found it so perfectly executed, that feeling himself conquered, full of astonishment, and, as it were startled out of himself, he dropped the hands which were holding up his apron, wherein he had placed the purchases, when the whole fell to the ground, eggs, cheese, and other things, all broken to pieces and mingled together. But Donato, not recovering from his astonishment, remained still gazing in amazement and like one out of his wits when Filippo arrived, and inquired, laughing, “What hast thou been about, Donato? and what dost thou mean us to have for dinner, since thou hast overturned everything? ” “I, for my part,” replied Donato, “have had my share of dinner for to-day; if thou must needs have thine, take it. But enough said: to thee it has been given to represent the Christ; to me, boors only.”[1]
In the church of San Giovanni in the same city, Donato executed the sepulchral monument of the pope, Giovanni Coscia, who had been deposed from the pontificate by the Council of Constance. The monument to Coscia was erected at the cost of Cosimo de’ Medici,[2] who was the intimate friend of the deposed pontiff. For this tomb, Donato executed the figure of the departed pope in gilded bronze, with those of Hope and Charity, in marble, all with his own hand; but the figure of Faith[3] was done by his pupil Michelozzo. In the same church, and opposite to the work just described, is a figure of Santa Maria Maddalena, executed in wood, which is extremely beautiful and admirably finished: the penitent is seen consumed and exhausted by her rigid fastings and abstinence, insomuch that every part exhibits the perfection of an anatomical study, most accurately represented in all its parts.[4] In the Mercato Vecchio, on a co-
- ↑ The crucifix of Brunellesco is still in Santa Croce, in a chapel be longing to the Bardi family, at the upper end of the north aisle. See Cicognara, ii, pi. 5, vol. 4, p. 88, for plates of these two works, with a comparison of their respective merits.—Schorn.
- ↑ Not by Cosimo de’ Medici, but by the executors of the will of the
pope, Baldassare Coscia (John XXIII). The inscription on the tomb
is as follows:—
“joannes quondam papa xxiii, obiit florentie anno domini
mccccxviii, xi kalendas januarii.”See Del Migliore, Firenze Illustrata.
- ↑ See Cicognara, ii, pi. 10. —Schorn.
- ↑ Now placed over an altar between the central door of the chureh and that opposite to the Bigallo. This work also is engraved by Cicognara, ii, pi. 6.— Ibid.
