Yet, it seems to me that an art object, which also functions as a religious symbol, as in the case of David, offers a particularly subtle challenge for art criticism. For the religious art object does not merely presuppose the existence of metaphysical or theological real presence, but claims also to thematize such presence, that is, to give form and expression to the human experience of transcendence. For this reason the efficacy of the religious symbol is permeated by paradox: as a symbol, its power derives from its formal capacity to “re-present”, that is, to make present a particular spiritual content in relation to human experience; but as a religious symbol, its authenticity derives from its formal incapacity to “represent” a dimension of spirit that remains forever beyond the grasp of the art object. Hence, the religious symbol—by means of its own formal expressivenessmust consistently negate its artistic intention to embody the sacred.
- Ames-Lewis, Francis. “Art History or Stilkritik? Donatello’s Bronze David Reconsidered.” Art History 2 (1979): 139-56.
- —. “Donatello’s Bronze David and the Palazzo Medici Courtyard.” Renaissance Studies 3 (1982): 235-52.
- Arnheim, Rudolf. Art and Visual Perception. A Psychology of the Creative Eye.
- Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press, 1965.
- Augustine. The Confessions. Trans. R.S. Pine-Coffin. Harmondsworth: Penguin, 1961.
- Balthasar, Hans Urs von. The Qlory of the Lord: A Theological Aesthetics. Vol. 1.
- Seeing the Form. Trans. Erasmo Leira-Merikakis. Edinburgh: T&.T Clark, 1982.
- —. Mysterium paschale. Trans. Aidan Nichols, O.P. Edinburgh: T&.T Clark, 1990. Barocchi, Paolo, et. al., eds. Omaggio a Donatello: 1386-1986. Museo Nazionale del
- Bargello. Vol. 1. Donatello e la Storia del Museo. Firenze: Studio Per Edizione
- Scelte, 1985.
NOTES
- Janson favors the early date of 1430 since “almost every single decorative motif on the David has its counterpart in the San Croce Annunciation” (The Sculpture of Donatello 83). More recently, Sperling has adduced convincing evidence for a date between 1428-1430 (“Donatello’s Bronze ‘David’”).
- For general surveys of the controversy, see Janson, The Sculpture of Donatello 77-86; Herzner, especially 63-72; Ames-Lewis, “Donatello’s Bronze David”; and Pope-Hennessy, Donatello Sculptor 147.
- White has also noted this quality: “The hallmark of his genius in this particular aspect of his art is not merely his ability to give material expression to a state of mind or to a momentary psychological or spiritual drama, but his power, in so doing, to encapsulate the essence of a human personality and the central fact of an entire life story” (170).