Donatello’s David: A Neo-Platonic and Political Tribute to The Male Nude

Donatello was one of the most celebrated sculptors of the Italian Renaissance. Donatello’s most famous sculpture is the bronze David which was commissioned around 1440 and completed in 1446. Commissioned by Cosimo il Vecchio (The Elder) de’ Medici for his courtyard at the Medici Palace in Florence, Donatello’s David has been a subject of interest of many scholars. John Pope Hennessy’s monograph Donatello Sculptor focuses on how David functioned as a political narrative for the Medici. Sara Blake McHam continues the focus on the Medici political agenda in her article “Donatello’s Bronze David and Judith as Metaphors for Medici rule. Most scholars have focused on the political agenda behind David. My presentation argues that that male nudity in Donatello’s bronze David symbolized victory and virtue during the age of the Medici, how nudity functioned within an intellectual dialogue with the humanist, and Neo-Platonic movements. Exploring the biography of Donatello, and the formal and iconographical qualities of David against the social-historical backdrop of Florence in the fifteenth century, this presentation sheds new light on the meaning of Donatello’s David beyond the circuitous scholarship centering on Medici politics