Donnacona

“ Indians came swarming from the shores, paddled their canoes about the ships, and clambered to the decks to gaze in bewilderment at the novel scene, and listen to the story of their travelled countrymen, marvellous in their ears as a visit to another planet. Cartier received them kindly, listened to the long harangue of the great chief Donnacona, regaled him with bread and wine; and, when relieved at length of his guests, set forth in a boat to explore the river above. ”

“ This commission, and the reliefs and figures for the high altar, kept Donatello in Padua for ten years, though during that time he visited Venice (where he carved the wooden “St John” at the Frari) and probably Mantua, Ferrara and Modena. At least, he was in communication with of Borso d’Este of Modena about a project for an equestrian statue, and had to give expert opinion about two equestrian statues at Ferrara. In his workshop in Padua he gathered around him quite a small army of assistants, stone-carvers, metal-workers, painters, gilders and bronze-casters. ”

“ For a convent of nuns, in Padua, Donatello executed a San Sebastiano, in wood, in compliance with the entreaties of a chaplain, their friend, who was a Florentine, and one of his own intimates. This chaplain brought Donato a figure of the saint, old and very ugly, belonging to the nuns, begging that he would make the new statue like that. The master, desiring to oblige the chaplain and the nuns, took pains to imitate their model; but, rude and ugly as the figure he had to copy was, Donato could not do otherwise than manifest the excellence of his art in his accustomed manner. ”

“ For the Guild of Armourers, Donatello executed a most animated figure of St. George, in his armour. The brightness of youthful beauty, generosity, and bravery shine forth in his face; his attitude gives evidence of a proud and terrible impetuosity; the character of the saint is indeed expressed most wonderfully, and life seems to move within that stone. It is certain that in no modern figure has there yet been seen so much animation, nor so life-like a spirit in marble, as nature and art have combined to produce by the hand of Donato in this statue. ”

“ Whereupon Filippo, who was exceedingly frank, replied, that Donato appeared to him to have placed a Clown on the cross, and not a figure resembling that of Jesus Christ, whose person was delicately beautiful, and in all its parts the most perfect form of man that had ever been born. Donato hearing himself censured where he had expected praise, and more hurt than he was perhaps willing to admit, replied, “If it Were as easy to execute a work as to judge it, my figure would appear to thee to be Christ and not a boor; but take wood, and try to make one thyself.” ”

“ Having therefore departed from Padua, he passed through Venice on his return to Florence, and, as a mark of his consideration for the Florentines residing there, he left them the gift of a San Giovanni Batista, for their chapel in the church of the Friars Minors, [52] carved by himself, in wood, with infinite study and care. In the city of Faenza, also, Donatello executed a San Giovanni and a San Girolamo, which are no less esteemed than are the other works of this master. ”

“ Messer Antonio de’ Nobili also, who was administrator of his excellency the duke, had a work in marble by the hand of Donato in his house, and in this is a half-length figure of Our Lady, which is so beautiful, that Messer Antonio prized it as much as all his wealth: nor is it less valued by Giulio his son, a young man of singular excellence and judgment, the friend of artists and of all distinguished men. In the house of Giovan Battista d’Agnol Doni, a Florentine gentleman, there is moreover a Mercury in metal by Donato, the height one braccio and a half ”

“ Donato, who was called Donatello by his relatives and wrote his name thus on some of his works, was born in Florence in the year 1403. Devoting himself to the arts of design, he was not only a very rare sculptor and a marvellous statuary, but also a practised worker in stucco, an able master of perspective, and greatly esteemed as an architect; and his works showed so great grace, design, and excellence, that they were held to approach more nearly to the marvellous works of the ancient Greeks and Romans than those of any other craftsman whatsoever. ”

“ By a pleasant tactful touch the designer of the modern Donatello monument in S. Lorenzo has followed the master's lead.
Almost everything of Donatello's that one sees is in turn the best; but standing before this lovely work one is more than commonly conscious of being in the presence of a wonderful creator. The Virgin is wholly unlike any other woman, and She is surprising and modern even for Donatello with his vast range. The charming terra-cotta boys above are almost without doubt from the same hand, but they cannot have been made for this monument. ”

“ Among the disciples of Donato, properly so called, must be numbered a certain Giovanni da Pisa, whom Donatello, according to the Anonimo of the sixteenth century, published by Morelli, had with him in Padua, and by whom there is an excellent alto-rilievo in terra-cotta, in a chapel of the church of the Eremitani in that city, of which Cicognara has given an engraving, —Masselli. ↑ In the collection of drawings of the Florentine Gallery, there is a beautiful head of a child by Donatello; it is in water-colours on blue paper; the high lights are white. ”

“ Whatever we may think of the artist, our admiration is commanded by the craftsman.
The Second Visit to Rome.
During the year 1433, when Florence enjoyed the luxury of driving Cosimo de' Medici into exile, Donatello went to Rome in order to advise Simone Ghini about the tomb of Pope Martin V.—temporum suorum filicitas, as the epitaph says. [113] This visit to Rome, which is not contested, like the visit thirty years earlier, did not last long, and certainly did not divert Donatello from the line he had struck out. At this moment the native art of Rome was colourless. ”

“ Thus, as the friend and servant of the house of Medici, Donato lived in cheerfulness and free from cares all the rest of his days: when he had attained his eiglity-third year, he became paralytic, and could no longer labour in any manner, whereupon he took to his bed, where he lay constantly, in a poor little house [79] which he had in the Via del Cocomero, close to the nuns of San Niceolo, and here, becoming worse from day to day, and declining by degrees, he died on the 13th of December, 1466. ”

