Donatello in Motion – A Spiritello Rediscovered, at the Moretti Williams Gallery, 24 East 80th Street, New York City, CLOSING November 25

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Donatello, Spiritello. Wood, gesso, and gilt. Barbara and Jon Landau Collection, formerly Andrew Butterfield Fine Arts. Photo Maggie Nimkin, New York.

Donatello, Spiritello. Wood, gesso, and gilt. Barbara and Jon Landau Collection, formerly Andrew Butterfield Fine Arts. Photo Maggie Nimkin, New York.

Donatello in Motion – A Spiritello Rediscovered, Andrew Butterfield Fine Arts, at the Moretti Williams Gallery, 24 East 80th Street, New York City, CLOSING November 25

In an art world teeming with crass nouveaux riches grabbing trophies at auction for insane prices, once prominent dealers in prison, Art Basel Miami Beach, and the “Da Vinci” industry, it is deeply comforting to find an enterprise like Andrew Butterfield‘s refreshingly sober, but gorgeous and energizing exhibition of a single work of art: a spiritello (more commonly called by its 16th century name, “putto“) which he found, eventually purchased, and now presents to the public with a carefully researched, modestly proposed attribution to Donatello (Donato di Niccolo di Betto Bardi, Florence, 1386 or 1387 to 1466), the greatest of Italian sculptors of the Renaissance—I have always preferred his work to Michelangelo’s. As a teenager I made my way around the David in the Bargello with my father, and we both agreed it was superior to Michelangelo’s, and, as much as I’ve admired Michelangelo’s sculpture, and written about it, I still consider Donatello to the greater of the two. If Dr. Butterfield’s exhibition achieves nothing else, it pinpoints the reasons why Donatello is in fact the greatest and most influential sculptor of the Italian Renaissance.

In a nutshell, this sculpture of a flying spiritello (later called a putto), striding through the air, is one of a pair, its pendant now in the Museum of Fine Arts Boston, is to be considered the work of Donatello because of its very high quality, its affinities with similar figures in the work of Donatello, e.g. another spiritello on the Cantoria he made for the Florentine Duomo, the bronze David, and other figures, and the way it fits into Donatello’s practice and style in the late 1430s. The impeccable catalogue contains three essays by eminent authorities which support the attribution and situate the work in the history of art and Donatello’s career. After Andrew Butterfield’s own preface, first comes Francesco Caglioti with a detailed study of the spiritello’s specific relationship to Donatello’s established work. Then David Ekserdjian provides a more expansive reflection on the position of the spiritello in the artist’s career, expertly outlined in what I consider to be by far the best short summary of Donatello’s career I’ve read. Finally, Eike D. Schmidt, Director of the Galleria degli Uffizi, gives a wide-ranging appreciation of the sculptured figure in movement, including contemporary sculpture and cinema. This sort of triangulation is a healthy exercise in the practice of connoisseurship, because a correctly attributed work will both fit and resonate within the strict “philological” evidence (as Italian scholars like to call it, i.e. what one sees in the object and comparables and reads in the documentation), the development of the technique and style of the artist in question, and finally the broad cultural issues touched by the work. Then, to take connoisseurship on to a further stage in art historical inquiry, the newly found and studied object will inevitably open a window into the artistic activity and direction of its time and provide us with the evidence to answer broader questions. In this case, the spiritello provides a new concrete example of an antique motif which was revived in the first half of the fifteenth century as a decorative element in architecture, relief sculpture and statues, as well as in paintings and prints. Charles Dempsey has already discussed the appearance and evolution of the putto—the term current in the 16th century—in detail, with his usual learning and intelligence, but, since few of the sculpted examples have survived, the appearance of single work of such outstanding quality is extremely important.

This podcast interview with Dr. Butterfield will bring all this to life for you, as it did for the fascinated visitors to the gallery, who gathered around us, as we discussed the spiritello. (You will hear their questions, comments, and words of appreciation towards the end of the podcast.) You may hear shifts in the acoustics and our voices move from one channel to the other, as Dr. Butterfield and I move around the sculpture. My own observations will also give you an idea of my own highly favorable respnse to the work.

The catalogue, with essays by Francesco Caglioti, David Ekserdjian, and Eike D. Schmidt, is available at the gallery or from andrewbutterfield.com.

