placed under an arch of their Loggia in the Piazza, representing Judith
cutting off the head of Holofernes; a work of great excellence and
mastery, which, if one considers the simplicity of the garments and
aspect of Judith on the surface, reveals very clearly below the surface
the great spirit of that woman and the assistance given to her by God,
even as one sees the effect of wine and sleep in the expression of
Holofernes, and death in his limbs, which have lost all life and are
shown cold and limp. This work was so well executed by Donato that the
casting came out delicate and very beautiful, and it was afterwards
finished so excellently that it is a very great marvel to behold. The
base, likewise, which is a baluster of granite, simple in design,
appears full of grace and presents an aspect pleasing to the eye. He was
so well satisfied with this work that he deigned to place his name on
it, which he had not done on the others; and it is seen in these words,
"Donatelli opus." In the courtyard of the Palace of the said Signori
there is a life-size David, nude and in bronze. Having cut off the head
of Goliath, he is raising one foot and placing it on him, holding a
sword in his right hand. This figure is so natural in its vivacity and
its softness, that it is almost impossible for craftsmen to believe that
it was not moulded on the living form. This statue once stood in the
courtyard of the house of the Medici, but it was transported to the said
place on the exile of Cosimo. In our own day Duke Cosimo, having made a
fountain on the spot occupied by this statue, had it removed, and it is
being kept for a very large courtyard that he intends to make at the
back of the palace, that is, where the lions formerly stood. In the hall
where there is the clock of Lorenzo della Volpaia, on the left, there is
a very beautiful David in marble; between his legs, under his feet, he
has the head of the dead Goliath, and in his hand he holds the sling
wherewith he slew him. In the first courtyard of the house of the Medici
there are eight medallions of marble, wherein there are copies of
ancient cameos and of the reverse sides of medals, with certain scenes,
all made by him and very beautiful, which are built into the frieze
between the windows and the architrave above the arches of the loggie.
In like manner he restored an ancient statue of Marsyas in white marble,
which was placed at the entrance of the garden; and a great number of
ancient heads, which were placed over the doors, were restored and
embellished by him with wings and diamonds (the emblem of Cosimo),
wrought very well in stucco. He made a very lovely vessel of granite,
which poured forth water, and he wrought a similar one, which also pours
forth water, for the garden of the Pazzi in Florence. In the said Palace
of the Medici there are Madonnas of marble and bronze made in
low-relief, besides some scenes in marble with most beautiful figures,
marvellous in their flat-relief. So great was the love that Cosimo bore
to the talent of Donato that he kept him continually at work, and
Donato, on the other hand, bore so great love to Cosimo that he could
divine his patron's every wish from the slightest sign, and obeyed him
in all things.
It is said that a Genoese merchant caused Donato to make a lifesize
head of bronze, which was very beautiful and also very light, because it
had to be carried to a great distance; and that the commission for this
work came to him through the recommendation of Cosimo. Now, when the
head was finished and the merchant came to pay for it, it appeared to
him that Donato was asking too much; wherefore the matter was referred
to Cosimo, who had the head carried to the upper court of the palace and
placed between the battlements that overlook the street, to the end that
it might be seen better. When Cosimo sought to settle the difference, he
found the offer of the merchant very far from the demand of Donato, and
he turned round and said that it was too little. Whereupon the merchant,
thinking it too much, said that Donato had wrought it in a month or
little more, and that this meant a gain of more than half a florin a
day. Donato, thinking this too much of an insult, turned round in anger
and said to the merchant that in the hundredth part of an hour he would
have been able to spoil the value of a year's labour; and giving the
head a push, he sent it flying straightway into the street below, where
it broke into a thousand pieces; saying to him that this showed that he
was more used to bargaining for beans than for statues. Wherefore the
merchant, regretting his meanness, offered to give him double the sum if
he would make another; but neither his promises nor the entreaties of
Cosimo could induce Donato to make it again. In the houses of the
Martelli there are many scenes in marble and in bronze; among others, a
David three braccia high, with many other works presented by him as a
free gift to that family in proof of the devotion and love that he bore
them; above all, a S. John of marble, made by him in the round and three
braccia high, a very rare work, which is to-day in the house of the
heirs of Ruberto Martelli. With regard to this work, a legal agreement
was made to the effect that it should be neither pledged, nor sold, nor
given away, without heavy penalties, as a testimony and token of the
affection shown by them to Donato, and by him to them out of gratitude
that he had learnt his art through the protection and the opportunities
that he received from them.
