NEW YORK, NY.- Save Venice and Friends of Florence announced their collaboration for the restoration of Donatello’s Equestrian Monument to Gattamelata. This bronze masterpiece, dating to the mid-15th century, stands at the front of the Basilica of Saint Anthony in Padua and is in urgent need of conservation work. Thanks to Save Venice with lead funders Jon and Barbara Landau and Friends of Florence with the support of Stacy Simon, and with the collaboration of the Pontifical Delegation of the Basilica di Sant'Antonio in Padova, conservator Nicola Salvioli, and engineers from the EXPIN and R-STRUCT laboratory, the delicate restoration of the equestrian monument and its stone base can begin in 2025.

“In more than fifty years of sponsoring restoration treatments, Save Venice has had the privilege of preserving many artworks of international stature. The next masterpiece in this long line – and among the most famous sculptures in western art – is Donatello’s Gattamelata equestrian monument in Padua. Our organization has long been committed to Donatello, having sponsored the conservation of his Saint John the Baptist at the Basilica dei Frari in 1972 and its maintenance this year. The generosity of our donors means that Save Venice is now able to preserve great works of art not only in Venice, but also throughout the Veneto region. We are grateful to Jon and Barbara Landau, whose extraordinary support makes it possible for Save Venice to join Friends of Florence to conserve the Gattamelata, a landmark of the Italian Renaissance.” --- Frederick Ilchman, Chairman of Save Venice

Donatello’s statue of Gattamelata is the first surviving life-size equestrian statue to be cast in bronze since classical antiquity. Fashioned between 1447 and 1453, it occupies an eminent position on the square in front of the Basilica of Saint Anthony in Padua, where Erasmo da Narni called "Gattamelata," the captain general of the Venetian army, was buried in 1458. A diagnostic campaign has revealed that the statue's bronze surfaces present forms of deterioration common to monuments in copper alloy that are exposed to the elements, including what is known as “bronze disease," a form of corrosion that affects copper alloys. In this process, cuprous chloride reacts with water to form hydrochloric acid, which attacks and corrodes the bronze in its turn, thus speeding up the copper’s deterioration. Possibly on account of the difficulties involved in casting an equestrian statue of this size, Donatello split the monument into thirty-six pieces, thus increasing the structural instability of both the horse and its rider. The base, in trachyte and Istrian stone, has also deteriorated due both to its constant exposure to the elements and to the corrosion of the cement mortar applied during an earlier restoration.