Donatello work location Florence
Both Donatello and Brunelleschi returned to Florence in early 1401, in time for Brunelleschi to take part in the famous competition for the Baptistery doors, often seen as the start of Florentine Renaissance sculpture. Seven sculptors were invited to submit trial panels, for which they were paid; Vasari's Life of Brunelleschi wrongly claims that Donatello was one of them, but they were all more experienced figures.  The unexpected result declared by the 34 judges was that the entries by two young Florentines, Lorenzo Ghiberti and Brunelleschi, were the best. An attempt was made to get the two to share the commission, but amid bitter recriminations that lasted for years, this failed and Ghiberti was given the whole commission.Any part played by Donatello, presumably assisting Brunelleschi with his trial piece, is unknown.  After the final result in late 1402, or early 1403, they seem to have left for Rome together, staying until at least the next year, to study the artistic and architectural remains left by Ancient Rome, then very abundant, though often still buried.  They were very early in this effectively archaeological pursuit, which included measuring remains, and hiring labourers to excavate.  The main source for this period is the biography of Brunelleschi by Antonio Manetti (1423–1497), who knew both men. Vasari just repeats a shorter version of Manetti's account, according to which both men were able to support themselves by jobs for Roman goldsmiths, which probably represented important training for Donatello.  Perhaps they were also able to sell excavated sculptures. Brunelleschi subsequently mostly remained in Rome, becoming a highly important architect, while Donatello returned to Florence to pursue his career in sculpture.
Donatello is recorded as working as an apprentice, and for the last few months on a salary, in the studio of Lorenzo Ghiberti in 1404-1407, apparently working on the workshop's main project, the bronze doors of the Florence Baptistery, and from 1406 on stone carving on the large surround to the cathedral's Porta della Mandorla, a large project that was still some years from completion. He was paid in November 1406 for a figure of a prophet on the door, but the identification of this is not certain; it may be one now in the Museo dell' Opera del Duomo, the cathedral museum.Last years
After returning from Siena he remained in Florence until his death in 1466.  He was evidently unable to work for a period, of uncertain extent, before his death; Vasari records this, but without any timing.  But, with the help of assistants, he embarked on a major project in these years, reliefs that now form two pulpits for San Lorenzo, Florence, the burial place of the Medicis, though it is possible that this was not the function originally intended.  They were only assembled in this way in the following century, and the panel sizes vary.At least the designs of most of these are thought to have by Donatello himself, and the modelling of many parts; the precise attribution of the reliefs remains much discussed.  Some appear to have been cast from unfinished modelli, and there is considerable stylistic disparity between panels, and sometimes sections of the same panel.  The treatment of the spaces in which the scenes are set is especially varied and experimental, part of "the absolutely uncompromising use of every possible means to express emotion and suffering" that marks these works.Gallery
Selected works
2020 discovery
In 2020 art historian Gianluca Amato, as part of his research on wooden crucifixes crafted between the late thirteenth and the first half of the sixteenth century for his doctoral thesis at the University of Naples Federico II, discovered that the crucifix of the church of Sant'Angelo in Legnaia, a suburb of Florence, was sculpted by Donatello.
This discovery has been evaluated historically, considering that the work belonged to the Compagnia di Sant'Agostino that was based in the oratory adjacent to the mother church of Sant'Angelo a Legnaia. Silvia Bensì performed restoration work on the crucifix.
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