Donatello - Last Years in Florence

Last Years in Florence

Donatello returned to Florence in 1453. The Judith and Holofernes, begun for the Duomo di Siena date from 1455 to 1460 but were later acquired by the Medici. Until 1461, Donatello remained in Siena, where he created a St. John the Baptist, also for the Duomo, and models for its gates, now lost.

For his last commission in Florence, Donatello produced reliefs for the bronze pulpits in the church of San Lorenzo, with help from students Bartolomeo Bellano and Bertoldo di Giovanni. Donatello provided the general design and personally executed the Martyrdom of St. Lawrence and the Deposition from the Cross; he worked on the reliefs of Christ before Pilate and Christ before Caiphus, with Bellano. This work is characterized by an intense, free, indeed sketchy and suggestively unfinished—in Italian a non-finito—technique that heightens the dramatic effect of the scenes and emphasizes their spiritual intensity. Donatello died in Florence in 1466 and was buried in the Basilica of San Lorenzo, next to Cosimo de' Medici the Elder.