Date:
Location:
Speaker: Andreas Beyer (University of Basel)
This talk is dedicated to the sculptor Donato di Niccolò di Betto Bardi, known as Donatello (c. 1386 - 1466), and his personal life and relation to the world. It focuses on the numerous anecdotal accounts of him, which, unlike the very sparse source materials that have survived on him, have remained largely unconsidered. These materials contain relevant information that directly or indirectly provide evidence of the artist's self-confidence, his hubris, and his power of disposal over himself and others. By appreciating the genre of the anecdote as an indispensable primary source, this lecture aims not only to contribute to the reconstruction of Donatello's artistic personality, but also to revive the "History of the Artist's" (Künstlergeschichte), beyond pure biography.
Andreas Beyer was Chair of Early Modern Art History at the University of Basel (CH). From 2009-2014 he was director of the Centre allemand d'histoire de l'art in Paris and from 2013-2024 Speaker for the international research network ‘Bilderfahrzeuge - Aby Warburg's Legacy and the Future of Iconology’. Andreas Beyer is a member of the German Academy for Language and Literature. Recent publications: Il corpo dell'artista. La traccia nascosta della vita nell'arte (Saggi, Einaudi), Torino 2023 and Benvenuto Cellini and the Embodiment of the Modern Artist(Renaissance Lives, Reaktion Books), London 2025.
Image: detail of Five Masters of the Florentine Renaissance, anonynous, mid-16th ct., Musée du Louvre
Add event to calendar
