Hostname: page-component-848d4c4894-wg55d Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-04-30T20:23:12.579Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Donatello's Gattamelata and its Humanist Audience *

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 November 2018

Mary Bergstein
Mary Bergstein*
Affiliation:
Rhode Island School of Design
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Two small nude horsemen located in the armorial decoration of Donatello's Gattamelata yield new insights about the use of Greek sources in Renaissance art. Here it is speculated that Donatello was informed by a drawing or carved gemstone provided by Ciriaco d'Ancona that represented riders in the Panathenaic frieze on the Parthenon. Donatello may have included the figures as a learned reference to delight a circle of intellectuals in Padua, including Ciriaco and Francesco Barbaro, who wrote dedicatory texts for the monument. It is subsequently argued that Leon Battista Alberti's treatise De equo animante (ca. 1444-47) and Donatello's Gattamelata appear to have been mutually influential.

Type
Studies
Information
Renaissance Quarterly , Volume 55 , Issue 3 , Autumn 2002 , pp. 833 - 868
Copyright
Copyright © Renaissance Society of America 2002

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Footnotes

*

Parts of this essay were given as a lecture entitled “Donatello at the Parthenon” at the 2000 meeting of the RSA. I am grateful to many friends: James Beck, Gina Borromeo, Stefano Casù, Gino Corti, Alexander Gourlay, Margaret Lewis, and Louise Rice. John Monfasani, Michael C.J. Putnam, Nelia Saxby, and David Warner helped with translations. Two anonymous readers for RQ and particularly editor Paul F. Grendler provided valuable suggestions. Above all I thank Father Edward W. Bodnar for his patient reading of a draft and valuable responses to my many questions. Every effort has been made to obtain permission to reproduce copyrighted material. Copyright holders should inform the author of any oversight if proper acknowledgment has not been stated.

