Between 1447 and 1453, Donatello, the greatest Italian fifteenth-century sculptor, created in Padua an over-life-size bronze equestrian statue of Gattamelata, one of the period’s most successful mercenary generals. His nickname, Gattamelata, conveys his talents. It means honeyed cat — speaking in sweet tones (melata) to lower his adversary’s guard, followed by cat-like (gatto) stealthy, cunning, and ferocious attacks to destroy opposition.

The equestrian statue is considered a masterpiece of western art. It is the first large-scale Renaissance sculpture honoring an individual’s worldly accomplishment. It is the first public statue in the early modern world to memorialize a non-ruler, and the first to appropriate to a mercenary the trappings of a Roman Emperor, imitating the equestrian of Marcus Aurelius in Rome. Donatello’s creation inspired many later equestrian monuments in Europe and the Americas.

This Renaissance masterpiece is in a wretched state – the victim of pigeon droppings, pollution, and long neglect. Scientific assessment has identified “bronze disease,” a form of corrosion affecting the statue’s copper-alloy surface. The stone base has suffered erosion, further compromising the monument’s stability. The ensemble will, thankfully, be restored in a joint undertaking by Save Venice with lead funders Jon & Barbara Landau and Friends of Florence with support from Stacy Simon.

Presented by Prof. Sarah Blake McHam, Professor Emerita of Art History, Rutgers University

Sarah Blake McHam, Distinguished Professor Emerita at Rutgers University, taught Italian art history there from the late 1970s until her retirement in 2024 and was the recipient of prestigious awards for excellence in graduate teaching. She served two terms as chair and co-directed the Italian study abroad summer program in Urbino in 1987 and directed the study abroad year-long program in Paris/Tours in 1996-97.

Her research focuses on Venice, Padua, and Florence. Her books include Pliny and the Artistic Culture of the Italian Renaissance: The Legacy of the Natural History, 2013 (named one of the best books of 2013 by the Times Literary Supplement and winner of the Roland Bainton prize for the best art history book of 2013, Sixteenth Century Studies Society); Looking at Italian Renaissance Sculpture, editor, 1998, 2000; The Chapel of St. Anthony at the Santo and the Development of Venetian Renaissance Sculpture, 1994; and The Sculpture of Tullio Lombardo; Studies in Sources and Meaning, 1978. 

McHam’s honors include the Ailsa Mellon Bruce Senior Fellowship at the Center for Advanced Study, National Gallery, in Washington, D.C, 2014-15; a Gladys Krieble Delmas Fellowship, 2014-15; and membership at the Institute for Advanced Study, Princeton, 2000-1, among other fellowships.

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Image: Donatello’s Equestrian Monument to Gattamelata in front of the Basilica del Santo, Padua. Before conservation.