“ In the transept of the church also, Donatello executed four figures of saints in stucco, [59] each five braccia high, which are very well finished. The bronze pulpits were likewise constructed under his direction; and the passion of Christ [60] represented thereon, is a work in which drawing, force, and invention, are alike remarkable, with a rich variety in the figures and building. This work Donato was prevented by age from completing himself, and it was finished by his disciple Bertoldo [61] § who brought it to the utmost perfection. ”

“ Because you are romantic, you see us so; because you are mystically inclined, you believe us to be a race of seers; because you are complex natures, you complicate ours. Because our beauty is strange to you, you think us strangely beautiful. Alas! my dear young friend, you have yet to learn your Italians. There is no such Italy, least of all Tuscany, as you profess to have read of in Donna Aurelia's simple soul. I don't know the young lady, but I know her kind. She is undoubtedly a good-hearted, shrewd little housewife, careful of her reputation and honestly proud of it. ”

“ From Michelangelo let us ascend the stairs, past the splendid gates, to Donatello; and here a word about that sculptor, for though we meet him again and again in Florence (yet never often enough) it is in the upper room in the Bargello that he is enthroned. Of Donatello there is nothing known but good, and good of the most captivating variety. Not only was he a great creative genius, equally the first modern sculptor and the sanest, but he was himself tall and comely, open-handed, a warm friend, humorous and of vigorous intellect. ”

“ But again this work too seems, in spite of Vasari, to belong rather uncertainly to Donatello. It is very rare to find a detached tomb in Italy, and rarer still to find it under a table, where it is very difficult to see it properly, and the care and beauty that have been spent upon it might seem to be wasted. It is perhaps rather Buggiano's hand than Donato's we see even in so beautiful a thing as this, which Donatello may well have designed. The beautiful bust of S. Lorenzo over the doorway is, however, the authentic work of Donato himself. ”

“ George are tentative and ill-drawn. The children of the Cantoria, the great singing gallery made for the Cathedral, are dancing upon a ground strewn with flowers and fruit. The idea was charming, but in executing it Donatello could only make cut flowers and withered fruit. There is no life in them, no savour, and the energy of the children seems to have exhausted the humbler form of vitality beneath their feet. ”

“ This accounts for the frequency with which we find his statues and scenes from his life, particularly in Tuscany. With Donatello he was to some extent a speciality, and we can almost trace the sculptor's evolution in his presentment of the Baptist, beginning with the chivalrous figure on the Campanile and ending with the haggard ascetic of Venice. We have St. John as a child in the Bargello, as a boy in Rome, as a stripling in the Martelli palace. On the bell-tower he is grown up, in the Frari he is growing older, and at Siena he is shown as old as Biblical history would permit. ”

“ Then Donna Andriana said: 'Well, I promise solemnly that Stelio Effrena shall have his triumphal feast in Venice.' The Dogaressa had spoken! At that moment I beheld, on the low, mossy bank, a pomegranate laden with fruit, which, like the hallucination of a vision, broke the infinite squalor of that place. Donna Orsetta Contarini, who was sitting beside me, uttered a cry of delight, and held out her hands, as impatient as her lips. Nothing pleases me so much as a frank, strong expression of desire. ”

“ As happened subsequently to Velazquez and Frans Hals, Donatello, whose supreme mastery had been acknowledged by Michelangelo, Raphael and the other giants of the late Renaissance, almost sank into oblivion during the 18th and early 19th centuries, and only in comparatively recent times has he been restored to the eminent position which is his due in the history of art. The full power of his genius was only revealed to the world when, at the quincentenary celebration of his birth, the greater part of his life-work was brought together in Florence. ”

“ Donatello did not forget that the crucified Christ, when represented by the sculptor, had to preserve all the immortality of the Son of God. His contadino Christ in Florence has its interest in art; this Christ marks the summit of his plastic ability; but it shows that, without any appeal to terror or emotionalism, without, indeed, suppressing the signs of physical pain, Donatello was able to give an overwhelming portrait of Christ's agony. The celestial and the terrestrial are unified and fused into one tremendous concentration of human suffering, tempered by divine power. ”

“ Donato also constructed a sepulchral monument for an archbishop, which was sent to Naples, and is erected in Sant’ Angelo di Seggio di Nido. [43] In this work are three figures in full relief, which support the sarcophagus on their heads, and on the tomb itself is a story, in basso-rilievo, which merits the highest praise. In the palace of the Count of Matalone, in the same city, is the head of a horse, from the hands of Donato, which is so beautiful that many believe it to be antique. ”

“ 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 [11] 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. ”

“ Vellano da Padova strove with so great diligence to counterfeit the manner and the method of Donato in sculpture, particularly in bronze, that in his native city of Padua he was left the heir to the excellence of the Florentine Donatello; and to this witness is borne by his works in the Santo, which nearly every man that has not a complete knowledge of the matter attributes to Donato, so that every day many are deceived, if they are not informed of the truth. ”

“ In spite of its faults, this frieze is charming. The naïveté of the quattrocento often invests its errors with attraction. It would be wearisome to catalogue the scores of bronze children which show undoubted imitation of Donatello. They exist in every great collection, one of exceptional merit being in London. [154] A large school sprang into existence, chiefly in Padua and Venice, whence it spread all over Northern Italy, and produced any number of bronze works which recall one or other feature of Donatello's children. ”