References

Agosti, Giovanni, Vincenzo, Farinella, and Salvatore, Settis. 1987. “Passione e gusto per I'antico nei pittori italiani del quattrocento.” Annali delta Scuola Normale Superiore di Pisa XVII 4:1061-1107.Google Scholar
Alberti, Leon Battista. 1972. On Painting and On Sculpture. Ed. and trans. Cecil, Grayson. London.Google Scholar
Alberti, Leon Battista. 1991. De equo animantel Il cavallo vivo. Trans. Antonio, Videtta, pref. Charles B., Schmitt. Naples.Google Scholar
Ashmole, Bernard. 1959. “Cyriac of Ancona.“ Proceedings of the British Academy 45:25–41.Google Scholar
Barbaro, Francesco. “Epitaphium clar. Viri Francisci Barbari in laudem Gathamelatae imperatoris gentis Venetorum.” Ms. 57, c. 160 v (misc.membr.sec.XV), S. Daniele del Friuli, Biblioteca Civica Guarneriana.Google Scholar
Bartalot, Lodovico and Augusto, Campana. 1939. “Gli scritti di Jacopo Zeno e il suo elogio di Ciriaco d'Ancona.” La Bibliofilia 41:356-76.Google Scholar
Bazin, Germain. 1967. The Museum Age. New York.Google Scholar
Bearzi, Bruno. 1968. “La Tecnica fusoria di Donatello.” In Donatella e ilsuo tempo. 97–105. Florence.Google Scholar
Bennett, Bonnie A. and David G., Wilkins. 1984. Donatello. New York.Google Scholar
Beschi, Luigi. 1983. “Collezione d'arte greca in Italia.” // Veltro 27:253-65.Google Scholar
Beschi, Luigi. 1986. “La scoperta dell'arte greca.” In Memoria dell'antico, 3:293–372.Google Scholar
Beschi, Luigi. 1998. “I disegni ateniesi di Ciriaco: analasi di una tradizione.” In Ciriaco d'Ancona, 83–103.Google Scholar
Bodnar, Edward W. 1960. Cyriacus of Ancona and Athens. Brussels.Google Scholar
Bodnar, Edward W. 1970. “Athens in April 1436.” Archaeology 23:96–105.Google Scholar
Bodnar, Edward W. 1998. “Ciriaco's Cycladic Diary.“ In Ciriaco dAncona, 49–70.Google Scholar
Bracciolini, Poggio. 1964. Poggius Bracciolini, Opera Omnia. Ed. Thomas de, Tonelli. 4 vols. Turin.Google Scholar
Brown, Patricia Fortini. 1996. Venice and Antiquity. New Haven and London.Google Scholar
Bruni, Leonardo. 1899. Le vere lode de la inclita etgloriosa citta diFirenze composto in Latino da Leonardo Bruni e tradotte in volgare da Prate Lazaro da Padova. Intro. Francesco Paolo, Luiso. Florence.Google Scholar
Caglioti, Francesco. 2000. Donatello e i Medici: Storia del David e della Giuditta. 2 vols. Florence.Google Scholar
Chiarlo, Carlo Roberto. 1984. “'Gli fragmenti della sancta antiquitate': Studi antiquari e produzione delle immagini da Ciriaco d'Ancona a Francesco Colonna.“ In Memoria dell'antico, 1:271-97.Google Scholar
Chiarlo, Carlo Roberto. 1996. “Cyriac of Ancona.” In Dictionary of Art, 8:369-70.Google Scholar
Cicognara, Leopoldo. 1818. Storia della Scultura in Italia. 6 vols. Venice.Google Scholar
Ciriaco, d'Ancona. “Nivea Paros.” Florence, Biblioteca Nazionale Centrale, Ms. Palatino Targioni 49, (già 53), c. mod. 16 r (già 68 r).Google Scholar
Ciriaco, d'Ancona. “Nivea Paros” and “Stephanus Catamelata Narnius Veneti…” Treviso, Biblioteca Capitolare, 2 A/1, gia 1-138, cc. 193v-194r.Google Scholar
Ciriaco d'Ancona e la cultura antiquaria dell'umanesimo, ed. Gianfranco, Paci and Sergio, Sconocchia. 1998. Ancona.Google Scholar
Colin, Jean. 1981. Cyriaque d'Ancone: Le voyageur, le marchand, I'humaniste. Paris.Google Scholar
De Benedictus, Cristina. 1991. Per la storia del collezionismo italiano. Florence.Google Scholar
Di Benedetto, Filippo. 1995. “Tre schede per Feliciano: 1. Precisazioni sul ms. I- 138 della Capitolare di Treviso,” In L'“Antiquario” Felice Feliciano Veronese tra Epigrafia Antica, Letteratura e Art del Libro. Atti del Convegno di Studi Verona, 3-4giugno 1993, eds. Agostino, Contò e Leonardo, Quaquarelli. Medioevo e Umanesimo 89:89–99. Padua.Google Scholar
