Diego Perez 8/27/06 P.

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Raphael and Donatello

Raphael and Donatello were high renaissance artists who were individually

invited to Rome to create commissioned artwork. It can be said that Donatello was

present at the start of the renaissance and that Raphael was there for the end of it. Raphael

was a sculptor who began a sort of revolution in Florence with his art work. Since the

“ancient times” no one had even attempted to create nude, life size sculptures. No one

that is, until Raphael. Raphael’s David was an example of this. It was a life size bronze

statue of the biblical heroe who defeated Goliath. Later, Raphael made even more history

by being the first, since the ancient times, to create a larger than life sculptor of a horse

and rider. Donatello, unlike Raphael, was primarily a painter. As an artist he was more

inspired than influential. In nearly all his works of art one can see signs of the great

Michelangelo or Leonardo da Vinci. But what can you expect? after all, Raphael was

always in close contact with them. Raphael took all of the little merchant jobs that no one

else would, i.e. Leonardo and Michelangelo. What Raphael did contribute to the world of

art was balance. He unlike any other mastered balance the best. That’s the thing that truly

made him famous. As in the case of Raphael’s School of Athens, much balance is evident.

With the way the people are arranged, postured and framed in front of the open doors of

the school. It was Raphael’s way of making the viewers eyes move smoothly from person

to person within a painting. Besides the fact that Donatello and Raphael were both high

renaissance artists, they really didn’t have a lot in common. They each contributed their

own unique techniques to their crafts; Donatello with his Ancient Rome inspired

sculptures and Raphael with his Balance. One can only truly say that their alike in that

they forever influenced art in the world in which they lived in.