Donatello's Gattamelata and its Humanist Audience

Abstract

Two small nude horsemen located in the armorial decoration of Donatello's Gattamelata yield new insights about the use of Greek sources in Renaissance art. Here it is speculated that Donatello was informed by a drawing or carved gemstone provided by Ciriaco d'Ancona that represented riders in the Panathenaic frieze on the Parthenon. Donatello may have included the figures as a learned reference to delight a circle of intellectuals in Padua, including Ciriaco and Francesco Barbaro, who wrote dedicatory texts for the monument. It is subsequently argued that Leon Battista Alberti's treatise De equo animante (ca. 1444-47) and Donatello's Gattamelata appear to have been mutually influential.