Sprite

Donatello

1432 · High-copper alloy, fire-gilt, brown natural patina where exposed · European Sculpture and Decorative Arts

In 1436 a fountain was furnished for a courtyard in the Florentine house of Cosimo de' Medici, long before it was transformed into the grandiose palace of today. Records show that a stonecutter, Betto d'Antonio, supplied the fountain and a painter, Antonio, was paid for gilding a spiritello (a sprite, sometimes with angelic overtones) that surmounted it. That spiritello was almost certainly this quirky baby. Its sculptor, closely familiar with Donatello's bronze angels made for the Baptistery of Siena in 1429, breezily mixed together traits of Mercury, the god of commerce beloved by the Medici, with those of Zephyr, the west wind that Florentines always welcome in May.

Artist

Donatello

Date

1432

Medium

High-copper alloy, fire-gilt, brown natural patina where exposed

Culture

Italian, Florence

Department

European Sculpture and Decorative Arts

Credit line

Purchase, Mrs. Samuel Reed Gift, Rogers Fund, by exchange, and Louis V. Bell Fund, 1983