SCULPTURE

Unlike, for example, Greek art, the Renaissance no longer felt the need to elaborate for sculpture a series of rules comparable to those of architecture. This does not mean that the Renaissance sculpture lacked characteristic forms and tendencies.

Simply, the passage of art from the earlier period is less abrupt, more a matter of taste than theory. Above all, recognition of a Renaissance sculpture is done by looking for the background motifs on which it is inspired.

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. The main reasons are:

Enhanced naturalism, that is, the search for likelihood;

A strong interest in man, in the shape of his body, his expression;

Taste marked not only by knowledge and technique but by the ostentation of knowledge;

Aspiration for monumentality;

Compositional schemes, meaning global shapes, geometrically simple.

Sculpture, as well as painting, was no longer part of the architectural project as ornamentation of the building. They gained autonomy and shone for their expression.

The extreme the importance that humanism gave to man is translated into images in which man himself is represented with the greatest "truth" possible. Such a concept arises as a continuation of the interest in nature. And, as in reality predominate curved and winding lines.

The greatest of all Renaissance sculptors was Michelangelo Buonarroti using geometric schemes for his sculptures: Pietá, in St. Peter's Basilica; David at the Academy of Fine Arts of Florence; Pietá de Rondanini at the Sforza Castle in Milan.

Donato di Niccolo di Betto Bardi (1386-1466), known as Donatello, his first artistic knowledge came from the training he received in a goldsmith's workshop. He also worked, while still young, a short time in the workshop of artist Lorenzo Ghiberti. He made great sculptures and in the city of Padua, he carved a marble equestrian statue of Erasmus of Narni, known as Gattamelata. Donatello used as inspiration for this work the equestrian statue of Marcus Aurelius in Rome. One of his best-known sculptures is “David”, made in bronze and the National Museum in Florence.