DONATELLO (Donato di Niccolò di Betto Bardi) ( v. 1386-1466 )

ISNI:0000000121236619 Getty:500026022

Quotation

Are. [..] sur tout il [ndr : le peintre] doit toujours avoir egard à la qualité des personnes, aussi bien qu’à la nation, aux coutumes, aux lieux, & au tems : tellement que s’il a à peindre un fait d’armes de Cesar, ou d’Alexandre le Grand, il ne convient pas, que les soldats soient armés commeils [sic] le sont aujourd'hui ; car autres sont les armes des Macedoniens, que celles des Romains ; & si on lui donne à faire une bataille moderne, il ne faut pas qu’il la compose à la maniere antique […].

Quotation

As the Rules of Mesure and Proportion have an universal influence upon all the Action of our lives ; it was a memorable, and noble saying of a great Person of our Nation, discoursing to us once concerning the dignity of Painting, and the arts which attend it : That one who could not Designe a little, would never make an honest man {Thomas Earl of Arundel L. Marsh. of England} : How that observation succeeds in the general, we have not made it much our observation ; but this we are bold to pronounce. That he shall never attain to the excellency of a good Chalcographer, who is not more then ordinarily skill’d in the faculty and art of Drawing ; a thing so highly necessary, that Donatellus was wont to tell his Disciples (discoursing sometimes concerning the accomplishment of this Art) that to deliver it in a single word, he would say, DESIGNE ; because it was the very Basis and Foundation, not only of this, but even of all those free and noble Sciences of Fortification, Architecture, Perspective, and whatsoever also pretended to any affinity with the Mathematicks, as really leading the Van, and perfective of them all.

Quotation

Are. [...] Commençons par l’invention dans la quelle je trouve, qu’il entre beaucoup de parties, parmi les quelles l’ordonnance, & les convenances sont les principales ; parceque si le peintre, par exemple, avoit à representer Jesus Christ, ou saint Paul prechant, il ne conviendroit pas, qu’il les peignit nuds, qu’il les vêtit en soldats, ou en mariniers ; mais qu’il leur choisit un habit decent ; & convenable à l’un, & à l’autre ; principalement qu’il donnât au Seigneur une phisionomie grave accompagnée de douceur, & d’une benignité aimable, de meme qu’à saint Paul un air qui conviene à un si grand Apotre ; de maniere que ceux qui les regardent s’imaginent voir des portraits fidels, tant de l’Autheur de notre salut, que de ce Vaisseau d’election.

Quotation

As the Rules of Mesure and Proportion have an universal influence upon all the Action of our lives ; it was a memorable, and noble saying of a great Person of our Nation, discoursing to us once concerning the dignity of Painting, and the arts which attend it : That one who could not Designe a little, would never make an honest man {Thomas Earl of Arundel L. Marsh. of England} : How that observation succeeds in the general, we have not made it much our observation ; but this we are bold to pronounce. That he shall never attain to the excellency of a good Chalcographer, who is not more then ordinarily skill’d in the faculty and art of Drawing ; a thing so highly necessary, that Donatellus was wont to tell his Disciples (discoursing sometimes concerning the accomplishment of this Art) that to deliver it in a single word, he would say, DESIGNE ; because it was the very Basis and Foundation, not only of this, but even of all those free and noble Sciences of Fortification, Architecture, Perspective, and whatsoever also pretended to any affinity with the Mathematicks, as really leading the Van, and perfective of them all.

Quotation

As the Rules of Mesure and Proportion have an universal influence upon all the Action of our lives ; it was a memorable, and noble saying of a great Person of our Nation, discoursing to us once concerning the dignity of Painting, and the arts which attend it : That one who could not Designe a little, would never make an honest man {Thomas Earl of Arundel L. Marsh. of England} : How that observation succeeds in the general, we have not made it much our observation ; but this we are bold to pronounce. That he shall never attain to the excellency of a good Chalcographer, who is not more then ordinarily skill’d in the faculty and art of Drawing ; a thing so highly necessary, that Donatellus was wont to tell his Disciples (discoursing sometimes concerning the accomplishment of this Art) that to deliver it in a single word, he would say, DESIGNE ; because it was the very Basis and Foundation, not only of this, but even of all those free and noble Sciences of Fortification, Architecture, Perspective, and whatsoever also pretended to any affinity with the Mathematicks, as really leading the Van, and perfective of them all.

