Tuesday, April 12, 2011

The Four Crowned Martyrs

- According to tradition, these third century Christian martyrs were sculptors, exeuted for refusing to make an image of a pagan Roman god for Emperor Diocletian.

- Although the architectural setting is Gothic in style, Nanni's figures-with their solid bodies, heavy form-revealing togas, noble hair and beards, and portraitlike features- reveal his interest in ancient Roman sculpture, particularly portraiture.

-Standing as a testimony to this sculptor's role in the Florentine revival of interest in antiquity.

-They stand in a semicircle with feet and drapery protruding beyond the floor of the niche and into the viewer's space.

- The relief panel below the niche shows the four sculptors at work, embodied with a similar solid vigor.

-Donatello also received three commissions for the niches at Orsanmichele during the first quarter of the century.

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