Donatello and His World: Sculpture of the Italian Renaissance

Early Italian Renaissance sculptors such as Donatello, Ghiberti, Brunelleschi and Verrocchio broke away from late Gothic traditions and embarked on a humanistic exploration of emotions. That awakening is ably traced in this beautifully illustrated survey spanning the period from 1400-1490. The focus is on Florentine sculptor Donatello (1386-1466), whose early works, like the marble David and a wooden crucifix, take into account the viewer's perspective and create their own space. It is Donatello's later statues of figures wracked by powerful emotions-- the glowering, half-crazed Jeremiah or the woodcut Mary Magdalene--that, Poeschke emphasizes, give the lie to any vision of the Renaissance as a seamless monument to classical beauty. A helpful introductory essay, extensive notes and biographical profiles of 30 sculptors accompany the 388 plates, 63 of which are in color. (Nov.)