Gattamelata: Condottiere as Patron

• In Event: Art in Venice and Padua: Distinctions and Cross-Currents I

Abstract

The fifteenth century Paduan art scene is illuminated by analyzing the patronage of Erasmo da Narni (1370-1443), known as Gattamelata. Famous today for Donatello’s bronze equestrian statue, in his time Gattamelata was a highly respected condottiere, also tightly connected to Paduan and Venetian political, religious, and literary leaders. His estate provided the funds for the bronze equestrian statue by the Florentine Donatello, a funerary chapel in the Santo honoring him and his son with matching tombs by a local artist, Gregorio de Allegretto, and with an altarpiece by Jacopo, Gentile, and Giovanni Bellini. Gattamelata’s legacy also underwrote the costs of a monumental reliquary chest in the Santo’s sacristy by the Paduan Bellano and contributed to the Santo’s choir-screen. This paper will investigate these projects showing the dynamic diversity which patrons drew in mid-century Padua.

Author

• Sarah Blake McHam, Rutgers University