Is there a new Donatello work in Slovakia? From Florence comes a cold shower

There has been much discussion in recent days about the possible attribution to Donatello of a long-neglected marble bust found in a small museum in a small town in Slovakia: we are talking about a portrait of a young woman kept at the Spiš Museum in Levoča, which, according to the institute’s director, Mária Novotná, could be by Donatello. However, yesterday came the cold shower from experts at theOpera del Duomo in Florence. Let’s go in order, however.

The bust in question has long been thought to be just another 19th-century imitation: it is not uncommon to come across 19th-century marbles imitating Renaissance works. When Mária Novotná spotted Donatello’s name on the marble bust of a young woman in the museum’s collection, she sent it to theSlovak Academy of Sciences in Bratislava for further examination. According to the Slovak Spectator newspaper, the first to report the news, the experts who conducted the research, led by 19th-century sculpture specialist Marta Herucová, would be “almost certain” that the sculpture is an original by Donatello. And they believe it to be a portrait of the noblewoman Cecilia Gonzaga (Mantua, 1426 - 1451), daughter of the Marquis of Mantua, Gianfrancesco I Gonzaga, and Paola Malatesta (the young woman, who was not included in the family’s marriage policies, as was the fate of so many young women of the time who were not supposed to go as brides to scions of other families entered a convent in 1445 and remained there until the end of her days).

According to reconstructions, the work came to Slovakia through strong ties between the Gonzaga family of Mantua and the Csáky family, which previously owned the sculpture. The connection between the two families has been traced back to the 17th century, although it is unclear when the sculpture changed hands. The work has been preserved in the Csáky mansion in Spišsky Hrhov for centuries. After World War II, the mansion was turned into a reformatory for girls. There, the artwork became a? toy for schoolgirls, according to Novotná. The bust was rolled around like a ball and even made up. It was only in 1975 that the sculpture arrived at the Spiš Museum, where it was initially catalogued as a 19th-century imitation and left to languish in storage. Only by paying closer attention to the “Opus Donatelli” inscription on the base (and similar to that found in other works by Donatello) did Novotná begin to question the work’s true identity.

Most of the research into the authenticity of the Gonzaga bust has been conducted by art historian Marta Herucová, and this is where the... yellow relative to the role of the Opera del Duomo of Florence. In fact, some media outlets have reported that Herucová allegedly enlisted the help of the Opera del Duomo of Florence and Giovanni Serafini in particular (it was even said that the Slovak work would be compared with some known works by the artist found in Florence). But the Florentine institution has dryly denied any involvement: in particular, the Slovak scholars would only be accompanied on a visit aimed at a direct viewing of Donatello’s works preserved in the Santa Maria del Fiore complex. But no scholar affiliated with the institution has commented on the attribution.

“With regard to recent reports concerning the marble bust depicting the Italian noblewoman Cecilia Gonzaga preserved in the Spiš Museum in Levoča (Slovakia),” the institution announced in a note sent yesterday, “the Opera di Santa Maria del Fiore categorically denies that an opinion has ever been expressed on the attribution of the work to Donatello. In June 2022, the Opera di Santa Maria del Fiore welcomed scholars engaged in research on the bust, guiding them in direct observation of Donatello’s masterpieces preserved in the Cathedral, Baptistery and Museo dell’Opera del Duomo in Florence. During that occasion, a general conversation was held about Renaissance sculpture and the artist. In this regard, art historian Giovanni Serafini, an employee of the Opera di Santa Maria del Fiore, clarified the following: ’I have not expressed any opinion, not even informally, on the Donatello autography of the Levoča bust.’”

At present, the work under investigation has not yet been put on public display and can only be seen in a 3D scan. The bust is currently carefully guarded, and Slovak media speculated whether such a work would be safe in the country’s current museum system.

Is there a new Donatello work in Slovakia? From Florence comes a cold shower

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