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 Lippi's "Madonna With Child" and Donatello's "David"
Palazzo Medici Riccardi
Via Camillo Cavour 3, Florence, Italy

2020 Photos

Madonna With Child by Filippo Lippi "In 1437 Lippi returned to Florence, protected by the powerful Medici family, and was commissioned to execute several works for convents and churches.    ...   In 1442 Lippi had been made rector of the church of San Quirico at Legnaia. His adventures culminated in 1456 in his romantic flight from Prato—where he was painting in the convent of the nuns of Santa Margherita—with a young nun of the convent, Lucrezia Buti. From 1456 to 1458 Lippi lived with Lucrezia, her sister, and a few other nuns. Lippi’s conduct, together with his apparent inability to fulfill contracts in time, got him in trouble. He was arrested, tried, and tortured. It was only thanks to the intervention of Cosimo de’ Medici that Lippi was released and allowed to renounce his vows. The pope later gave permission for the former priest-painter and the nun to marry, and from this union was born a son, Filippo, called Filippino, who was to be one of the most noted Florentine painters of the second half of the 15th century." - Encyclopaedia Britannica (online February 2020) Detail below:

Donatello's "David" in the Bargello Museum, Florence, in February 2020

Partial reprint "Donatello" Web Gallery of Art  (online February 2020) The first part of Donatello's artistic activity ends in the 1430s with the bronze statue of David. It was originally placed in the courtyard of the Medici-Riccardi palace, but after the confiscation of the Medici palace in 1495 it was moved to the courtyard of Palazzo Vecchio and placed on a marble column. It remained there until 1555 when it was replaced by Verrocchio's fountain and moved to a niche on the left of the door. In the 18th century it was moved to the Guardaroba, in 1777 to the Uffizi, and from there was transferred to the Bargello, where it can be seen today. Vasari's description is illuminating: "In the courtyard in the palace of the Signoria stands a bronze statue of David, a nude figure, life-size; having cut off the head of Goliath, David is raising his foot and placing it on him, and he has a sword in his right hand. This figure is so natural in its vivacity and softness that artists find it hardly possible to believe it was not moulded on the living form. It once stood in the courtyard of the house of the Medici, but was moved to its new position after Cosimo's exile."

Partial reprint "Donatello’s David" ItalianRenaissance.org (online February 2020) Perhaps Donatello’s landmark work – and one of the greatest sculptural works of the early Renaissance – was his bronze statue of David.  This work signals the return of the nude sculpture in the round figure, and because it was the first such work like this in over a thousand years, it is one of the most important works in the history of western art. The work was commissioned by Cosimo de’Medici for the Palazzo Medici, but we do not know when during the mid-fifteenth century Donatello cast it.  It was originally placed on top of a pedestal in the center of the courtyard in the Palazzo Medici, so the viewer would be looking up at it from below (unlike the view we typically get of it in photographs). David is shown at a triumphal moment within the biblical storyline of his battle with the Philistine, Goliath.  According to the account, after David struck Goliath with the stone from his slingshot, he cut off his head with Goliath’s sword.  Here, we see the aftermath of this event as David stands in a contemplative pose with one foot atop his enemy’s severed head.  David wears nothing but boots and a shepherd’s hat with laurel leaves on top of it, which may allude to his victory or to his role as a poet and musician. Before Donatello’s work, David was typically depicted as a king, given his status in the Old Testament.  Here, however, we have a stark change in the way David is depicted.  Not only is he shown in the nude, but he’s also a youth.  In Middle Ages, nudity was not used in art except in certain moral contexts, such as the depiction of Adam and Eve, or the sending of souls off to hell.  In the classical world, nudity was often used in a different, majestic context, such as with figures who were gods, heroes, or athletes.  Here, Donatello seems to be calling to mind the type of heroic nudity of antiquity, since David is depicted at triumphal point in the biblical narrative of his victory over Goliath. In any case, Donatello’s David is a classic work of Renaissance sculpture, given its Judaeo-Christian subject matter modeled on a classical sculptural type.  It was revolutionary for its day – so much so that it did not get copied right away.  The idea of the life-sized nude sculpture-in-the-round evidently took some time to sink in and become an acceptable statue type.

"David" w Laurel leaves