Donatello's Bronze David

Author(s): Laurie Schneider

Source: The Art Bulletin, Vol. 55, No. 2 (Jun., 1973), pp. 213-216
Published by: CAA
Stable URL: https://www.jstor.org/stable/3049095
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 213

Donatello's Bronze David

Laurie Schneider

In memory of Rudolph Wittkower been since 1408, to the Palazzo Vecchio. With its transfer
from the Cathedral to the Signoria (the government seat),
The meaning of Donatello's bronze statue of David in the
along with the iconographic alterations, the statue became
Museo Nazionale of Florence has remained elusive. The a political rather than a religious symbol.
problem of interpretation is compounded by lack of "That
docu-this all happened as early as 1408-16," Janson
mentation concerning the commission of the work and "makes
writes, its the marble David one of the true primordia
original location. Its dating has been a matter of ofmuch
Renaissance iconography. Its symptomatic importance
dispute, though it is generally placed in the yearscan between
be appraised only in the context of the general pattern
1430 and 1440. First mentioned in 1469 as in the courtyard of 'cross-breeding' between theology and philosophy, be-
of the Medici Palace, the statue was moved in 1495 to literature
tween the and the fine arts, that molded the intellect-
courtyard of the Palazzo Vecchio.1 ual and artistic climate of the new age."4
The following paper proposes an interpretation Politically, of the the early years of the fifteenth century in
figure which is related to the contemporary political situ-
Florence were characterized by continuing threats of con-
ation in Florence, the awakening interest in humanism questand
by tyrants from outside the city. By 1402, Florence
the development of Neoplatonism, and the evident washomo-
the only Italian state that remained to fight the
sexual aspect of Donatello's character. despotism of Giangaleazzo Visconti of Milan. His death and
David, nude except for hat and boots, stands triumph- the survival of Florence as a republic endowed the city with
antly over the head of the slain Goliath (Fig. I). His an pose
increased
is sense of "politically minded ... 'Civic Human-
relaxed and he indicates Goliath's helmet with a sword held ism.' "'5 In 1414, King Ladislaus of Naples attempted to
in his right hand. David's nudity, framed by hat and boots, conquer Florence. His death from fever in the same year
is further stressed by his complacent expression and air of followed by a period of economic expansion in Florence.6
was
narcissistic introspection. Bronze is an appropriate mediumSeveral years later, in 1423, a new threat of tyranny to the
for the statue: its smoothness and gleam accent David's Florentines arose in the person of Giangaleazzo's son,
feminine grace and delicacy. Filippo Maria Visconti.
Earlier representations of the triumphant David in Italy While it is often a risky undertaking to relate develop-
are rare. A fourteenth-century fresco by Taddeo Gaddiments in in the arts to political events, there does appear to be
the Baroncelli Chapel in Santa Croce portrays David a fairly sound basis for doing so in the first decades of the
typologically as an ancestor of the Virgin.2 Donatello him-
quattrocento in Florence.7 According to Frederick Hartt,
self did a marble statue of David between 1408 and 1409 the statues of prophets which the Arte della Lana Guild
which is closer iconographically to his own later bronze commissioned from 1416 to 1427 for the Campanile are a
version than to Gaddi's (Fig. 2). Thus, an iconographic case in point.8 He associates the unprecedented dignity of
transformation in the depiction of David appears to have these figures, executed by Donatello and Nanni di Bartolo,
with the Florentine desire for freedom.9 Both Donatello's
occurred at the end of the fourteenth century or in the early
fifteenth century. marble David (1408-9) and his St. George on the facade of
Janson has related Donatello's interpretation of the heroOr San Michele were symbols of the Florentine triumph
in his early marble David to a change in Florentine political
over tyranny.10 "Probably the single most prominent free-
attitudes around the turn of the century.3 He argues that the
dom symbol for that period was the shepherd slayer of
need to portray David as a military hero rather than as a
Goliath and savior of his people, the youthful David with
prophet explains the transfer of the sling to his right hand
his sling."11
with the resulting emphasis on triumph. This change in The image of Florence as the sole Italian state resisting
content occurred, according to Janson, in 1416, when the tyranny and fighting for liberty led writers to compare it
statue was moved from the Duomo workshop, where it had with Athens and Rome. Indeed, parallels between Florence

