboration with Fondazione Palazzo Strozzi and the Museo Nazionale del Bargello in
Florence, and the Staatliche Museen zu Berlin. Each institution has drawn on its own
collections and curatorial expertise to stage three distinct but complementary exhibitions,
offering a celebration of Donatello’s life and work in three parts, the first to be devoted to the
artist for nearly forty years.
Peta Motture, Exhibition Lead Curator of Donatello: Sculpting the Renaissance said:
“Donatello was a driving force behind the Italian Renaissance and an inspiration to artists across
the centuries. The exceptional opportunity to collaborate with our partners in Florence and
Berlin, together with the generosity of all lenders, has made it possible for the V&A to present a
remarkable insight into the artist’s training, relationships and legacy. Bringing together objects
and narratives never seen before in the UK, the exhibition provides a unique moment to
experience, enjoy and - for those less familiar with his work - discover Donatello’s astonishing
talents and his wide-ranging impact on Renaissance and later art.”
8 окт 2024