He also made a tomb of marble for an Archbishop, which was sent to
Naples and is in S. Angelo di Seggio di Nido; in this tomb there are
three figures in the round that support the sarcophagus with their
heads, and on the sarcophagus itself is a scene in low-relief, so
beautiful that it commands infinite praise. In the house of the Count of
Matalone, in the same city, there is the head of a horse by the hand of
Donato, so beautiful that many take it for an antique. In the township
of Prato he wrought the marble pulpit where the Girdle is shown, in
which, in several compartments, he carved a dance of children so
beautiful and so admirable, that he may be said to have demonstrated the
perfection of his art no less in this work than in his others. To
support this pulpit, moreover, he made two capitals of bronze, one of
which is still there, while the other was carried away by the Spaniards
who sacked that district.
[Illustration: GENERAL GATTAMELATA
(_After the bronze by_ Donatello. _Padua: Piazzo di S. Antonio_)
_Anderson_]
It came to pass about this time that the Signoria of Venice, hearing of
his fame, sent for him to the end that he might make the monument of
Gattamelata in the city of Padua; wherefore he went there right
willingly and made the bronze horse that is on the Piazza di S.
Antonio, wherein are perceived the panting and neighing of the horse,
with great spirit and pride, most vividly expressed by his art, in the
figure of the rider. And Donato proved himself such a master in the
proportions and excellence of so great a casting, that he can truly bear
comparison with any ancient craftsman in movement, design, art,
proportion, and diligence; wherefore it not only astonished all who saw
it then, but continues to astonish every person who sees it at the
present day. The Paduans, moved by this, did their utmost to make him
their fellow-citizen, and sought to detain him with every sort of
endearment. In order to keep him in their midst, they commissioned him
to make the stories of S. Anthony of Padua on the predella of the
high-altar in the Church of the Friars Minor, which are in low-relief,
wrought with so great judgment, that the most excellent masters of that
art stand marvelling and amazed before them, as they consider their
beautiful and varied compositions, with the great abundance of
extraordinary figures and diminishing perspectives. Very beautiful,
likewise, are the Maries that he made on the altar-dossal, lamenting the
Dead Christ. In the house of one of the Counts Capodilista he wrought
the skeleton of a horse in wood, which is still to be seen to-day
without the neck; wherein the various parts are joined together with so
much method, that, if one considers the manner of this work, one can
judge of the ingenuity of his brain and the greatness of his mind. In a
convent of nuns he made a S. Sebastian in wood at the request of a
chaplain, a Florentine, who was their friend and an intimate of his own.
This man brought him a figure of that Saint that they had, old and
clumsy, beseeching him to make the new one like it. Wherefore Donato
strove to imitate it in order to please the chaplain and the nuns, but,
although he imitated it, clumsy as it was, he could not help showing in
his own the usual excellence of his art. Together with this figure he
made many others in clay and in stucco, and on one end of an old piece
of marble that the said nuns had in their garden he carved a very
beautiful Madonna. Throughout that whole city, likewise, there are
innumerable works by his hand, by reason of which he was held by the
Paduans to be a marvel and was praised by every man of understanding;
but he determined to return to Florence, saying that if he remained any
longer in Padua he would forget everything that he knew, being so
greatly praised there by all, and that he was glad to return to his own
country, where he would gain nothing but censure, since such censure
would urge him to study and would enable him to attain to greater glory.
