Il nudo maschile nella statuaria italiana: il "DAVID" di DONATELLO

Speranza

Perhaps Donatello's best-known statue, the bronze "David" is a compelling one.

The fame of the statue is in large measure due to its unconventional and unexpected apperance.

The victorious hero is but a slight youth who stands relaxed and self-absorbed, his sensuously treated nudity set off by elaborate boots and a floppy hat.

It is no wonder that the DAVID is also among Donatello's MOST CONTROVERSIAL statues.

But one thing is certain.

This is a REVOLUTIONARY statue in the history of Italian statuary.

To the best of our knowledge, Donatello's "DAVID" is the FIRST life-sized free standing male nude figure in OVER A MILLENIUM.

Surprisingly, there is nothing TIMID about David's NUDITY.

In fact, the soft, youthful flresh is ACCENTUATED by his soft COUNTRY HAT and the tooled leather greaves, as well as by his UNSTABLE STANCE, with one foot on the sweeping wing of Goliath's helmet and the other on the SEVERED HEAD itself.

For balance, David's pelvis and abdomen are thrown forward and his pose becomes a series of LUXURIOUS curves.

The "DAVID"'s obvious SENSUALITY results in part from the manner in which strong highlights seem to to caress the FINELY FINISHED bronze, enticing the spectator to TOUCH IT to confirm the illusion of SMOOTH and PLIANT flesh.

These highlihgts are ESPECIALLY dramatic because of the UNUSUALLY DEEP, almost black, colour of the bronze.

VASARI's comment was:

"Donatello's DAVID is so NATURAL in his vivacity and softness that modelers find it hardly possible to believe it was NOT MOULDED on the living form."

The inherent NATURALISM is important, for the bronze "DAVID" conforms neither to a GENERALISED Renaissance ideal, not to a specific ANTIQUE type.

He is TOO YOUNG, too UNdeveloped, and a little TOO SOFT to meet either of these standards.

Touches such as the wrinkles below the buttocks and around the armpits, the slightly sagging abdomen, and the low-slung buttocks, undersore the realism.

And, although the figure is OBVIOUSLY MALE, Donatello seems to have suggested FEMALE characteristics in the softness of the flesh, the DELICACY of the proportions, the slight swell of the stomach, and the choice of a STANCE that produces a feminine FULLNESS in the line of the right hip and thigh.

The ANDROGYNOUS nature of adolescence seems accentuated, while its awkwardness and insecurity is ignored.

The bronze "DAVID" may REVIVE an ancient type of the free-standing, life-sized nude, yet there is little about the figure that is antique.