Voids matter: Donatello’s lamentation

Donatello’s small bronze relief of the Lamentation, now in theVictoria and Albert Museum, London, is one of the most movingand expressive masterpieces in his career. The bronze is castwith unfi nished surfaces as Donatello sometimes favored, particularlyin his late sculpture, but nowhere else did he - or anyother Renaissance sculptor - deliberately cut out voids betweenthe fi gures. This essay will offer new insights into the underlyingdevotional reasons and the visual sources for this break with tradition.It will also suggest that the bronze relief was never intendedto be a panel for the portals of Siena Cathedral, as sometimesargued, but was instead created for private worship..