Le mostre donatelliane del 2022 e i mal di pancia della critica accademica austro-tedesca

This essay dwells at some length on twelve problems in the current academic debate on Donatello raised by three German scholars (Volker Herzner, Ulrich Pfisterer and Artur Rosenauer) in connection with the catalogues for the three major exhibitions devoted to the artist and his work in 2022-2023 (Florence, Berlin and London), with a particular focus on the first two (2022). I review those issues in the order listed below, producing fresh arguments and, in several cases, also new evidence and documentary interpretations: (1) Donatello’s paternity of the marble “David” in the Museo del Bargello (Florence); (2) Donatello’s paternity of the wooden “Crucifix” in Santa Croce (Florence) and of the “Man of Sorrow”s on the Porta della Mandorla in Santa Maria del Fiore; (3) Donatello’s activity as a coroplast and the catalogue of his youthful terracotta “Madonnas”; (4) Donatello’s paternity of the “St. Peter” in Orsanmichele; (5) Donatello’s paternity of the small bronze “Dancing Spiritello” in the Bargello, fashioned in connection with the project for the Baptismal Font in Siena; (6) the 15th century authenticity of the small bronze “David” in the Bode-Museum in Berlin (and the attribution of the marble Martelli “David” in Washington to Desiderio da Settignano); (7) Donatello’s paternity of the Martelli “St. John the Baptist” in the Bargello; (8) Donatello’s paternity of the so-called “Carafa Head” in Naples; (9) Donatello’s paternity of the bronze “Bearded Head” in the Bargello; (10) the reconstruction both of the original aspect of the high altar in the Basilica of St. Anthony in Padua and of the original designs for the two bronze pulpits in the Basilica of San Lorenzo in Florence; (11) Donatello’s paternity of the “Dudley Madonna” in London (with the ideal reconstruction of the sculpture in the Del Pugliese tabernacle, painted by Fra’ Bartolomeo); and (12) the recognition to be afforded today to the role of Jenő Lányi (1902-1940) in the history of modern Donatello scholarship, with particular reference to the removal of certain works from the master’s catalogue proposed by Lányi in 1935 and 1939.