Donatello’s Mary Magdalene, Florentine Baptistery

Bianca Feliciano Period 2

Background Information

Location: Museo dell'Opera del Duomo, Florence.

Period: Florence’s Early Renaissance Craved completely out of wood in 1455 Height: nearly 2 meters (6 foot 2 inches) There is an actual story of a woman,

Magdalen, who was a penitent person who was rescued from her sinful life by Jesus. After gaining a strong bond with Jesus and losing him after he has risen to the heavens, she is left with the understanding that he was not just a son but the Son of God.

Generally Renaissance is…

Related to the perspective between heaven and earth.

Remark of the Greek and Roman past.

Realism and Expression Light &

Shadowing/Softening Edges

But Donatello was…

More concerned with a humans body as it is rather than Michael Angelo's idea of the “perfect” human body.

More concerned in showing Magdalene’s pain and misery of having to wait to be reunited with Jesus.

Donatello’s Mary Magdalene, Florentine Baptistery

By: Sara mithani

Artist: DonatelloName: Mary MagdaleneLocation Florentine BaptisteryDate: late 1430’s

Time period

• The time period of the work is of the Early Renaissance

Works contrast to time period

• This sculpture and the work of Donatello shows more medieval characteristics

• Mary Magdalene is a sculpture that expresses much emotion on her face and by the placement of her hands. This is not common to the Renaissance

• this also shows a type of realism that Donatello brings back into the time period

Donatello’s Mary Magdalene

By Zurra Hemani

• The sculpture was erected for the Florentine Baptistery around 1435-1455

• Around the Italian Renaissance

The time period of the painting

The departures from the typical artistic concerns

• The unprecedented realism of the sculpture was unheard of at the time were as the concern was to be artistically pleasing

• The ugliness of the sculpture so to speak made it stand out in a work full of supposed beauty because artists were worried about making it look pretty

• She was made to look dramatic where as the facial expression of other works were considered subtle.

• The work was created on tempera in a time where artists were only concerned with painting with oil paints.

Donatello’s Mary Magdalene, Florentine Baptistery 1430’s

Identify the period in which this work was made. Discuss ways in which it departs from the more typical artistics concerns of it period.

 

Adil KassamDonatello

The statue of Mary Magdolem by Donatello, was made during the Early Renaissance.

There were artistic concerns during this period of classical proportions and simple depiction

This statue depicts emotions. Mary is clothed only in her long hair and has been withered.

• Not only did this statue show pity for her but also shows how this women survived.

• It creates an emotional response

She is not idealized in human form of beauty like the other typical types of Renaissance sculptures. Some consider the statue ugly

• Artists vision is to portray his idea, not a beautiful idealized form, of the statue.