St. John's
Hello everyone! Today I would like to introduce the marble statue "St. John" created by the Italian renaissance sculptor Donatello between 1409 and 1411, which is in the collection of the Cathedral Museum of Santa Maria del Fiore in Florence, Italy.
Born in 1386 and died in 1466, Donatello was a great sculptor of the early Italian Renaissance, whose profound knowledge of ancient sculpture exceeded that of anyone of his contemporaries, and worked tirelessly throughout his long life, striving to get rid of the last barriers of the medieval International Gothic style, constantly returning to and drawing nourishment from ancient art, creating independent monumental sculptures that were no longer attached to architecture, as well as complex altars, bronze gates, mausoleums and other sculptures.
This is an early work by Donatello, which shows that Donatello no longer pursued the refined elegance of late Gothic and began to seek naturalism and humanism.
Although the gothic idealized style can still be seen on the face, shoulders and chest, the folds of the character's hands and legs are close to reality.
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