{"id":209604,"date":"2025-10-13T10:31:13","date_gmt":"2025-10-13T10:31:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/209604\/"},"modified":"2025-10-13T10:31:13","modified_gmt":"2025-10-13T10:31:13","slug":"donatellos-bronze-horse-rides-through-padua-again","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/209604\/","title":{"rendered":"Donatello\u2019s bronze horse rides through Padua again"},"content":{"rendered":"

Almost 600 years ago, Donatello revolutionised the world of sculpture, reviving the grandeur of bronze equestrian statuary, with a monument that embodied the ideals of the Renaissance.<\/p>\n

Towering over a central square, the 11m-tall Gattamelata statue, completed in 1453, has been the pride of Padua, in northern Italy. Before last week, it had left its piazza only twice, for safekeeping during the two world wars.<\/p>\n

Now, Gattamelata has been moved indoors for restoration after centuries of corrosion. The monument was hoisted from its 8m plinth over two days last week in a \u20ac2 million operation funded by two US-based heritage organisations and relocated 70m away to a former museum. \u201cIt is the last Donatello<\/a> displayed outside in the entire world,\u201d Nicola Salvioli, a restorer, said.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

The statue was moved over a 48-hour period<\/p>\n

MARCO BORRELLI<\/p>\n

Cast in 36 pieces and weighing 450kg, the statue depicts Erasmo da Narni, a 15th-century condottiero nicknamed Gattamelata (\u201choneyed cat\u201d) for his stealthy attacks, sitting on a horse with one hoof on a cannonball.<\/p>\n

Concerns over \u201cbronze disease\u201d, in which chloride, oxygen and moisture form corrosive green spots, emerged in 2022, prompting experts to propose taking the original indoors and replacing it with a replica. <\/p>\n

The plan faced fierce criticism from Vittorio Sgarbi<\/a>, then a junior culture minister, who vowed to block the removal unless the statue\u2019s survival was at risk.<\/p>\n

Instead, scaffolding was erected for a preliminary analysis of its condition. Salvioli said that when it rained, a \u201csmall lake\u201d of water collected inside the horse\u2019s belly. He added that the heritage officials\u2019 rush to return monuments to their original locations in 1945 had caused it to become unbalanced, leaving the horse leaning on its front hooves.<\/p>\n

\"Workers<\/p>\n

The knight makes it safely into the building where it will be restored<\/p>\n

MARCO BORRELLI<\/p>\n

To remove the work, he said, it was harnessed and moved incrementally over 48 hours with hydraulic and manual equipment in a \u201csurgical\u201d operation to prevent bronze pieces becoming detached and the statue\u2019s stone base splitting. <\/p>\n

Now in the museum\u2019s grand former entrance, it awaits further analysis using georadar and ultrasound, partly to study Donatello\u2019s construction method including his use of silver and gold. <\/p>\n

Salvioli said the restoration could start within six months and take a year and a half. He added: \u201cWhen we are not working on Friday, Saturday and \u00adSundays, the space will be open to the public.\u201d <\/p>\n

While its long-term display location remains undecided, a museum setting would allow closer appreciation of Donatello\u2019s craftsmanship, Salvioli said. \u201cIt is rich in magnificent details just a few centimetres in size that cannot be seen when it towers above the square.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Almost 600 years ago, Donatello revolutionised the world of sculpture, reviving the grandeur of bronze equestrian statuary, with…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":209605,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[31],"tags":[76,354,355,49,48,356,75],"class_list":{"0":"post-209604","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-arts-and-design","8":"tag-arts","9":"tag-arts-and-design","10":"tag-artsanddesign","11":"tag-ca","12":"tag-canada","13":"tag-design","14":"tag-entertainment"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/209604","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=209604"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/209604\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/209605"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=209604"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=209604"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=209604"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}