Having departed from Padua, therefore, he returned by way of Venice,
where, as a mark of his friendliness towards the Florentine people, he
made them a present of a S. John the Baptist, wrought by him in wood
with very great diligence and study, for their chapel in the Church of
the Friars Minor. In the city of Faenza he carved a S. John and a S.
Jerome in wood, which are no less esteemed than his other works.
Afterwards, having returned to Tuscany, he made a marble tomb, with a
very beautiful scene, in the Pieve of Montepulciano, and a lavatory of
marble, on which Andrea Verrocchio also worked, in the Sacristy of S.
Lorenzo in Florence; and in the house of Lorenzo della Stufa he wrought
some heads and figures that are very spirited and vivacious. Then,
departing from Florence, he betook himself to Rome, in order to try to
imitate the antiques to the best of his ability; and during this time,
while studying these, he made a tabernacle of the Sacrament in stone,
which is to be seen in S. Pietro at the present day. Passing through
Siena on his way back to Florence, he undertook to make a door of bronze
for the Baptistery of S. Giovanni; and he had already made the wooden
model, and the wax moulds were almost finished and successfully covered
with the outer mould, ready for the casting, when there arrived, on his
way back from Rome, one Bernardetto di Mona Papera, a Florentine
goldsmith and an intimate friend of Donato, who wrought upon him so
strongly both with words and in other ways, either for some business of
his own or for some other reason, that he brought him back to Florence;
wherefore that work remained unfinished, nay, not begun. There only
remained in the Office of Works of the Duomo in that city a S. John the
Baptist in bronze by his hand, with the right arm missing from the elbow
downwards; and this Donato is said to have done because he had not been
paid in full.
[Illustration: MADONNA AND CHILD
(_After the bronze by_ Donatello. _Padua: S. Antonio_)
_Anderson_]
Having returned to Florence, therefore, he wrought the Sacristy of S.
Lorenzo in stucco for Cosimo de' Medici, making four medallions on the
pendentives of the vault containing stories of the Evangelists, with
grounds in perspective, partly painted and partly in low-relief. And in
the said place he made two very beautiful little doors of bronze in
low-relief, with the Apostles, Martyrs, and Confessors; and above these
he made some flat niches, one containing a S. Laurence and a S. Stephen,
and the other S. Cosimo and S. Damiano. In the transept of the church he
executed four saints in stucco, each five braccia high, which are
wrought in a masterly manner. He also designed the bronze pulpits that
contain the Passion of Christ, a work displaying design, force,
invention, and an abundance of figures and buildings; but these his old
age prevented him from executing, and his pupil Bertoldo finished them
and brought them to the utmost perfection. For S. Maria del Fiore he
made two colossal figures of brick and stucco, which are placed by way
of ornament without the church, at the corners of the chapels. Over the
door of S. Croce there is still to be seen a S. Louis wrought by him in
bronze, five braccia high; for this someone criticized him, saying that
it was stupid and perhaps the least excellent work that he had ever
made, and he answered that he had made it so of set purpose, seeing that
the Saint had been stupid to give up his throne and become a monk. The
same man made the head of the wife of the said Cosimo de' Medici in
bronze, and this head is preserved in the guardaroba of the Lord Duke
Cosimo, wherein there are many other works in bronze and marble by the
hand of Donato; among others, a Madonna with the Child in her arms, sunk
