![Fonte battesimale, donatello, banchetto di erode, 1427 02](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/1/19/Fonte_battesimale%2C_donatello%2C_banchetto_di_erode%2C_1427_02.JPG)
''The Feast of Herod'' is a bronze
relief sculpture
Relief is a sculptural method in which the sculpted pieces are bonded to a solid background of the same material. The term ''relief'' is from the Latin verb ''relevo'', to raise. To create a sculpture in relief is to give the impression that the ...
created by
Donatello
Donato di Niccolò di Betto Bardi ( – 13 December 1466), better known as Donatello ( ), was a Florentine sculptor of the Renaissance period. Born in Florence, he studied classical sculpture and used this to develop a complete Renaissance s ...
circa 1427. It appears on the
baptistry of the
Siena Cathedral
Siena Cathedral ( it, Duomo di Siena) is a medieval church in Siena, Italy, dedicated from its earliest days as a Roman Catholic Marian church, and now dedicated to the Assumption of Mary.
It was the episcopal seat of the Diocese of Siena, and ...
in Italy. It is one of Donatello's earliest relief sculptures, and his first bronze relief. The sculpture is noted for Donatello's use of
perspective. The piece is 60 by 60 centimeters.
The sculpture depicts the beheading of
John the Baptist
John the Baptist or , , or , ;Wetterau, Bruce. ''World history''. New York: Henry Holt and Company. 1994. syc, ܝܘܿܚܲܢܵܢ ܡܲܥܡܕ݂ܵܢܵܐ, Yoḥanān Maʿmḏānā; he, יוחנן המטביל, Yohanān HaMatbil; la, Ioannes Bapti ...
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
Lorenzo Ghiberti (, , ; 1378 – 1 December 1455), born Lorenzo di Bartolo, was an Italian Renaissance sculptor from Florence, a key figure in the Early Renaissance, best known as the creator of two sets of bronze doors of the Florence Baptister ...
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
Jacopo della Quercia (, ; 20 October 1438), also known as Jacopo di Pietro d'Agnolo di Guarnieri, was an Italian sculptor of the Renaissance, a contemporary of Brunelleschi, Ghiberti and Donatello. He is considered a precursor of Michelangelo ...
, one of the Sienese artists involved in the project, who was not completing his work at the speed the Opera del Duomo desired. 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. 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''.
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
St. John the Baptist). In earlier depictions, such as
Andrea Pisano
Andrea Pisano (Pontedera 12901348 Orvieto) also known as Andrea da Pontedera, was an Italian sculptor and architect.
Biography
Pisano first learned the trade of a goldsmith. Pisano then became a pupil of Mino di Giovanni, about 1300, and wor ...
's reliefs on the South Doors of the
Florence Baptistery
The Florence Baptistery, also known as the Baptistery of Saint John ( it, Battistero di San Giovanni), is a religious building in Florence, Italy, and has the status of a minor basilica. The octagonal baptistery stands in both the Piazza del D ...
(1330–1336), Salome's dance, the beheading of St. John, and the presentation of the head to King Herod, were separated into different scenes. Donatello brings these elements together, using continuous narrative (a type of
narrative art
Narrative art is art that tells a story, either as a moment in an ongoing story or as a sequence of events unfolding over time. Some of the earliest evidence of human art suggests that people told stories with pictures. Although there are som ...
that illustrates multiple scenes of a narrative within a single frame) to illustrate the scene and portray John’s martyrdom without explicitly showing the beheading Another way that Donatello's work differs from previous representations of the scene is the emotional expressiveness of the figures, as Herod and his companions react to the severed head as it is presented.
[Poeschke, ''Donatello and His World'', 388.]
The addition of architectural elements allowed for the incorporation of
linear perspective
Linear or point-projection perspective (from la, perspicere 'to see through') is one of two types of graphical projection perspective in the graphic arts; the other is parallel projection. Linear perspective is an approximate representation, ...
to the scene, which in turn brings attention to the important focal points and figures. Donatello was inspired by his contemporary
Filippo Brunelleschi's exploration into a linear perspective system involving orthogonals (diagonal lines that meet at a central vanishing point) and transversals (the lines crossing these orthogonals) which work together to draw the eye to the vanishing point and create an illusion of space on a two-dimensional surface. Donatello manipulated this system slightly, by having the focal point lead to a "V" of open space, encouraging the eye to move across the panel to the two separate groupings, rather than focusing on any one element. The inclusion of linear perspective would later become a standard element in Renaissance painting and sculpture, after being described by
Leon Battista Alberti
Leon Battista Alberti (; 14 February 1404 – 25 April 1472) was an Italian Renaissance humanist author, artist, architect, poet, priest, linguist, philosopher, and cryptographer; he epitomised the nature of those identified now as polymaths. H ...
in his 1435 treatise ''Della Pictura.''
Another way in which Donatello described the space in which the scene takes place, was through his use of high and low relief.
One technique that Donatello implemented in his Feast of Herod is the use of ''rilievo schiacciato'', or shallow
relief
Relief is a sculptural method in which the sculpted pieces are bonded to a solid background of the same material. The term '' relief'' is from the Latin verb ''relevo'', to raise. To create a sculpture in relief is to give the impression that th ...
, which he had earlier used in his St. George predella, for the Church of
Orsanmichele
Orsanmichele (; "Kitchen Garden of St. Michael", from the Tuscan contraction of the Italian word ''orto'') is a church in the Italian city of Florence. The building was constructed on the site of the kitchen garden of the monastery of San Mich ...
in Florence. Donatello utilized schiacciato carving to create atmospheric effect and to give the impression of greater depth. In order to create this depth, Donatello relied on the contrast between the low and high relief. The inclusion of low relief, in the architecture of the layered arches and in the background figures, allows for specific elements to appear farther away, while the high relief brings attention to the more highly detailed figures in the foreground, which seem to extend out into the viewer's space.
[Edgerton, ''The Mirror, the Window, and the Telescope'', 120.]
See also
*
Battistero di San Giovanni (Siena)
The Battistero di San Giovanni (Italian: "Baptistry of St. John") is a religious building in Siena, Italy. It is in the square with the same name, near the final spans of the choir of the city's cathedral.
It was built between 1316 and 1325 b ...
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.
Munman, Robert. “Optical Corrections in the Sculpture of Donatello.” ''Transactions of the American Philosophical Society'' 75, no. 2 (1984): 1-96.
Paoletti, John T. ''The Siena Baptistry Font: A Study of an Early Renaissance Collaborative Program.'' New York: Garland Pub, 1979.
Poeschke, Joachim, Albert Hirmer, Irmgard Ernstmeier-Hirmer, and Russel Stockman. ''Donatello and His World: Sculpture of the Italian Renaissance.'' New York: H.N. Abrams, 1993.
Pope-Hennessy, Sir John Wyndham. “The Fifth Centenary of Donatello,” in ''Essays on Italian Sculpture.'' New York: Phaidon, 1968.
Notes
External links
''The Feast of Herod''via Artchive
(Italian)
{{DEFAULTSORT:Feast of Herod
Sculptures by Donatello
Sculptures depicting John the Baptist
1427 works