tolommeo Gondi, of whom we have already spoken in the life of Giotto, possesses a figure of Our Lady in mezzo-rilievo by the hand of Donato, which is finished with so much love and diligence, that it is scarcely possible to imagine anything better; nor will it be readily conceived with what grace and lightness the master has treated the ornaments of the head, or the elegance which he has imparted to the vestments of this figure.[1] Messer Lelio Torelli also,[2] first auditor and secretary to the lord duke, a no less judicious lover of all the sciences, talents, and honourable vocations, than excellent as a lawyer, has a marble figure of the Virgin in his possession which is likewise by Donatello. But fully to narrate the life and enumerate the works executed by this master, would necessitate a longer story than we have proposed to ourselves in writing the lives of our artists, seeing that he occupied himself with so many things; giving his attention not only to works of importance,[3] of which we have spoken sufficiently, but also to the smallest matters connected with art. He frequently executed the arms of families, for example, placing them over the chimney-pieces, or on the fronts of the houses of the citizens, as may still be seen in the house of the Sommai, which is opposite to that of the baker, della Vacca, where there is a most beautiful specimen of this kind: he made a chest or sarcophagus also, for the family of the Martelli, in the form of a cradle of wicker-work; this was intended for a tomb, and is deposited beneath the church of San Lorenzo, no tombs of any kind being allowed to appear above, or in the church itself—the epitaph of that of Cosimo de’ Medici is alone excepted, and the entrance even of this is placed below, like that of the others.[4] It is said, that Simone,[5] the brother of Donato, having prepared the model for the sepul-
- ↑ Neither of this Virgin, nor of that next mentioned, have wo any trace.—I.
- ↑ A man of letters and legist, who edited the Pandects, after the famous Pisan (now Florentine) Codex.
- ↑ Masselli enumerates many others: among them, a St. John the Baptist, in marble; an adult figure, much attenuated, and engraved by Cicognara, but with some expression of doubt as to its authenticity.
- ↑ These tombs are still in their place. —Masselli.
- ↑ See his life, with that of Filarete which follows.—Ibid.
antique; others—among whom is Lanzi—affirm it to be modern. The latter informs us that it is placed in the Gallery, in the hall of the modern bronzes.
