In the Eye of the Beholder: Donatello's Sculpture in the Life of Renaissance Italy

Donatello's (c. 1386-1466) interest in a more accurate human anatomy and his development of linear perspective allowed him to give a greater illusion of reality to his sculpture than perhaps any artist had since antiquity. He used these techniques as well as other innovative strategies to create works of art with great emotional and physical immediacy for his viewers, works which at times sought to include the beholder as an active and necessary component in completing the meaning of the sculpture. In this dissertation, I examine Donatello's contemporary viewers as beholders encountering his sculpture from a particular physical position as well as from a particular historical position, namely, that of fifteenth-century Italian culture. My thesis consists of four case studies exploring specific types of viewers and viewing situations for which Donatello devised new strategies for involving the beholder. The chapters address the following topics: Donatello's tombs and their links to heightened interest in post-mortem intercessory masses; public sculpture by Donatello in central Florence in relation to the rituals and concerns of civic life; Donatello's high altar for the Franciscan church of St. Anthony in Padua and its connections to early modern pilgrimage culture, liturgical practices and the issues facing local citizens and friars; and the impact of devotional habits and popular beliefs on the development of new types of Madonna and Child reliefs for the home by Donatello and other fifteenth-century sculptors. By examining the precedents and descendants of these types of viewing circumstances and by analyzing the visual and conceptual solutions developed by Donatello, I seek to provide a new framework for understanding Renaissance sculpture in light of the interests of its original beholders.