Donatello Part 15

"_E Donatello messe la scultura Nel dritto suo sentier ch' era smarrita Cosi l'architettura Storpiata, e guasta alle man' de' Tedeschi...._"

and so forth.[251] Another early poem, the _Rappresentazione_ of King Nebuchadnezzar, shows the great popularity of Donatello in the humbler walks of life.[252] Vasari's rhetoric led him to say that Donatello was sent by Nature, indignant at seeing herself caricatured.[253]

Bocchi claims that, having equalled the ancients and surpa.s.sed the sculptors of his own day, Donatello's name will live in the perpetual memory of mankind.[254]

[Footnote 245: "Ricordi," 1554, p. 51.]

[Footnote 246: "De Sculptura," 1504, gathering f. "Donatellus ...

_aere ligno, marmore laudatissimus, plura hujus unius manu extant opera, quam semel ab eo ad nos caeterorum omnium_."]

[Footnote 247: "Italia Ill.u.s.trata," Bale, 1531, p. 305. "_Decorat etiam urbem Florentiam ingenio veterum laudibus respondente, Donatello Heracleotae Zeusi aequiparandus, ut vivos, juxta Virgilii verba, ducat de marmore vultus._"]

[Footnote 248: "De Viris ill.u.s.tribus," Florence ed. 1745, p. 51.

"_Donatellus ... excellet non aere tantum, sed etiam marmore notissimus, ut vivos vultus ducere, et ad antiquorum gloriam proxime accedere videatur._"]

[Footnote 249: "Dialogues," Raczynski ed. Paris, 1846, p. 56.]

[Footnote 250: "Due Trattati," ed. Milanesi, 1857, pa.s.sim.]

[Footnote 251: "Due Vite di Brunellesco," p. 142.]

[Footnote 252: Semper, 321.]

[Footnote 253: "Lem.," iii. 243, in first edition.]

[Footnote 254: 1677 edition.]

[Sidenote: Character and Personality of Donatello.]

Donatello must be judged by his work alone. His intellect is only reflected in his handicraft. We know little about him, but all we know bears tribute to his high character. The very name by which he was called--Donatello--is a diminutive, a term of endearment. His generosity, his modesty, and a pardonable pride, are recorded in stories which have been generically applied to others, but which were specific to himself. He shared his purse with his friends:[255] he preferred plain clothing to the fine raiment offered by Cosimo de'

Medici;[256] and he indignantly broke the statue for which a Genoese merchant was unwilling to pay a fair price.[257] He was recognised as a man of honourable judgment, and he was called upon to act as a.s.sessor several times. The friend of the Medici, of Cyriac of Ancona, of Niccolo Niccoli, the greatest antiquarian of the day, and of Andrea della Robbia, one of the pall-bearers at his funeral, must have been a man of winning personality and considerable learning. But he was always simple and nave: _benigno e cortese_, according to Vasari,[258] but as Summonte added with deeper insight, his work was far from simple.[259] He is one of the rare men of genius against whom no contemporary attack is recorded. He was content with little;[260]

his life was even-tenored; his work, though not faultless, shows a steady and unbroken progress towards the n.o.blest achievements of plastic art.

[Footnote 255: Gauricus, b. 1.]

[Footnote 256: Vespasiano de' Bisticci, Vite.]

[Footnote 257: "Vasari," iii. 253.]

[Footnote 258: _Ibid._ iii. 244.]

[Footnote 259: "_Fo in Fiorenza ad tempo de' nostri padri Donatello huomo raro, semplicissimo in ogni altra cosa excepto che in la scultura_."]

[Footnote 260: Matteo degli Orghani, writing in 1434, says: "_Impero che e huomo ch' ogni picholo pasto e allui a.s.sai, e sta contento a ogni cosa_." Guasti, iv. 475. Donatello died in 1466, probably on December 15. He was buried in San Lorenzo at the expense of the Medici. Masaccio painted his portrait in the Carmine, but it is lost.

The Louvre panel No. 1272, ascribed to Paolo Ucello, shows the painter, Manetti, Brunellesco, and Donatello. Monuments have been recently erected to the sculptor in his native city. For Donatello's homes in Florence, see "Misc. Fiorentina," vol. i. No. 4, 1886, p. 60, and "Miscellanea d'arte," No. 3, 1903, p. 49.]

APPENDICES

APPENDIX I

WORK LOST OR NOT EXECUTED

_Padua._--For the Santo altar, a figure of G.o.d the Father, stone; a Deposition and the remaining bas-reliefs mentioned in the "Anonimo Morelliano;" a St. Sebastian, wood; a Madonna in the church of the Servi.

_Ferrara._--Donatello probably worked there; in 1451 he visited the town as an a.s.sessor. Gualandi, iv. 35.

_Modena._--Donatello also visited this town in 1451, and received a first instalment towards the equestrian statue of Borso d'Este.

Campori, "Gli artisti Italiani." Modena, 1855, p. 185.

For _Mantua_ he made a large number of works, including columns, capitals, images of the Madonna in stone and terra-cotta, a St. Andrew in tufo, &c.; also the design for a shrine of St. Anselm. See doc.u.ments in Archivio Storico Lombardo, 1886, p. 666. At _Rome_ a St.

John Baptist, "Una testa" in the Minerva Church, and the portrait of Canon Morosini in Santa Maria Maggiore.

At _Siena_ a Goliath, a silver crucifix, gates for the Cathedral, and a marble statue of San Bernardino.

At _Ancona_ and _Orvieto_ statues of St. John the Baptist.

At _Florence_ the following works are lost: the Dovizia, a figure of Plenty, which stood in the Mercato Vecchio; two bronze heads for the Cantoria; the Colossi for the Cathedral; four large stucco Saints in San Lorenzo; a statue with drapery of gilded lead made with Brunellesco. San Rossore for Ogni Santi; a reliquary of Santa Verdiana (Richa, ii. 231); Albizzi tombs. The Cathedral gates were never made.

Bocchi, Cinelli, Vasari, and Borghini mention a large number of smaller works now unidentified; plaquettes, Madonnas, crucifixes, heraldic s.h.i.+elds, busts and reliefs.

APPENDIX II

DOc.u.mENTS

These are printed as specimens of the original authorities upon which our authentic knowledge of Donatello is based.

A.

Denunzia de' Beni of 1427, stating Donatello's home, his substance, his partners.h.i.+p with Michelozzo; referring also to the bronze relief for the Siena Font and the figure of San Rossore. Also a list of the sculptor's family. (Gaye, i. 120.)

Donato di nicholo di betto, intagliatore, prestanziato nel quartiere di Sco. Spirito, gonfalone nichio, in fior. 1. s. 10 den. 2. Sanza niuna sustanza, eccietto un pocho di maserizie per mio uso edella mia famiglia.

E piu esercito la detta arte insieme e a conpagnia con Michelozzo di bartolomeo, sanza niuna chorpo, salvo flor. 30 in piu ferramenti et ma.s.serizie per detta arte.

E di detta conpagnia e bottegha tralgho quella sustanza et in quello modo, che per la scritta della sustanza di Michelozzo sopradetto appare nel quartiere di Sco. Giovanni G. dragho, che dice in lionardo di bartolomeo di gherardo e frategli. Eppiu avere dall' operaio di duomo di Siena fior. 180 per chagione duna storia dottone, gli feci piu tempo fa.