Andrew Tomlinson
ART100
May 3rd, 2007
Analysis of Donatello’s David and Gislebertus’s The Last Judgment
I chose to analyze Donatello’s David and Gislebertus’s The Last Judgment.
Donatello’s David is a free standing statue in the round which is made out of bronze. The
statue is of a man wearing a military hat and carrying a sword. The man is standing atop
what appears to be a set of armor. Aside from the hat the man in the sculpture is fully
nude. The statue stands 5’ 2” tall and was created in 1440 A.D. during the Early
Renaissance period [1]. Gislebertus’s The Last Judgment is a relief image that was
carved into the stone of the west tympanum at the Autun Cathedral in France [2]. The
sculpture consists of a center image and side images broken into registers. In the center
of the sculpture is the image of Christ illuminated by angels. The side images consist of
the Virgin Mary, the apostles and St. Peter. The sculpture was created in 1130 A.D.
during the Romanesque period.
I could have created David by Donatello, in 1440 A.D. because it was an
extremely innovative sculpture. This sculpture was one of the first sculptures that used
nude as the main subject of the piece, which was generally looked at as inappropriate in
the Middle Ages. The sculpture also made use of bronze casting and showed that an
amazing piece of art could be created with this unique metal. I feel that Donatello chose
to use bronze for the piece because it shows strength but not overwhelming power. It
gives the viewer a feeling that the man is confident but not overbearing or self involved,
instead one believes he is a kind man. I also feel that Donatello chose bronze to
experiment with a material that was fairly new in art for its time and not well mastered.
The Renaissance was a time of “rebirth” and of experimenting. By using bronze
Donatello was following the idea of the Renaissance. Along with the use of bronze
Donatello uses a great deal of knowledge of the human body in his sculpture. The
proportions and pose are quite natural, matching that of the average human body. The
Renaissance was a time when many studied the human body in a scientific manner and
that is why I think Donatello paid a great deal of attention to the detail of the human
body. This detail of the human body places the style of this sculpture as representational.
Along with the detail of the human body the pose of the man in the sculpture constitutes
movement and ensures that the painting feels even more life-like to the viewer, which
keeps with the style of the piece.
I could never have created The Last Judgement by Gislebertus, in 1130 A.D.
because the sculpture was carved into a church and was the main teaching tool of the
religious doctrine for the illiterate. The pressure of teaching those who cannot read about
religion through something I carve into a church would be too much pressure for me to
handle. The sculpture was carved into stone which is a medium that would not be ideal
for a piece that I would create. I don not feel like stone allows for a great deal of freedom
in creating the piece and also would be quite hard to work with. This piece was created
during a time when religious work was in great demand due to the increase of churches
being built. This art was also used as somewhat of a tourist attraction in churches which
does not appeal to me either. Another issue that I have with this sculpture is that the
images were distorted to fit the area that they were sculpted in. This takes away from the
realism of the image along with detracting from the image in general. This sculpture
would fall under the style of Abstract due to the fact that the figures portrayed are
distorted and unlike the actual images that would be seen in a representational piece.
Although the figures in the piece were distorted I enjoyed the symmetrical balance of the
image as a whole.
When I look at both sculptures I am attracted to Donatello’s David much more
than Gislebertus’s The Last Judgment. What attracted me most to Donatello’s sculpture
was the amazing detail that was used to represent the human body. It was obvious that
Donatello spent a great deal of time creating the sculpture. Donatello’s piece made me
feel like I actually knew the man within the art. I felt as if the man was strong but also
compassionate. The use of the bronze and the poise really helped me get a feel for the
personality of the man in the piece. Gislebertus’s sculpture was too abstract and distorted
to peak my interests. The image was also created in stone which is a material that does
not appeal to me, it is to boring and unattractive. When looking at Gislebertus’s piece I
am not inspired though I am impressed at the size of the sculpture that was created and
the detail that was put into the piece. I need some intensity or color in a piece which this
lacked making it something that I would not see myself creating. Overall, I was inspired
by Donatello’s attention detail and choice of medium for his sculpture compared to the
distorted images created in stone by Gislebertus.
References:
[1] Wikipedia .“David(Donatello)”. April 2007. April 30, 2007.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Donatello's_David
[2] Web Gallery of Art. “Gislebertus”. May 2006. April 30, 2007.
http://www.wga.hu/frames-e.html?/html/g/gisleber/2lastj.html