DONATELLO. -(1386-1466.)

Donatello, son of Nicco1o di Betto Bardi, was born at Florence in 1386, and with the exception of Michael Angelo, may be considered the greatest of Florentine sculptors. He was a Tuscan to the core, as upright in his private life as he was gifted in his calling. Thoroughly grounded in the study of the antique, which he held in the deepest veneration, he at the same time succeeded in maintaining his own personal characteristics ; and though some of his works, notably a pates in bronze, forming part of the Martelli Collection in the South Kensington Museum, might be mistaken for some relic of ancient Greece at first sight, they have a distinctive impress which could only have been given them by a Florentine artist like him. I have dwelt at length more than once before upon the dramatic and splendid talents of Donatello, but he possesses a power and a nobility which cannot be too highly eulogized, his gifts only stopping short of the very highest genius. His works are almost infinite in their variety, and he may be classed with Dante and Machiavelli as among the most characteristic representatives of the genius of Florence. He was a man of culture and of letters, with a more extensive knowledge than the other great stone-carvers of his day ; and he was a general favorite with his brother artists, living under the same roof with Michelozzo, and sharing his labors. The story of how he assisted Nanni di Banco at Or San Michele was told in the preceding chapter; but it may be added that he was beloved by his pupils, for one of whom, Simone Ghini, he made a journey to Rome for the express purpose of assisting him to cast the bronze slab for the tomb of Martin V.

The great charm of Donatello is that his works appeal to the heart and feelings as much as they charm the eye. Few have possessed to an equal degree the knowledge of bow to obtain desired effects. A statue by him, which looked at in the studio appears monstrous and ill-proportioned, is the perfection of shape and outline when stood in the place for which it is intended.

Donatello was thoroughly versed in the science of practical perspective as applied to buildings. The famous bas-reliefs of the Bargello, intended for the balustrade of the organ-loft in the Duomo, the beauty of which cannot be fully appreciated when seen out of their place on a level with the eye, are a good instance of his perfect knowledge of the effect of height and distance. The bas-reliefs of the outer pulpit of the Prato Cathedral, from which the girdle of the Virgin is exhibited, afford another instance of this. There is an elasticity of movement and a vivacity about the gambols of the children which recall the words of Horace, "Nunc pede libero, pulsanda tellus." Donatello, in order to protect these bas-reliefs from possible injury, kept their level below that of the surrounding mouldings. In examining this pulpit it is best first to consider it as a whole, and then to take the separate details.

So varied and vast was Donatello's work that the mere list of his sculptures in San Antonio at Padua, with his equestrian statue of Gattamelata, forms a whole volume compiled by Herr Bode, Curator of the Berlin Museum and is a very interesting contribution to the history of art in Italy.

At seventeen years of age he went to Rome, being already an artist of some note, as he had been consulted by the Signoria on some questions of importance. He assisted Brunelleschi in several excavations., and it was at his instigation in later years that Cosimo the Elder formed a collection of antiquities. He spent several years at Rome, and one of his first works, on returning to his native city, was the "Annunciation of the Virgin" in the Cavalcanti Chapel of Santa Croce. There is much grace and nobility about this work, which is quite in his early manner, like the "St. Mark" in Or San Michele. The St. Peter" was of a later date (1411), and was executed about five years before the splendid statue of St. George.

It was between the years 1425 and 1427 that he executed the tomb of John XXIII. in the Baptistery of Florence (referred to in the chapter on the Medici), but he did not remain all the time in Florence, as in 1426 he erected the tombs of Cardinal Braneacci in the church of San Angelo at Naples, and of Bartolommeo Aragazzi at Montepulciano. At the end of 1427 he went to Siena, and did a bronze bas-relief for the font in the Baptistery ; and letters dated 1433 speak of him as being at Rome, where he was consulted about the tomb of Martin V. The pulpit of the Prato Cathedral dates from 1434, and there is nothing to show that he left Florence for the next ten years, where he was busily engaged upon statues for the Campanile, bas-reliefs for the balustrade of the organ-loft, the statue of "David," and a number of bas-reliefs, statues, terra-cotta busts, and bronzes, now disseminated among the various collections of Europe.

He devoted twelve years of hard work to the church of San Antonio of Padua and the statue of Gattamelata on the Piazza, which was the first equestrian statue cast in Italy in modern times. In 1444 we find hire Ferrara, to which he paid several visits, and it was about this time that he made an agreement to erect a bronze statue of Borso d'Este, though nothing ever came of it. The proof of his having been at Venice is to be found in the beautiful wooden statue of St. John over one of the altars of Santa Maria Gloriosa dei Frari. In 1456 and 1457 he was at Faenza, and this was his last excursion from Florence. On his return he modelled the niche at Or San Michele, in which was placed the group of "Tho Doubting Apostle" by Verrocchio ; and I must also mention among his other works the "Entombment," at South Kensington ; the " St. Sebastian," belonging to M. E. Andre, of Paris ; the bronzes presented to the Louvre by M. His de la Salle, and those in the Berlin Museum ; to say nothing of private collections. The "St. John " in the Duomo at Siena was also his handiwork, and the last few years of his life were devoted to the church of San Lorenzo, which was the Pantheon of the Medici family, for which he did the Four Evangelists in stucco, several busts of saints, the small bronze door near the altar of the sacristy, and the two bronze pulpits, which latter were, however, completed by his pupil Bertoldo after his death. Signs of decrepitude are to be observed in his last work, the statue of St. Louis of Toulouse, which formerly appeared above the porch of Santa, Croce. He died of an attack of paralysis on the 13th of March, 1466, after one of the most enviable careers in the history of art, and at his own special request was buried in San Lorenzo, by the side of his protectors and friends of the Medici family.