Ghiberti's Influence On Donatello

Donato di Niccolò di Betto Bardi properly known as, Donatello could be considered a very mysterious man. For one thing, his exact date of his birth continues to be an unanswered question for scholars (cite); though, he is dated to have been born around 1386 in Florence, Italy (cite). Donatello was influenced by his father’s status as a member of the Florentine Wool Combers Guild and as a craftsmen which helped make way for the development of Donatello’s artistic talent (cite). And in a different manner, Donatello’s artistic talent was also influenced by Lorenzo Ghiberti (1378-1455), a Florentine artist of the Early Italian Renaissance Art Period (cite) whom Donatello worked under as an apprentice until 1424 (cite). Mentioning Ghiberti’s influence
Ghiberti paid special attention to the details of hair, facial features and the body (Hart, 2011). His style would draw much of the Florentine Gothic appearances. After his apprenticeship with Ghiberti, Donatello went to Rome where he studied Roman Classical Art with his friend, Brunelleschi, who was also an Italian Renaissance artist. To that end, Brunelleschi pushed and influenced the Gothic style onto Donatello (cite). And with the leadway of his father and the influences of the mentorship with Ghiberti, along with studying with his friend, Brunelleschi, Donatello learned to give his sculptures very humanial characteristics. He had the ability to see and to understand optical corrections and perspective (cite). One great example of Donatello’s talent is demonstrated in his statue, St. Mark : the product of the artist’s ingenious merging of classical ideas with the tenets of the Renaissance and his keen ability to use optical correction (Artble, 2017). Accordingly, this paper will highlight the Italian Renaissance artist, Donatello and his work, St.
Mark’s upper body, increased the sizes of the head and hands, and condensed his legs. When seen from ground level, the statue looks relatively well built nevertheless, the guilds were not happy when they saw the short legs and Donatello could not convince them, otherwise. After that Donatello covered the statue with a cloth for 15 days and did not try to alter it. He then placed the statue in its niche, above a street. When St. Mark was revealed, the guilds were wholly persuaded of its beauty and of its classic style. Thus, during the Renaissance Age the statue, St. Mark statue was the first statue that revealed the body’s form through garments. Therefore, this exhibition domineered the conventional International Gothic Style. Uniquely, St. Mark’s beard and robes resonated the Gothic saints. Initially, as aforestated, the statue was to be finished by November 1, 1412 but the date got extended and it was finished in