On the square in front of the Basilica di Sant'Antonio stands one of the most important sculptures of the early Renaissance: Donatello's bronze equestrian statue of the Venetian condottiero Erasmo da Narni, known by his nickname Gattamelata ("the honeyed cat"). Cast in 1453, it was the first life-size bronze equestrian statue made in Europe since antiquity, and a deliberate echo of the Marcus Aurelius on the Capitoline in Rome.
Donatello spent ten years in Padua working largely on the basilica's high altar, and the Gattamelata is the public-facing summary of his time here. Bronze, scale, naturalism, the dignity of an aging condottiero on a powerful warhorse — everything that would matter for Renaissance equestrian sculpture is already worked out in this single object.