Renaissance art and its cultural significance

Renaissance Art

Within the broad gamut of Renaissance art throughout Europe, two sculptures remain outstanding and worthy of mutual comparison. Those two works of art are Michelangelo's statue of David and Donatello's same. The latter is the predecessor; Donatello's David predates Michelangelo's by about fifty years. Donatello's sculpture of David is considered to be of the Early Renaissance period, and was completed by about 1430 (Hudelson, n.d.). Michelangelo's David, on the other hand, was completed in the early 1500s. It represents, and perhaps epitomizes, the culmination of the Italian Renaissance: the period known as the High Renaissance (Hudelson, n.d.). Yet, both Donatello and Michelangelo were accomplished Italian artists. Both Michelangelo and Donatello spearheaded Renaissance art movements in their depictions of the Biblical hero David. Their respective sculptures capture the physique and form of the masculine David, while also revealing the most perfected artistic techniques known at that time. The subject matter and content of these two Renaissance sculptures draws from the Bible but neither comes across as a religious work of art. Rather, both Donatello's and Michelangelo's David sculptures capture the intellectual intensity of the Italian Renaissance period.

Both Donatello and Michelangelo depict the character of David from the Bible in their respective works of art. In the story, David slays a mighty Philistine warrior and then proves himself the King of Israel. Donatello depicts David in a smug, almost cocky, pose after he has slayed the monster Goliath. David appears in an almost androgynous fashion: his body is small and tight. His left foot rests casually and erotically on the gruesome head of his vanquished prey. In David's right hand is the sword that dealt the deathly blow. David's left hand rests on his hip in a manner that simply exudes confidence and self-satisfaction. His form is slim and fat-free, and there is a certain sense that David could be of either gender. His hair is long and seemingly styled with curls. David also wears a brimmed hat adorned with a wreath of some sort. This wreath ironically corresponds, and is juxtaposed with, the one around the head of the vanquished Goliath. Clearly, Donatello depicts David after he has won the Biblical battle. The Donatello statue is therefore strikingly different in composition and style than the Michelangelo version.

Although Michelangelo also depicts the Biblical character of David, his sculpture is not about the aftermath of the battle between David and Goliath. Michelangelo does not show Goliath at all, in fact. In the Michelangelo sculpture of David, the viewer beholds the ideal masculine form. Whereas Donatello shows David in an androgynous way, perhaps to represent every member of the human race, Michelangelo clearly makes David into a masculine figure. Michelangelo's David is unabashedly male. He is many times larger than his Donatello counterpart, at 17 feet high compared with just over five feet for Donatello's. Depicting David so large was a deliberate attempt on the part of Michelangelo, to reveal the warrior within the future Jewish king. Whereas Donatello shows David post-battle, Michelangelo shows David pre-battle. The deliberate distinction serves a formal purpose in the works of these two Renaissance artists. For Donatello, it was more important to capture the satisfaction and victory in the body and form of David. For Michelangelo, showing the uncertainty and realistic tension in the body and mind of David was more important.

As Baskins (1993) points out, the Biblical hero of David "moves from king to lover to penitent," but most artists need to show "selected moments of the narrative," (p. 113). This means that artists like Donatello and Michelangelo choose what face, form, and figure to show in their sculptural work. Donatello chose to show David as the victorious and androgynous universal victor. Michelangelo opted to deliver a David that was different: a David that is totally patriarchal, and ready to exude his sexuality and male power. According to one author, Michelangelo depicts the "strength and anger" within David -- and indeed within all human beings ("Michelangelo's David," n.d.). David is King.

Yet both Donatello and Michelangelo do want their respective David sculptures to have a sensual factor. Donatello's is deliberately androgynous. Baskins (1993) states that Donatello's David has a "voluptuous androgyny," which might indicate an "autobiographic homoerotic desire" of the sculptor (p. 115). Michelangelo's David could certainly say the same thing: its hyper-masculinity speaks of nothing but erotic desire for the male form. Whereas Donatello selected bronze as the medium for his rather petite sculpture of David, Michelangelo opted for the massive marble piece, yielding a larger-than life nude male.