Donatello . cle at St. Peterson the one hand, and for-ward to the Medici sarco-phagus at S. Lorenzo inFlorence on the other. Therelief belongs probably tothe period between thesetwo dates. It is the more interesting, as Michelangelo seems to have known it and remembered itin his Madonna of the staircase. Finally, the marble relief of theFlagellation of the Berlin Museum should be mentioned in this connection,a work of splendid effect in the simplicity of its broad composition. Likethe relief at Lille, it is akin to the Sienese relief, and shows the sameadvanced feeling for form. The tall, erec
Donatello . cle at St. Peterson the one hand, and for-ward to the Medici sarco-phagus at S. Lorenzo inFlorence on the other. Therelief belongs probably tothe period between thesetwo dates. It is the more interesting, as Michelangelo seems to have known it and remembered itin his Madonna of the staircase. Finally, the marble relief of theFlagellation of the Berlin Museum should be mentioned in this connection,a work of splendid effect in the simplicity of its broad composition. Likethe relief at Lille, it is akin to the Sienese relief, and shows the sameadvanced feeling for form. The tall, erect figure of the woman on theleft, with the staring eye, has the same classic features as the Madonnasof the Casa Pazzi and the Casa Orlandini. Whenever these rehef picturesmay have been chiselled, they are certainly connected by an inner link,that makes them monuments of Donatellos classicist narrative art, justas the Florentine single figures collectively are monuments of his statuesqueand physiognomic Fig. 76. Dancing Putti from the Casement of the Prato. (To page 84.) 6* 84 This whole period of Donatellos work is one of fermentation. Hisrealism had to face new forms of expression in Rome. The antique hadgained a hold on him and showed him two aims in a new light: therendering of the nude and of movement. And again he was favoured bychance, which gave him the opportunity of expressing his new intentionsin the very shape which had already appeared to antique art as ever readydeus ex machina: in the putto. In the London relief the antique putti areevidently not in their right element by the side of the body of the Saviour,and Donatellos fancy was probably, at that time already, filled by images,in which Christianity and the Church took no part. This was a reactionof his sojourn in Rome, but it was only reawakened to artistic life onhis native soil, in Florence! THE DANCING PUTTI. In May 1433 Donatello had returned to Florence, and on May he already m
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