Desiderio Da Settignano: Sculptor of Renaissance Florence

This long-awaited monograph is dedicated to one of the most noted masters of Florentine Renaissance sculpture. "Desiderio da Settignano" (ca. 1429/30-1464), like most sculptors before Michelangelo, was long overlooked by scholars, who focused their attention almost exclusively on Donatello, the great master of the quattrocento. And yet Desiderio, who may have begun his career in Donatello's workshop, became one of the most original and influential sculptors in Florence. His impact is clear in the numerous replicas of his "Virgin and Child" reliefs as well as copies of the "Bambino in the Basilica" of San Lorenzo. His work, showing an early interest in sfumato, may even have influenced the paintings of Leonardo da Vinci.Sweetness, strength, and luminosity are the principal qualities of Desiderio's oeuvre. The expressive power, emotion, lightness, and grace visible in his work affirm the place he now occupies not only in the history of sculpture but also in the history of art. This retrospective catalogue devoted to Desiderio da Settignano - published in conjunction with the exhibition organised by the Musee du Louvre in Paris, the Museo Nazionale del Bargello in Florence, and at the National Gallery of Art in Washington - invites us to discover or rediscover one of the most important sculptors of the Florentine Renaissance.