Donatello . ead and spread wings give depth to the whole composition. One feelsthe hand of Donatello, how ever strongly the decoration of this capital may 88 in other ways have been influencedby Michelozzo, by whom it wascast in 1433, according to docu-mentary evidence. The largeputti, resting below, like antiqueriver-gods, are far better educatedand more amiable, than the youngbacchants on the sides of the pul-pit; but their heads tell withmore vivacity than Michelozzogenerally achieved unaided. Theremainder of the minute figures,distributed like butterflies amongthe scrollwork of the capital
Donatello . ead and spread wings give depth to the whole composition. One feelsthe hand of Donatello, how ever strongly the decoration of this capital may 88 in other ways have been influencedby Michelozzo, by whom it wascast in 1433, according to docu-mentary evidence. The largeputti, resting below, like antiqueriver-gods, are far better educatedand more amiable, than the youngbacchants on the sides of the pul-pit; but their heads tell withmore vivacity than Michelozzogenerally achieved unaided. Theremainder of the minute figures,distributed like butterflies amongthe scrollwork of the capital, evincein every way the influence of an-tique Roman ornamental work;the scrollwork is of similar de-sign to that onat S. Croce; theis a pattern ofnot as original,liked it to be. no doubt executed by Michel-ozzo.—^An ornamental work ofthis kind could only originatein Tuscany. Amongst the ra-diant jewels wrought by Tuscan art around the little country churchin Prato, this pulpit is the most exquisite the tabernacle ornamentation delicary, but as Donatello The detail was Fig. 81. Cupid-Atys. Florence.(To page 92.) Museo Nazionale. Everybody agrees, that this work is unexcelled, was written as farback as 1434, from Florence to Prato, about the first view of these pulpit-reliefs. But meanwhile a work was in progress in Donatellos bottega, thatappears in every way as a twin-creation of the Prato pulpit which it evensurpasses in excellence. The Opera del Duomo ha^d, in 1431, commissionedfrom Luca della Robbia some panels for the casement of the singing galleryof the Cathedral, and gave a similar commission to Donatello in July of these were delivered before 1440, although Donatello worked athis reliefs at least as far back as November 1433. Later these reliefs camefrom the Duomo into the Museo Nazionale; now they have been put togetheragain, in the Opera del Duomo, as a gallery (Figs, yy—79). The theme is thesame, as in Prato. Luca della Robbias conception of
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Keywords: ., bo, bookcentury1900, bookdecade1900, booksubjectdonatello13861466
