The Life and Identity of Donatello Born as Donato di Niccolò di Betto Bardi, the man known to history as Donatello spent his life within the walls of Florence, Italy. He arrived in the world around 1386, a time when the city was beginning to reshape its own image through stone and bronze. His presence in the Florentine landscape was constant, marked by a steady hand and a focus on the physical reality of his subjects. He was an Italian Renaissance sculptor who understood the weight of the materials he handled, from the hardness of marble to the fluidity of wax. His work was not a solitary p…