Dictionary of Art, ed. in chief Jane, Turner. 1996. 34 vols. New York and London.Google Scholar
Donatello e ilsuo tempo: II bronzetto a Padova nel Quattrocento e nel Cinquencento, ed. Davide, Benzato et al. 2001. Exh. cat. Padua.Google Scholar
Eroli, Giovanni. 1876. Erasmo Gattamelata da Narni: suoi monumenti e sua famiglia. Rome.Google Scholar
Feliciano, Felice. 1980. “Memoirs of Samuele da Tradate.” Excerpted and trans. Gilbert, C.E. in Italian Art 1400-1500: Sources and Documents, 180. Englewood Cliffs, N.J.Google Scholar
Filarete, . 1972. Treatise on Architecture. Trans. John R., Spencer. 2nd ed. New Haven.Google Scholar
Gosebruch, Martin. 1958. Das Reiterdenkmaldes Gattamelata. Stuttgart.Google Scholar
Grassi, Angelo. 1443. Letter to Ciriaco d'Ancona. Berlin, Staatsbibliothek, Ms. Lat. 557, cc. 48v-54r. published in Bartalot and Campana, 373Google Scholar
Grayson, Cecil. 1998a. “Leon Battista Alberti: Vita e Opere.” In Cecil Grayson, Studi su Leon Battista Alberti, ed. Paola, Claut, 419-33. Florence.Google Scholar
Grayson, Cecil. 1998b. “Leon Battista Alberti's 'De equo animante.'” In Ibid., 401-17.Google Scholar
Herzner, Volker. 1972. “Die Kanzeln Donatellos in San Lorenzo.” Münchner Jahrbuch der bildenden Kunst XXIII: 101-64.Google Scholar
Janson, H.W. 1963. The Sculpture of Donatello. 1st ed. 1957. Princeton.Google Scholar
Jardine, Lisa and Jerry, Brotton. 2000. Global Interests: Renaisssance Art Between East and West. Ithaca, New York.Google Scholar
Kauffmann, Hans. 1936. Donatello: Einie Einführung in sein Bilden und Denken. Berlin.Google Scholar
Kent, Dale. 2000. Cosimo de'Medici and the Florentine Renaissance: The Patron's Oeuvre. New Haven and London.Google Scholar
King, Margaret L. 1986. Venetian Humanism in an Age of Patrician Dominance. Princeton.Google Scholar
Krautheimer, Richard and Trude Krautheimer, Hesse. 1982. Lorenzo Ghiberti. 3d rev. ed. Princeton.Google Scholar
Landolfi, Maurizio. 1998. “Ciriaco e il collezionismo di Antichità grece nel piceno.” In Ciriaco dAncona, 443-49.Google Scholar
Lavin, Irving. 1959. “The Sources of Donatello's Pulpits in San Lorenzo.” Art Bulletin 41:19–38.Google Scholar
Leach, Patricia. 1984. “Images of Political Triumph: Donatello's Iconography of Heroes.” Ph.D Diss. Princeton University.Google Scholar
Lipton, Deborah. 1974. “Francesco Squarcione.“ Ph.D. Diss. New York University.Google Scholar
Lorber, Catharine C. 1996. Treasures of Ancient Coinage: From the Private Collections of American Numismatic Society Members. New York.Google Scholar
Martelli, Matio. 1966. “II Sonetto del Cavallo Perfetto.” Rinascimento 6:57–77.Google Scholar
Martineau, Jane, ed. 1992. Andrea Mantegna. Exh. cat. Royal Academy of Arts, London and Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York.Google Scholar
Memorie dell'antico nell'arte italiana, ed. Salvatore, Settis. 1984-86. 3 vols. Turin.Google Scholar
Mennitti Ippolito, A. 1993. “Erasmo da Narni,” In Dizionario biografico degli italiani, 43:46–52. Rome.Google Scholar
Mercer, R. G. G. 1979. The Teaching of Gasparino Barzizza: With Special Reference to his Place in Paduan Humanism. London.Google Scholar
Milanesi, Gaetano. 1854. Documentiper la storia dell'arte senese. 3 vols. Siena.Google Scholar
Mitchell, Charles. 1962. “Ex libris Kiriaci Anconitani.” Italia medioevale e umanistica 5:283-99.Google Scholar
