Donatello . st time wholly dramatist. Whilst Salome is dancing,an armed man presents toHerod the head of the Bap-tist — a new course, as itwere, of the banquet. Theeffect is like a flash of light-ning Herod staggers back andraises both hands, as thoughwarding off a ghost. One ofhis boon companions in thebackground screens his facewith his right hand and wantsto escape from the cruel scene,but Herodias ij) turns towardsher husband. This contrarymovement decides the generaleffect: one feels, how the ca-rousers disperse the head of St. John itselfimmediately occupies the spiri-t
Donatello . st time wholly dramatist. Whilst Salome is dancing,an armed man presents toHerod the head of the Bap-tist — a new course, as itwere, of the banquet. Theeffect is like a flash of light-ning Herod staggers back andraises both hands, as thoughwarding off a ghost. One ofhis boon companions in thebackground screens his facewith his right hand and wantsto escape from the cruel scene,but Herodias ij) turns towardsher husband. This contrarymovement decides the generaleffect: one feels, how the ca-rousers disperse the head of St. John itselfimmediately occupies the spiri-tual centre. The eyes of allwho figure on the relief aredirected towards it. Salomestops short in her dance, spell-bound against her will; thesame appUes to the two figuresbehind her. Then follows onthe right, only have visible, afigure hurrying away, like thetwo children on the left, who,however, look back upon the Fig. 44. Statuette of Spes (Hope). Of. Fig. 42. (To page 55.) 53 Never before had this scenebeen similarly represented; neverhas the suddenness of a gruesomeevent, impeUing to flight and yetlaming the will, been more drasti-cally rendered. Such dramaticconcentration of a subject is alto-gether exceedingly rare in thetalkative quattrocento, since thedays of Ghiotto who, by the way,fell strikingly flat in dealing withthis very theme at S. Croce inFlorence. Among the exceptionsis Quercias Zachariah relief whichis in close proximity to the inner relationship might al-ready argue in favour of the theory,that Donatello made use of a firstsketch by the great Sienese. Thismay, indeed, be true; in any casethe neighbourhood of Querelamust have been momentous forDonatello, who had not up to thattime met his compeer in principal point in which theymet was the power of artistic ex-pression, that force which courseslike a flame, not only through thehead and extremities, but throughthe whole human body. It wasactive already
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