Quotation

Are. [...] Commençons par l’invention dans la quelle je trouve, qu’il entre beaucoup de parties, parmi les quelles l’ordonnance, & les convenances sont les principales ; parceque si le peintre, par exemple, avoit à representer Jesus Christ, ou saint Paul prechant, il ne conviendroit pas, qu’il les peignit nuds, qu’il les vêtit en soldats, ou en mariniers ; mais qu’il leur choisit un habit decent ; & convenable à l’un, & à l’autre ; principalement qu’il donnât au Seigneur une phisionomie grave accompagnée de douceur, & d’une benignité aimable, de meme qu’à saint Paul un air qui conviene à un si grand Apotre ; de maniere que ceux qui les regardent s’imaginent voir des portraits fidels, tant de l’Autheur de notre salut, que de ce Vaisseau d’election.

Quotation

Are. [...] Commençons par l’invention dans la quelle je trouve, qu’il entre beaucoup de parties, parmi les quelles l’ordonnance, & les convenances sont les principales ; parceque si le peintre, par exemple, avoit à representer Jesus Christ, ou saint Paul prechant, il ne conviendroit pas, qu’il les peignit nuds, qu’il les vêtit en soldats, ou en mariniers ; mais qu’il leur choisit un habit decent ; & convenable à l’un, & à l’autre ; principalement qu’il donnât au Seigneur une phisionomie grave accompagnée de douceur, & d’une benignité aimable, de meme qu’à saint Paul un air qui conviene à un si grand Apotre ; de maniere que ceux qui les regardent s’imaginent voir des portraits fidels, tant de l’Autheur de notre salut, que de ce Vaisseau d’election.

Quotation

Providence yet kinder, gave us two Arts, which might express the very Lines of the Face, the Air of the Countenance, and in it a great part of the Mind of all those whom they should undertake to Represent ; and these are, Sculpture and Painting.
           
Michael Angelo, the famousest Sculptor of these Modern Ages, looking one day earnestly upon a Statue of St. Mark made by Donatello, after having long admired it, said at last, That if Saint Mark were like that Statue, he would have believed his Gospel upon his Physionomy, for it was the honestest Face that ever was made. ’Tis hard to say, whether he commended the Artist, the Saint, or the Art it self most by this Expression : But this Inference we may make from it, That if the Faces of Heroes do express the Greatness of their Minds, those Arts which perpetuate their Memory that way, are the truest of all Records.

Quotation

Are. [...] Commençons par l’invention dans la quelle je trouve, qu’il entre beaucoup de parties, parmi les quelles l’ordonnance, & les convenances sont les principales ; parceque si le peintre, par exemple, avoit à representer Jesus Christ, ou saint Paul prechant, il ne conviendroit pas, qu’il les peignit nuds, qu’il les vêtit en soldats, ou en mariniers ; mais qu’il leur choisit un habit decent ; & convenable à l’un, & à l’autre ; principalement qu’il donnât au Seigneur une phisionomie grave accompagnée de douceur, & d’une benignité aimable, de meme qu’à saint Paul un air qui conviene à un si grand Apotre ; de maniere que ceux qui les regardent s’imaginent voir des portraits fidels, tant de l’Autheur de notre salut, que de ce Vaisseau d’election.

Quotation

Are. [...] Commençons par l’invention dans la quelle je trouve, qu’il entre beaucoup de parties, parmi les quelles l’ordonnance, & les convenances sont les principales ; parceque si le peintre, par exemple, avoit à representer Jesus Christ, ou saint Paul prechant, il ne conviendroit pas, qu’il les peignit nuds, qu’il les vêtit en soldats, ou en mariniers ; mais qu’il leur choisit un habit decent ; & convenable à l’un, & à l’autre ; principalement qu’il donnât au Seigneur une phisionomie grave accompagnée de douceur, & d’une benignité aimable, de meme qu’à saint Paul un air qui conviene à un si grand Apotre ; de maniere que ceux qui les regardent s’imaginent voir des portraits fidels, tant de l’Autheur de notre salut, que de ce Vaisseau d’election.

Quotation

As the Rules of Mesure and Proportion have an universal influence upon all the Action of our lives ; it was a memorable, and noble saying of a great Person of our Nation, discoursing to us once concerning the dignity of Painting, and the arts which attend it : That one who could not Designe a little, would never make an honest man {Thomas Earl of Arundel L. Marsh. of England} : How that observation succeeds in the general, we have not made it much our observation ; but this we are bold to pronounce. That he shall never attain to the excellency of a good Chalcographer, who is not more then ordinarily skill’d in the faculty and art of Drawing ; a thing so highly necessary, that Donatellus was wont to tell his Disciples (discoursing sometimes concerning the accomplishment of this Art) that to deliver it in a single word, he would say, DESIGNE ; because it was the very Basis and Foundation, not only of this, but even of all those free and noble Sciences of Fortification, Architecture, Perspective, and whatsoever also pretended to any affinity with the Mathematicks, as really leading the Van, and perfective of them all.