Donatello and the terracotta sculptures

(ANSA) - ROME, MARCH 06 - Not only marble, bronze or stone. Renaissance master sculptors also created works of great honor with terracotta, considered more humble but not less sought after. If Padua and its territory conquered the primacy in this field the merit was of Donatello who in the city, near the Basilica del Santo, opened his shop. After him came Bartolomeo Bellano, Giovanni De Fondulis and Andrea Riccio, reinforcing a tradition that made that area a unicum. Thousands of sculptures embellished churches, shrines, capitals, convents and large abbeys of an area that also embraces Vicenza, Treviso, Belluno and Venice.
About twenty works that survived the dispersion caused by indifference, theft and vandalism in the centuries testify to the value of this enormous heritage lost in the exhibition "Anostra immagine. The terracotta sculpture in the Renaissance. From Donatello to Riccio" that the Diocesan Museum of Padua hosts until June 2 , at contingent entrances for precautionary reasons in time of coronavirus.
In the Galleries of the Palazzo Vescovile, the curators Andrea Nantee Carlo Cavalli brought together the most eloquent examples of the production from the artists' forges, from the group scenes, such as the Compianti, to the small and refined Madonnas conBambino, to the images of the Saints venerated by families, works present in the area alongside those provided by international Italian museums. Among the most valuable works is Donatello's Madonnacon Bambino, loaned by the Louvre. The visitor can also see the Lamentation of Andrea Riccio recomposed, divided between the Paduan Church of San Canziano and the Civic Museums of the city. (HANDLE).