Episode Details

Donatello carved the first freestanding nude sculpture since antiquity and gave Renaissance Florence figures so psychologically alive that contemporaries found them unsettling. His David was beautiful and disturbing. His Mary Magdalene was so harrowing that people crossed themselves when they saw it. He carved emotion into stone in ways no one had attempted for a thousand years.

This episode traces Donatello from his apprenticeship in Florence through his revolutionary bronze David, his collaborations with Brunelleschi, and the raw psychological intensity that set him apart from every sculptor of his age.

• His bronze David was the first freestanding nude statue created in Europe since classical antiquity
• His Mary Magdalene in carved wood is considered one of the most emotionally devastating sculptures ever made
• He worked alongside Brunelleschi and Ghiberti during the explosive early years of the Florentine Renaissance
• Michelangelo studied his work obsessively and considered him the greatest sculptor before himself