David (Donatello) Roman type of mature, bearded head". Donatello's bronze statue of David (circa 1440s) is famous as the first unsupported standing work of bronze cast during the Renaissance, and the first freestanding nude male sculpture made since antiquity. It depicts David with an enigmatic smile, posed with his foot on Goliath's severed head just after defeating the giant. The youth is completely naked, apart from a laurel-topped hat and boots, bearing the sword of Goliath. The creation of the work is entirely undocumented, and it has been given a range of datings. According to one theory, it was commissioned by the
Equestrian statue of Gattamelata the earliest surviving Renaissance equestrian statue and the first to reintroduce the grandeur of Classical equestrian portraiture. After its conception, the statue served as a precedent for later sculptures honoring military heroes. The statue, as were all bronze statues of this time, was made using the lost wax method. The statue sits on a pedestal, and both the condottiero and his horse are portrayed in life size. Instead of portraying the soldier as larger-than-life, as in the classical equestrian statue of Marcus Aurelius in Rome, where a sort of hierarchy of size demonstrates the subject's power, Donatello used emotion, position,