1 H. W. Janson, The Sculpture of Donatello, Princeton, 1957, 1, 77-79-
2 Ibid., 6.
3 Ibid., 5-7-
4 Ibid., 7; Janson believes that the new iconographic content of the
marble David was Donatello's own conception.
5 Hans Baron, From Petrarch to Leonardo Bruni, Chicago and London,
1968, 102.
7Janson, Donatello, 5-7; Charles Seymour, Michelangelo's David, Pitts-
burgh, I967, I3; H. Baron, The Crisis of the Early Italian Renaissance,
Princeton, 1966, 205; F. Hartt, "Art and Freedom," 124-25.
8 F. Hartt, "Art and Freedom," i23.
9 Ibid.
10 Janson, Donatello, 5; Baron, The Crisis, 205; Hartt, "Art and Freedom"
124-25.

6 Frederick Hartt, "Art and Freedom in Quattrocento Florence," Essays 11 C. Seymour, Michelangelo's David, 13.
in Memory of Karl Lehmann, New York, 1964, 122.

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 214 THE ART BULLETIN

I Donatello, Bronze David. Florence, Museo Nazionale

2 Donatello, Marble David. Florence, Museo Nazionale
(photo: Brogi) (photo: Brogi)

3 Bronze David, detail (photo: Brogi)

4 Bronze David, back view (photo: Brogi)

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 DONATELLO'S BRONZE DAVID 215

and the other Italian states and Athens and the rest of that is, love between men. He cites the example of the
Greece, ancient Rome and the rest of Italy were common famous pair of lovers, Harmodius and Aristogiton, whose
after 1402. "From then on, Florentine citizens dared lovetofor each other overthrew the Athenian tyrants.
compare themselves with those of the republics of Rome Pausanias
and goes on to say that, although the laws of Athens
Athens."'12 This essentially humanistic outlook became regarding lovers are complicated, they are wiser than else-
widespread with the appearance of Leonardo Bruni's where in Greece, for only in Athens is it not considered
Laudatio Florentinae Urbis in the early years of the fifteenth shameful to accord favors to a lover. Laws condemning
century. Among other parallels, Bruni presents Florence as lovers are established through the greed of the governors
the savior of Italy which, like Athens and Rome before it, and maintained by the cowardice of the governed.20
became a center of civilization and culture.13 Each of these ideas is relevant to the political situation in
If we examine Donatello's bronze David in the context ofFlorence and its humanist awakening in the first half of the
this historical development and that of early Neoplatonism,fifteenth century. The Platonic descriptions of love made by
it gains a new dimension. The most immediately puzzling
Phaedrus and Pausanias are especially pertinent to David
quality of the statue is its effeminacy. Why, one might well as the symbol of Florentine liberty. In the first place, David
wonder, should David, the symbol of Florentine liberty andis a lone figure who triumphs over tyranny, just as the
a Biblical hero of no little stature, be represented in this waysolitary
? republic of Florence held out against a series of
Janson describes the figure as a " 'beautiful apprentice'; tyrants in the years preceding the execution of Donatello's
not an ideal but an object of desire, strangely androgynous statue. Thus, by depicting the figure as a "beautiful boy,"
in its combination of sinewy angularity with feminine soft- Donatello invites the inference that David was led to his
ness and fullness."'14 He convincingly relates the David to unlikely victory by the protection of the "celestial Eros."21
Donatello's own personality, citing the artist's reputation asIn the second place, the distinction between the laws of
a homosexual.15 But since Donatello's male figures are not
Athens and those of the rest of Greece with regard to the
all as feminine as the bronze David, the question arisesbehavior of lovers invites comparison of Athens with the city
whether there is not some literary source for the mode ofof Florence, considered something of a "modern Sodom" in
the hero's representation.16 this perod.22 David, as a "beautiful boy" and at the same
Two ideas which appear in Plato's Symposium are perhapstime the symbol of a free Florence, can be seen as defending
particularly relevant to this aspect of the bronze David.17
those laws which encourage "Platonic love."
Donatello's contacts with Cosimo de' Medici and the early There is a scene in relief on Goliath's helmet which
Neoplatonists suggest that he was acquainted with the appears to be a triumph of love (Fig. 3). Donatello ap-
available literature of antiquity.18 In Phaedrus' speech in
parently wished to draw the observer's attention to it since
the Symposium, Eros is said to inspire soldiers to bravery when
David points to it with his sword. Though the iconography
they are lovers in the Platonic sense. Thus Eros is a kind ofof the scene is problematical, it seems to be a "free variant"
patron and protector of these lovers when they go into of an antique sardonyx identified as a triumph of love, or a
battle.19 Immediately following Phaedrus' speech, Pausan-triumph of Bacchus and Ariadne, which eventually became
part of the Medici collection.23 Whether or not Donatello
ias makes a distinction between the Athenian laws pertain-
ing to lovers and those in the rest of Greece, particularly
had this gem in mind, his own use of the putti-triumph is
with reference to tyrants. Tyrants, says Pausanias, prefer to
consistent with his general interest in energetic, often aggres-
discourage relationships inspired by the "celestial Eros," sive scenes of putti such as those on the desk of St. Mark in