in the marble in flat-relief, which is the most beautiful work that it
is possible to see, and the rather as it is surrounded by a border of
scenes done in miniature by Fra Bartolommeo,[22] which are admirable, as
it will be told in the proper place. The said Lord Duke has a very
beautiful, nay, miraculous Crucifix in bronze, by the hand of Donato, in
his study, wherein there are innumerable rare antiquities and most
beautiful medals. In the same guardaroba there is a bronze panel
containing the Passion of Our Lord in low-relief, with a great number
of figures; and in another panel, also in metal, there is another
Crucifixion. In like manner, in the house of the heirs of Jacopo
Capponi, who was an excellent citizen and a true gentleman, there is a
marble panel with the Madonna in half-relief, which is held to be a very
rare work. Messer Antonio de' Nobili, who was Treasurer to his
Excellency, had in his house a marble panel by the hand of Donato, in
which there is a half-length Madonna in low-relief, so beautiful that
the said Messer Antonio valued it as much as all his possessions; nor is
it less valued by his son Giulio, a youth of singular goodness and
judgment, a friend to lovers of art and to all men of excellence. In the
house of Giovan Battista d'Agnol Doni, a gentleman of Florence, there is
a Mercury of metal in the round by the hand of Donato, one braccio and a
half in height and clothed in a certain bizarre manner; which work is
truly very beautiful, and no less rare than the others that adorn his
most beautiful house. Bartolommeo Gondi, of whom we have spoken in the
Life of Giotto, has a Madonna in half-relief by the hand of Donato,
wrought with so great love and diligence that it is not possible to see
anything better, or to imagine the fancifulness which he gave to her
headdress and the loveliness that he put into the garments which she is
wearing. In like manner, Messer Lelio Torelli, First Auditor and
Secretary to our Lord the Duke, and no less devoted a lover of all the
honourable sciences, arts, and professions, than he is excellent as a
jurist, has a marble panel of Our Lady by the hand of the same
Donatello.
[Footnote 22: Vasari says Fra Ber.... Fra Bernardo has been suggested,
but nothing is known of him. It is more reasonable to read Fra
Bartolommeo (della Porta).]
But if one were to give a complete account of his life and of the works
that he made, it would be a far longer story than it is our intention to
give in writing the Lives of our craftsmen, seeing that he put his hand
not only to great things, of which there has been enough said, but also
to the smallest things of art, making the arms of families on the
chimneypieces and on the fronts of the houses of citizens, a most
beautiful example of which may be seen in the house of the Sommai, which
is opposite to that of the baker Della Vacca. For the family of the
Martelli, moreover, he made a coffin in the form of a cradle wrought of
wicker-work, to serve for a tomb; but it is beneath the Church of S.
Lorenzo, because no tombs of any kind are to be seen above, save only
the epitaph of the tomb of Cosimo de' Medici, and even that one has
its entrance below, like the others.
[Illustration: THE ENTOMBMENT
(_After the relief by_ Donatello. _Padua: S. Antonio_)
_Alinari_]
It is said that Simone, the brother of Donato, having wrought the model
for the tomb of Pope Martin V, sent for Donato to the end that he might
see it before it was cast. Going to Rome, therefore, Donato found
himself in that city at the very moment when the Emperor Sigismund was
there to receive the crown from Pope Eugenius IV; wherefore he was
forced, in company with Simone, to occupy himself with making the
magnificent preparations for that festival, whereby he acquired very
great fame and honour.
