sketched as we have before said, that in looking at them one almost believes them really to live and move.[1] It may indeed be truly said of this master, that he effected as much by the superiority of his judgment as by the skill of his hand; seeing that many works are produced which appear very beautiful in the work-rooms where they are executed, but which, when taken thence and placed in another situation, in a different light or higher position, present a much changed aspect, and turn out to be the reverse of what they appeared. Donato, on the contrary, treated his figures in such a manner, that while in the rooms where they were executed they did not produce one-half the effect, which he had in fact secured to them, and which they exhibited when placed in the positions for which they had been calculated. For the new sacristy of Santa Maria del Fiore, Donatello gave the design of those boys who support the festoons, which decorate the frieze;[2] as also that of the figures executed in the circular window beneath the cupola. The subject is the Coronation of Our Lady, and the design of the work is greatly superior to that of the paintings in the other windows, as is clearly obvious.[3] Donato also produced the statue of St. Peter, still to be seen in San Michele, in Orto, in the same city, (Florence); an admirable figure, full of spirit,[4] which he executed for the Guild of Butchers;[5] with the figure of San
- ↑ See ante, the life of Luca della Robbia. The later Florentine commentators, quoting Rumohr, cite a decree of the Superintendents of the Duomo and the Syndics of the Guild of Wool-staplers, b}r which Donatello is commissioned to execute two doors of bronze, for the two new sacristies of the Florentine Cathedral. But Donatello being prevented “by sufficient causes” from proceeding with these doors, one of them was given to Luca della Robbia, who completed it in company with Michelozzo and Bartolommeo; the other still remains to be done.
- ↑ They are executed in the graceful manner which distinguishes that in the chapel of the Cavalcanti in Santa Croce.— Masselli.
- ↑ The painted glass of the other windows has been replaced by clear glass, in contravention of the founder’s wishes, “to give the church more light.” —Ibid.
- ↑ This figure still retains its place.
- ↑ The construction of Or San Michele was completed at the cost of the principal Guilds of Florence; and in the foundations, laid 29th July 1337, were placed gold and silver coins, with the following inscription: — Ut magnijicentia Populi Flor. artium et artificum ostendatur. Thence it was that every Guild resolved to erect a statue of its patron saint, either of bronze or marble, in the niches of the external walls.
