The Equestrian Statue of Gattamelata is an Italian Renaissance sculpture by Donatello, dating from 1453,[1] today in the Piazza del Santo in Padua, Italy.

It portrays the condottiere Erasmo da Narni, known as "Gattamelata", who served mostly under the Republic of Venice, which ruled Padua at the time.

After Erasmo of Narni's death in 1443, according to John Julius Norwich, the Republic of Venice, as a sign of gratitude and respect, paid for a sculpture in his honor.

Instead of portraying the soldier as larger-than-life, as in the classical Equestrian Statue of Marcus Aurelius in Rome, where a sort of hierarchy of size demonstrates the subject's power, Donatello used emotion, position, and symbolism to convey the same message.

The depiction of force of character and the reference to the power of real people flows with the Renaissance themes of individualism and humanism.

The horse's front left hoof rests on an orb, a cannonball, which symbolizes military advances, representing his power of the Venician army.

The latter is portrayed as a real man, his armor a badge of status; this ruler, however, appears almost deflated, lost in the carefully sculpted drapery that covers him.

A comparison between the sculpture and that of Marcus Aurelius' equestrian statue shows how closely Donatello looked to classical art and its themes.

Another element that Donatello took from ancient sculpture is the trick of adding a support (a sphere) under the raised front leg of the horse, which appears also in the lost Regisole of Pavia, a bronze equestrian statue from either the late Western Roman Empire, the Ostrogothic Kingdom or the Byzantine Exarchate of Ravenna.