The Feast of Herod (Donatello)
The Feast of Herod is a bronze
The sculpture depicts the beheading of John the Baptist after Salome asks Herod Antipas for his head on a platter. The scene depicts an executioner presenting the severed head, and Herod reacting in shock.
Commission
In 1416, Lorenzo Ghiberti was invited by the officials of the Opera del Duomo of Siena to work as an advisor and designer for the commission of a new baptismal font. According to the original plans, the six relief sculptures, which were to adorn the sides of the hexagonal font, were to be completed by Ghiberti and two local Sienese artists. Donatello's commission for the Feast of Herod relief was added to replace one of the reliefs of Jacopo della Quercia, one of the Sienese artists involved in the project, who was not completing his work at the speed the Opera del Duomo desired.[3] The transfer of this commission, and the commencement of Donatello's work on the project, took place in 1423, when an initial advance payment for the relief was made to Donatello.[4] The final payment to Donatello was made in 1427 when the finished relief was collected from Donatello's workshop in Florence and transported to Siena. The original commission specified that the scene to be depicted was the moment "just as the head of St. John was brought to the table of the king", which Donatello expanded into the scene now known as the Feast of Herod.[5]
Description
The scene depicted in Donatello's Feast of Herod combines a few different elements commonly included in the Baptist cycle (the important events in the life of
The addition of architectural elements allowed for the incorporation of
Another way that Donatello described the space in which the scene takes place was through his use of high and low relief.
External videos | |
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Donatello's Feast of Herod, Smarthistory[12] |
Notes
Constructs such as named references (quick guide), or an abbreviated title. (March 2024) ) |
- ^ Paoletti, The Siena Baptistry Font, 44.
- ^ Munman, Optical Corrections, 36.
- ^ Poeschke, Donatello and His World, 387.
- ^ Paoletti, The Siena Baptistry Font, 39.
- ^ Janson, The Sculpture of Donatello, 65.
- ^ Pope-Hennessy, Essays on Italian Sculpture, 33.
- ^ a b Poeschke, Donatello and His World, 388.
- ^ Munman, Optical Corrections, 35.
- ^ Paoletti, The Siena Baptistry Font, 50.
- ^ Ibid., 49.
- ^ Edgerton, The Mirror, the Window, and the Telescope, 120.
- ^ "Donatello's Feast of Herod". Smarthistory at Khan Academy. Archived from the original on November 18, 2014. Retrieved January 24, 2013.
References
- Edgerton, Samuel Y.. The Mirror, the Window, and the Telescope: How Renaissance Linear Perspective Changed our Vision of the Universe. Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 2009.
- Janson, H.W.. The Sculpture of Donatello. New Jersey: Princeton University Press, 1963 [1957].
- Munman, Robert. Optical Corrections in the Sculpture of Donatello. Transactions of the American Philosophical Society75, no. 2 (1984).
- Paoletti, John T.. The Siena Baptistry Font: A Study of an Early Renaissance Collaborative Program. New York: Garland Pub, 1979.
- Poeschke, Joachim. Donatello and His World: Sculpture of the Italian Renaissance. Translated by Russel Stockman. New York: H.N. Abrams, 1993.
- Pope-Hennessy, John. “The Fifth Centenary of Donatello,” in Essays on Italian Sculpture. New York: Phaidon, 1968.
External links
- The Feast of Herod via Artchive
- Baptistry of the Siena Cathedral (Italian)