12 Baron, From Petrarch to Leonardo Bruni, I04. by Donatello," Journal of the Warburg Institute, I, 1937-38, 260.
13 Ibid., 107 and cf. Bruni, Laudatio Iv in Baron, 262: "Quod igitur Rome19 Plato, Symposium, in B. Jowett, The Dialogues of Plato, I, New York,
censores, Athenis areopagite, Lacedemonie ephori, hoc sunt in Florentia 1937, 307-38, "That courage which, as Homer says, the god breathes
civitate partium duces, id est, ex his civibus qui bene de re publicainto the souls of some heroes, Love of his own nature infuses into the
sentiunt primarii viri electi ad rem publicam tuendam." lover." Cf. also Hugo Buchthal, The Miniatures of the Paris Psalter, II,
14 Janson, Donatello, 85. London, 1938, fig. 4D. In this representation of the battle between David
and Goliath, a winged figure stands behind each of the combatants. The
15 Ibid., 84-85; Donatello evidently made little attempt to conceal his
figure behind David is designated by an inscription as a personification
homosexuality. His reputation for preferring "beautiful apprentices" of in "Power."
his workshop is clear from the three anecdotes about him in Albert
Wesselski, Angelo Polizianos Tagebuch, Jena, 1929, Nos. 230, 231, 322. 20 Jowett, Dialogues, I, 310 o- I I.

16 There is evidence that Donatello's earlier statue of St. George was21 Wittkower, "A Symbol of Platonic Love"; this idea of protection -
though not in a military context - is expressed in the Phaedrus as well as
considered effeminate in the sixteenth century; see Janson, Donatello, 24;
before 1584, a poem by Anton Francesco Grazzini praises the St. in the Symposium. Wittkower cites it in relation to Donatello's bust of
George as "my beautiful Ganymede" and declares it a substitute for ca.
a 1440 in the Bargello. The figure wears a cameo with a symbol of
live boy friend. Platonic love described by Socrates as a "winged charioteer driving two
horses and holding a whip." Thus its bearer is "one of the 'beautiful boys'
17 By 1424, manuscripts containing Plato's complete works were in guarded by the Platonic amour celeste."
Florence. See R. R. Bolgar, The Classical Heritage and its Beneficiaries,
Cambridge, 1954, 483 and Traversari, Epp. xxiv, 53. Although there 22Janson,
is Donatello, 85 and A. Wesselski, Tagebuch, xxxif. This libertine
atmosphere is further indicated by the publication in Siena of a series of
no record proving Donatello's knowledge of Greek, his contacts with the
early Neoplatonists would indicate an acquaintance with their ideas. epigrams called the Hermaphroditus describing various forms of homo-
sexual love in graphic detail. Its author, Antonio degli Beccadelli,
s18 The exact nature of Donatello's relationship to the humanists dedicated
is the work to Cosimo de' Medici.
obscured by lack of documentation, although it is reasonably certain
23Janson, Donatello, 84; Aldo Foratti, L'Arte, xx, 1917, 25; Ernst Kris,
that he was involved with them and their ideas. See Edgar Wind, Pagan
Mysteries in the Renaissance, London, 1968, 200, n. 3; Janson, Donatello, 84-Meister und Meisterwerke d. Steinschneidkunst in der Italianischen Renaissance,
Vienna, 1929, 22.
85; Rudolf Wittkower, "A Symbol of Platonic Love in a Portrait Bust

