Donatello is called to Padua in 1443…
1443 CE
Donatello is called to Padua in 1443 by the heirs of the famous condottiero Erasmo da Narni, who had died that year.
His equestrian statue of Erasmo (better known as the Gattamelata, or "Honey-Cat"), when completed in 1450 and placed in the square facing the Basilica of St. Anthony, will be the first example of such a monument since ancient times. (Other equestrian statues, from the fourteenth century, had not been executed in bronze and had been placed over tombs rather than erected independently, in a public place.)
This work is the prototype for other equestrian monuments executed in Italy and Europe in the following centuries.