(upbeat music)
- [Steve] We're in the Palazzo Strozzi,
in a special exhibition devoted
to the early Renaissance artist, Donatello.
Looking at a sculpture that is usually
in another Italian city, it was made to be part
of a baptismal font in the baptistry of Sienna.
- [Beth] And this scene shows the Feast of Herod.
From the gospel of Matthew we learn
when Herod's birthday came, the daughter of Herodias,
Salome, danced before the company and pleased Herod
so that he promised to give her whatever she might ask.
Prompted by her mother, she said,
"Give me the head of John the Baptist on a platter."
And the king was sorry but he had John beheaded
and his head was brought on a platter.
- [Steve] And that is precisely the moment
that we're seeing, John's head is on a platter
being presented to King Herod at the extreme left.
And we see Salome still in a dance like serpentine pose.
Her body almost like the curve of an ass,
showing that sensuality and Donatello's love
of the human body.
But it is that sensuality contrasted
with the horror of John's severed head,
it powers this image.
- [Beth] And so we could follow the story
in a continuous narrative that is we have several moments
of the story unfolding.
In the front, the presentation of the head to Herod,
in the middle ground, a musician who's playing
a stringed instrument perhaps to accompany Salome
for her dance,
and then we step back further and we see
the head of St. John being presented on a platter
to several figures.
Perhaps one of them is Herodias and Salome's mother
or Salome herself.
- [Steve] But all of this is wrought in bronze
that has been gilded that is covered
with a thin layer of gold so that the object sparkles.
- [Beth] Donatello is giving us this story
that's unfolding in such a dramatic and engaging way
that we can't help, but be drawn in.
All set within this very deep space
created by the use of linear perspective.
- [Steve] Donatello was a friend
of the architect Brunelleschi who had developed
one point linear perspective and had applied it to drawing.
Here Donatello applies it to sculpture
but its sculptural relief
that is almost like painting in bronze.
- [Beth] We think about relief sculpture creating space
by using high relief for the figures who are closest to us
and lower relief for the figures who are further away.
And Donatello is certainly doing that here
but he's spending so much attention
on that low flattened relief
that is creating that deep illusion into space.
We have this series of round Roman arches
at several levels that move back into space.
Part of the narrative, in fact unfolding in the background.
So what Donatello is doing is using the linear perspective
to help tell the narrative.
- [Steve] The composition is so unexpected.
Instead of having the main group in the center,
he's parted the main figures and pushed them
to the left and the right to expose the floor
so that the linear perspective
of the tiles can lead us back into space.
One of the figures is leaving the scene
perhaps too horrified by what they're seeing.
- [Beth] It is the drama of the moment,
the reaction of the figures
that is clearly most important to Donatello.
And so that rift in the center, this upside down triangle
that's formed between one figure on the left,
who gestures toward the head of St. John the Baptist saying,
"Look at what you've done!"
His face is in horror.
And then on the right side, the figure who pulls away
and covers his eyes, and even Salome herself.
Although in this graceful pose with drapery,
that looks like it comes right from ancient Roman sculpture,
that clings to her body and shows her movement,
even she seems to push her chin back
also perhaps pulling away from the site
of the head of St. John the Baptist.
- [Steve] So this violent emotional impact in the foreground
is contrast so strongly with the clarity and precision,
the cool geometry of the ancient Roman architecture,
those perfect verticals, those perfect semi-circles
which speak to a kind of rational
that speak to a kind of order in sharp distinction
with the disorder of human reaction, of human emotion.
What's fascinating is to think about this object
not here in the museum, but on the baptismal font
where baptisms are still performed.
This is an image of the death of John the Baptist.
And yet this is a place that infants are brought
to be baptized, a joyful moment
but one whose story reaches this horrid climax.
- [Beth] This story unfolding
within this realistic architecture figures that move
and gesture naturalistically and tell us this story
in a way that looks as though it's taking place
in our world.
(upbeat music)