Will the real Donatello please stand up?

Sometimes obstreperous, coarse and tricky, Donatello-or Donato di Niccolò di Betto Bardi-was so outrageously talented he could create ingenious figures in marble, bronze, terracotta or wood, observes Susan Jenkins

THE revolutionary Florentine artist Donato di Niccolò di Betto Bardi, otherwise known as Donatello, is popularly considered to be the greatest Italian Renaissance sculptor of all time. He invented techniques that set sculptural practice on a new path and influenced his successors, including the peerless Michelangelo. His interest in portraiture saw him create empathetic figures based on careful observation of antique Roman statues. He introduced the use of low-relief 'flattened' carving (rilievo schiacciato), allowing him to achieve greater drama and apparent depth in his work. And he designed beautiful works of art in multiple materials, including marble, bronze, terracotta and wood. To him we owe the creation of the first freestanding nude male statue since antiquity-the extraordinary bronze David, alive with contrapposto.

Donatello's success was hard won. He was a working-class artist whose father, Niccolò, originally a wool carder, was briefly exiled from Florence for his revolutionary politics and for committing murder during a street brawl. Unlike his contemporaries, he was proud of his humble origins and rejected the trappings of success, refusing to pander to his patrons. Although his strong personality contributed to the power and imagination of his sculpture, contemporaries described him as 'rough and very straightforward' and he was known for his coarse language and neglect of his appearance. An unsatisfied patron, Duke Ludovico Gonzaga of Mantua, complained that the sculptor was 'very tricky' and inflexible, adding that once 'he had a mind made up in such a way that if he does not come, one cannot entertain any hope of it, even if one pesters him'.