DONATELLO
(b. ca. 1386, Firenze, d. 1466, Firenze)

Prophet Jeremiah

1423-26
Marble, height 191 cm
Museo dell'Opera del Duomo, Florence

The prophet is wrapped in a heavy garment that falls, like a Roman toga, in voluminous folds around his naked body. The way in which the garment was reproduced is so unusual for Donatello, who normally preferred vertical folds, that the possibility must be considered that the Jeremiah was a work produced in collaboration with another artist, such as Michelozzo.

Suggested listening (streaming mp3, 19 minutes):
Thomas Tallis: The Lamentations of Jeremiah