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 216 THE ART BULLETIN

the Old Sacristy of San Lorenzo in Florence and the Can-

toria and pulpit of Prato Cathedral.24 Donatello's render-
ing of the putti-triumph on Goliath's helmet supports the
interpretation of the David as one of Plato's "beautiful
boys." Throughout the Symposium, the youthful qualities of
Eros are emphasized; when he is the servant of the "celestial
Aphrodite," according to the speech of Pausanias, he
inspires a love which occurs only among young boys.25
Agathon calls Eros the most beautiful god because he is the
youngest: he hates old age and is best amused in the
company of youth.26 In the light of these descriptions,
Donatello appears to have transformed the original
sardonyx triumph (or one like it) into one which alludes to
the Platonic ideal of love.
Apart from the question of the iconography of the relief,
there is the problem of the wings attached to Goliath's
helmet. Traditionally, representations of Goliath's helmet
include ornamental wings or feathers,27 but, as Janson says,
in Donatello's statue the wings represented are live ones.28
Whatever Donatello meant by this, the placement of the
left wing against the inside of David's right leg must have
been erotic in intent (Fig. 4).
In the Bible, David is described as an attractive youth
whom Saul loved and made his armor-bearer (I Kings
16:21). Following his victory over Goliath, David is loved
by Saul's son, Jonathan: ".... the soul ofJonathan was knit
with the soul of David, and Jonathan loved him as his own
soul" (I Kings 18:1). Surely, Donatello, as a homosexual,
would have been drawn to the Bible's description of these
relationships. In Plato, he would have found an idealization
as well as an intellectual, social and political rationale for
homosexuality. The way in which the statue's effeminacy is
openly and defiantly exhibited indicates that Donatello
consciously desired to display David, and indirectly himself,
as a homosexual.

New York City

24 Donatello appears to have been fairly inventive in matters of icono-

graphy. Two such examples described by Janson occur in the marble
David, Donatello, 6, and in the Janus-headed servant in the scene of
Pilate washing his hands from the San Lorenzo pulpit reliefs, 218,
pl. 391. Janson refers to Donatello's ability to transform medieval
iconography, to create "iconography in a new key." In "Donatello and
the Antique," Donatello e il suo tempo, Florence, 1966, 8if, Janson discusses
Donatello's iconographic transformations from antiquity and demon-
strates the difficulty of identifying precise sources. He nevertheless
suggests the influence of boxing putti commonly represented on sarco-
phagi and gems in antiquity. Donatello could have studied examples of
such scenes during his trip to Rome between 1430 and I433-
25 Pausanias distinguishes between the "celestial" and the "common"
Aphrodite. The former, born of a male without the intervention of a
mother, inspired the ideal Platonic love between men. The latter, of both
male and female parents, inspired the more "common" heterosexual form
of love. See Jowett, Dialogues, I, 309-
26 Jowett, Dialogues, I, 321.
27 Buchthal, Miniatures, fig. 4D and Paul V. C. Baur, "David and
Goliath on an Early Christian Lamp," Yale Classical Studies, I, 1928, 49-
28 Janson, Donatello, 84.

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