Mitchell, Charles. 1974. “Ciriaco d'Ancona: Fifteenth- Century Drawings and Descriptions of the Parthenon.” In The Parthenon, ed. Vincent J., Bruno, 111-23. New York.Google Scholar
Mommsen, Theodor. 1883. “Über die Berliner Excerptenhandschrift des Petrus Donatus,” Jahrhuch der Kbniglich Preussischen Kunstsammlungen 4:73- 89.Google Scholar
Morolli, Gabriele. 1989. “Donatello e Alberti 'amicissimi.'” In Donatello Studien, ed. Monika, Cammerer, 43- 67. Munich.Google Scholar
Muraro, Michelangelo. 1968. “Donatello and Squarcione.” In Donatello e ilsuo tempo, 387-97.Google Scholar
Olivieri, A. 1763. Commentarium Cyriaci Anconitani. Nova fragmenta notis illustrata. Pisa.Google Scholar
Pernis, Maria Grazia. 1986. “Greek Sources for Donatello's Annunciation in Santa Croce.” Source: Notes in the History of Art (Spring): 16-20.Google Scholar
Perry, Marilyn. 1977. “Saint Mark's Trophies: Legend, Superstition, and Archaeology in Renaisance Venice.“ Journal of the Warburg and Courtauld Institutes 40:27–49.Google Scholar
Pizzo, Marco. 2001. “Testa del Gattamelata,“ in Davide Banzato et al. Donatello e ilsuo tempo, 52-53.Google Scholar
Plato, . 1961. The Collected Dialogues of Plato. Ed. and trans. Edith, Hamilton and Huntington, Cairns. New York.Google Scholar
Pliny, . 1971. Natural History. Trans. Eichholz, D.E.. 10 vols. Cambridge, MA.Google Scholar
Pope-Hennessy, John. 1993. Donatello. New York.Google Scholar
Quaquarelli, Leonardo. 1998. “Felice Feliciano e Francesco Scalamonti (junior?).” In Ciriaco d'Ancona, 333- 47.Google Scholar
Rosenberg, Charles M. 1997. The Este Monuments and Urban Development in Renaissance Ferrara. Cambridge.Google Scholar
Salamone, Serena. 1986. “Fonti greche nel 'De equo animante’ di Leon Battista Alberti.” Rinascimento 26:241-50.Google Scholar
Scalamonti, Francesco. 1996. Vita Viri Clarissimi et Famosissimi Kyriaci Anconitani. Ed. and trans. Charles, Mitchell and Edward W., Bodnar, S.J., Philadelphia. Google Scholar
Schneider, Laurie. 1976. “Some Neoplatonic Elements in Donatello's Gattamelata and Judith and Holofernes.“ Gazette des Beaux-Arts 87:41– 48.Google Scholar
Shearman, John. 1992. Only Connect… Art and the Spectator in the Italian Renaissance. Princeton.Google Scholar
Sorzano, Giovanni. 1957. “L'Ultima Campagna del Gattamelata al Servizio della Repubblica Veneta (Luglio 1438 - Gennaio 1440).” Archivio veneto 60- 61:79–114.Google Scholar
Sorzano, Giovanni. 1957-58. “Due noti intorno alia donatelliana statua equestro del Gattamelata.“ Bolletino del Museo Civico diPadova 46-47:21–50.Google Scholar
Stemmer, Klaus. 1978. Untersuchungen zur Typologie Chronologic und Ikonographie der Panzerstatuen. Berlin.Google Scholar
Targioni Tozzetti, G. 1768-79. Relazioni d'alcuni viaggifatti in diverse parti della Toscana. 6 Vols. Florence.Google Scholar
Tolley, Thomas. 1996. “Squarcione.” In The Dictionary of Art, 29:435-37.Google Scholar
Vasari, Giorgio. 1878-85. Le Vtte de più eccellenti pittori scultori ed architettori. Ed. Milanesi, G.. Florence.Google Scholar
Vespasiano da, Bisticci. 1963. Renaissance Princes, Popes, and Prelates. The Vespasiano Memoirs: Lives of Illustrious Men of the XVth Century. Trans. William, George and Emily, Waters, intro. Myron P., Gilmore. New York, Evanston, and London.Google Scholar
Virgil, . 1995. The Aeneid. Trans. Edward, McCrorie. Ann Arbor.Google Scholar
Wilson, N.G. 1992. From Byzantium to Italy: Greek Studies in the Italian Renaissance. Baltimore.Google Scholar
Weiss, Roberto. 1988. The Renaissance Discovery of Classical Antiquity. New York.Google Scholar