Great sculptor of the early Renaissance, who revived the classical body
The greatest sculptor of the early Renaissance and a forerunner of Michelangelo. He rediscovered the Greek and Roman celebration of the human body, and his bronze David is the first free-standing nude sculpture since antiquity. He gave sculpture real muscle, balance, and expression again, clearing the way for Michelangelo’s summits.
Donatello’s bronze David is the first free-standing nude in the West since ancient Rome. Through the whole Middle Ages the nude, tied to "original sin," had been avoided; he made the body once more something to celebrate as beauty and pride. A step that looks like merely sculpting a youth in fact announced a new age that put "the human" back at the center.
Below are how modern works borrow or reinterpret this name or story — not the original material. The two differ, so keep them apart.