<p style="text-align: left"><strong><img class="aligncenter" src="http://www.southallegheny.org/webpages/jbradley/photos/1102243/DavidDonatello.jpg" alt="" width="216" height="404" /></strong><a href="http://www.southallegheny.org/webpages/jbradley/photos/1102243/DavidDonatello.jpg">http://www.southallegheny.org/webpages/jbradley/photos/1102243/DavidDonatello.jpg</a></p>
<p style="text-align: left">Donatello contributed two statuettes of Virtues, austerely beautiful figures whose style points toward the Virgin and angel of the Santa Croce Annunciation, and three nude <a id="ref28430" rel="nofollow" name="ref28430"></a>putti, or child angels (one of which was stolen and is now in the Berlin museum). These putti, evidently influenced by Etruscan bronze figurines, prepared the way for the bronze <a id="ref28431" rel="nofollow" name="ref28431"></a>David, the first large-scale, free-standing nude statue of the Renaissance. Well-proportioned and superbly poised, it was conceived independently of any architectural setting. Its harmonious calm makes it the most classical of Donatello’s works. The statue was undoubtedly done for a private patron, but his identity is in doubt. Its recorded history begins with the wedding of Lorenzo the Magnificent in 1469, when it occupied the centre of the courtyard of the Medici palace in Florence. After the expulsion of the <a id="ref28432" rel="nofollow" name="ref28432"></a>Medici in 1496, the statue was placed in the courtyard of the PalazzoVecchio.</p>

<div style="text-align: left">Whether the “David” was commissioned by the Medici or not, Donatello worked for them (1433–43), producing sculptural decoration for the old sacristy in San Lorenzo, the Medici church. Works there included 10 large reliefs in coloured stucco and two sets of small bronze doors, which showed paired saints and apostles disputing with each other in vivid and even violent fashion.</div>