Listen to the interview:

Illustrations:

Donatello in Motion - A Spiritello Rediscovered

Donatello, Butterfield Spiritello - I
Donatello, Butterfield Spiritello - I
Donatello, Butterfield Spiritello - II
Donatello, Butterfield Spiritello - II
Donatello, Butterfield Spiritello - III
Donatello, Butterfield Spiritello - III
Donatello, Butterfield Spiritello - IV
Donatello, Butterfield Spiritello - IV
Donatello, Butterfield Spiritello - V
Donatello, Butterfield Spiritello - V
Donatello, Butterfield Spiritello - VI
Donatello, Butterfield Spiritello - VI
Donatello, Butterfield Spiritello - VII
Donatello, Butterfield Spiritello - VII
Donatello, Butterfield Spiritello (Detail: upper back)
Donatello, Butterfield Spiritello (Detail: upper back)
Donatello, Spiritello, Museum of Fine Arts Boston
Donatello, Spiritello, Museum of Fine Arts Boston
Donatello, Cantoria, Museo dell'Opera del Duomo, Florence
Donatello, Cantoria, Museo dell'Opera del Duomo, Florence
Andrea del Castagno, Putto Bearing Garland, from the Room of the Famous Men and Women, Villa Carducci, Legnaia
Andrea del Castagno, Putto Bearing Garland, from the Room of the Famous Men and Women, Villa Carducci, Legnaia
Anonymous (Roman). 'Garland Sarcophagus,' 150-180. Dokimeion marble. Walters Art Museum (23.29): Acquired by Henry Walters with the Massarenti Collection, 1902.
Anonymous (Roman). 'Garland Sarcophagus,' 150-180. Dokimeion marble. Walters Art Museum (23.29): Acquired by Henry Walters with the Massarenti Collection, 1902.
Roman Sarcophagus, Camposanto, Pisa
Roman Sarcophagus, Camposanto, Pisa
Running Eros, Hellenistic, bronze, Morgan Library
Running Eros, Hellenistic, bronze, Morgan Library
North Sacristy, called "delle Messe," Cattedrale di Santa Maria del Fiore (Duomo), Florence
North Sacristy, called "delle Messe," Cattedrale di Santa Maria del Fiore (Duomo), Florence
Jean Fouquet, from the Heures d'Étienne Chevalier, Musée Condé, Chantilly
Jean Fouquet, from the Heures d'Étienne Chevalier, Musée Condé, Chantilly
Butterfield Spiritello (Detail: torso)
Butterfield Spiritello (Detail: torso)
Donatello, David, bronze, Museo del Bargello, Florence
Donatello, David, bronze, Museo del Bargello, Florence
Butterfield Spiritello (Detail: left arm)
Butterfield Spiritello (Detail: left arm)
Donatello, David, bronze, Museo del Bargello, Florence (Detail: left arm)
Donatello, David, bronze, Museo del Bargello, Florence (Detail: left arm)
Butterfield Spiritello (Detail: toes of left foot)
Butterfield Spiritello (Detail: toes of left foot)
Butterfield Spiritello (Detail: toes of right foot)
Butterfield Spiritello (Detail: toes of right foot)
Donatello, Penitent Magdalene, wood, Museo dell'Opera del Duomo, Florence
Donatello, Penitent Magdalene, wood, Museo dell'Opera del Duomo, Florence
Donatello, St. John the Baptist, S. Maris Gloriosa dei Frari, Venice
Donatello, St. John the Baptist, S. Maris Gloriosa dei Frari, Venice
Andrea del Verrocchio, Putto Poised on a Globe, Italian, 1435 - 1488, probably 1480, unbaked clay, National Gallery of Art, Andrew W. Mellon Collection
Andrea del Verrocchio, Putto Poised on a Globe, Italian, 1435 - 1488, probably 1480, unbaked clay, National Gallery of Art, Andrew W. Mellon Collection
About the author

Michael Miller

Michael Miller, Editor and Publisher of New York Arts and The Berkshire Review, an International Journal for the Arts, was trained as a classicist and art historian at Harvard and Oxford, worked in the art world for many years as a curator and dealer, and contributed reviews and articles to Bostonia, Master Drawings, Drawing, Threshold, and North American Opera Journal, as well as numerous articles for scholarly and popular periodicals. He has taught courses in classics, the English language, and art history at Oberlin, Rutgers, New York University, the New School, and Williams. Currently, when he is not at work on The Berkshire Review and New York Arts, he writes fiction, pursues photography, and publishes scholarly work. In 2011 he contributed an introductory essay to Leonard Freed: The Italians / exh. cat. Io Amo L’Italia, exhibition at Le Stelline, Milan, and wrote the revised the section on American opera houses in The Grove Dictionary of American Music. He is currently at work on a libretto for a new opera by Lewis Spratlan, Midi, an adaptation of Euripides’ Medea set in the French West Indies, ca. 1930.

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