Donatello Carves Saint George for Orsanmichele

1408

The young Florentine sculptor produced a marble warrior saint for a niche on the grain exchange church, commissioned by the Guild of Armorers. The figure stood alert, weight balanced forward on the balls of his feet, as though deciding whether to draw his sword or merely wait. It was the first freestanding Renaissance sculpture to convey interior psychological life through posture alone, and it announced Donatello's revolution in stone.