NO RENAISSANCE statue is more famous than Michelangelo’s David, carved at the start of the 16th century. Yet the five-metre-tall nude owes a debt to a much smaller, bronze sculpture that Donato di Niccolo di Betto Bardi, or Donatello, created roughly half a century earlier. This David, a beguiling figure with a sensual, curved body, stands on the severed head of Goliath. One hand grasps the shaft of a sword; the other cups a pouch of stones. It was the first free-standing male nude since antiquity.

A plaster cast of Donatello’s David, made in 1885, is one of around 130 busts, bas-reliefs, carvings, drawings and paintings on display at the Victoria and Albert Museum (V&A) in London, the first major exhibition devoted to Donatello in Britain. Six centuries after he worked, the Florentine artist is experiencing something of a renaissance. He was the subject of an extensive show at the Fondazione Palazzo Strozzi and Bargello Museum in Florence last year, which marked the first time that four of his precious bronzes were moved from their religious settings. The State Museums in Berlin recently presented his works too. Together, these related but distinct exhibitions form a magnificent tribute to one of the most important sculptors in Western art history.

Donatello was born into a family of clothworkers in 1386. As a teenager, documents suggest, he trained as a goldsmith, like many artists of the era. The techniques he learned—moulding wax models, casting objects in precious metals, and embellishing—were valuable during the 1400s, or Quattrocento. Workshops were full of artisans working on decorations for Florence’s monumental cathedral, the pinnacle of the city’s creative aspirations. Donatello’s skills attracted the attention of Lorenzo Ghiberti, an early Renaissance master, who employed him to work on the 28 brass reliefs that would adorn the north entrance of the Baptistry. Ghiberti paid his assistant handsomely, an early indication of his talent.