eum). These statues prepared the way for the bronze statue of David, the first large scale, freestanding nude statue of the Renaissance. It was the most classical of Donatellos works and was done for a private patron. Its recorded history begins with the wedding of Lorenzo the magnificent in 1469, when it was placed in the courtyard of Palazzo Vechio.Whether the David was requested by the Medici or not, Donatello worked for them (1433-1443), producing sculptural decorations for the Old Sacristy in S. Lorenzo, the Medici church. Works there included ten large reliefs in colored stucco and two sets of small bronze doors which showed saints. In 1443 Donatello was about to start work on two more bronze doors for the cathedral. He started work on a statue of Erasmo da Narmi, called Gattamelata, who had died shortly before. Donatello did most of the work on the statue between 1447 and 1450 but the statue was not placed on the pedestal until 1453. It shows him in classical armor, the baton of command in his raised right hand. This statue was the ancestor of all the monuments erected since. Its fame was spread far and wide. Even before it was on public view, the King of Naples wanted Donatello to do the same kind of statue for him. In the early 1450s, Donatello started to work on some important works for the Paduan church of St. Antonio. These works included a bronze crucifix and a new high altar. His richly decorated architectural works of marble and limestone include seven life sized bronze statues, twenty-one bronze reliefs of various sizes, and a large limestone relief, Entombment of Christ. The housing for these was destroyed a century later and the present arrangement, dating from 1895 is wrong historically. The Madonna and St. Francis are outstanding and the finest of the reliefs are the four miracles of St. Anthony. Donatello was great in handling large numbers of figures (one relief has more than one hundred) which pre...