In the guardaroba of Signor Guidobaldo, Duke of Urbino, there is a very
beautiful head of marble by the hand of the same man, and it is believed
that it was given to the ancestors of the said Duke by the Magnificent
Giuliano de' Medici, at the time when he was staying at that Court,
which was full of most cultured gentlemen. In short, the talent of
Donato was such, and he was so admirable in all his actions, that he may
be said to have been one of the first to give light, by his practice,
judgment, and knowledge, to the art of sculpture and of good design
among the moderns; and he deserves all the more commendation, because in
his day, apart from the columns, sarcophagi, and triumphal arches, there
were no antiquities revealed above the earth. And it was through him,
chiefly, that there arose in Cosimo de' Medici the desire to introduce
into Florence the antiquities that were and are in the house of the
Medici; all of which he restored with his own hand. He was most liberal,
gracious, and courteous, and more careful for his friends than for
himself; nor did he give thought to money, but kept his in a basket
suspended by a cord from the ceiling, wherefore all his workmen and
friends could take what they needed without saying a word to him. He
passed his old age most joyously, and, having become decrepit, he had to
be succoured by Cosimo and by others of his friends, being no longer
able to work. It is said that Cosimo, being at the point of death,
recommended him to the care of his son Piero, who, as a most diligent
executor of his father's wishes, gave him a farm at Cafaggiuolo, which
produced enough to enable him to live in comfort. At this Donato made
great rejoicing, thinking that he was thus more than secure from the
danger of dying of hunger; but he had not held it a year before he
returned to Piero and gave it back to him by public contract, declaring
that he refused to lose his peace of mind by having to think of
household cares and listen to the importunity of the peasant, who kept
pestering him every third day--now because the wind had unroofed his
dovecote, now because his cattle had been seized by the Commune for
taxes, and now because a storm had robbed him of his wine and his fruit.
He was so weary and disgusted with all this, that he would rather die of
hunger than have to think of so many things. Piero laughed at the
simplicity of Donato; and in order to deliver him from this torment, he
accepted the farm (for on this Donato insisted), and assigned him an
allowance of the same value or more from his own bank, to be paid in
cash, which was handed over to him every week in the due proportion
owing to him; whereby he was greatly contented. Thus, as a servant and
friend of the house of Medici, he lived happily and free from care for
the rest of his life. When he had reached the age of eighty-three,
however, he was so palsied that he could no longer work in any fashion,
and took to spending all his time in bed in a poor little house that he
had in the Via del Cocomero, near the Nunnery of S. Niccolo; where,
growing worse from day to day and wasting away little by little, he died
on December 13, 1466. He was buried in the Church of S. Lorenzo, near
the tomb of Cosimo, as he had himself directed, to the end that his dead
body might be near him, even as he had been ever near him in spirit when
alive.
His death caused great grief to his fellow-citizens, to the craftsmen,
and to all who knew him when living. Wherefore, in order to honour him
more after death than they had done in his life, they gave him most
honourable obsequies in the aforesaid church, and he was accompanied to
the grave by all the painters, architects, sculptors, and goldsmiths,
and by almost all the people of that city, which continued for a long
time to compose in his honour various kinds of verses in diverse
tongues, whereof it must suffice us to cite the few that are to be read
below.
But before I come to the epitaphs, it will not be amiss to relate the
following story of him as well. When he had fallen sick, and only a
little before his death, certain of his relatives went to visit him; and
after they had greeted him, as is customary, and condoled with him, they
said that it was his duty to leave them a farm that he had in the
district of Prato, although it was small and produced a very meagre
income; and they prayed him straitly to do it. Hearing this, Donato, who
showed something of the good in all that he did, said to them, "I cannot
satisfy you, my kinsmen, because I intend to leave it--as it appears to
me reasonable--to the peasant, who has always worked it and endured
great labour thereby, and not to you, who, without having bestowed upon
it anything more profitable than the thought of possessing it, expect me
to leave it to you because of this your visit! Go, and may God bless
you!" Of a truth such relatives, who have no love unconnected with
advantage or with the hope of it, should be ever treated in this
fashion. Sending therefore for a notary, he left the said farm to the
labourer who had always worked it, and who perchance had behaved better
to him in his need than those relatives had done. His art-possessions he
left to his pupils, namely, Bertoldo, a sculptor of Florence, who
imitated him closely enough, as may be seen from a very beautiful battle
between men on horseback, wrought in bronze, which is now in the
guardaroba of the Lord Duke Cosimo; Nanni d'Antonio di Banco, who died
before him; and Rossellino, Desiderio, and Vellano da Padova. In short,
it may be said that every man who has sought to do good work in relief
since the death of Donato, has been his disciple. He was resolute in
draughtsmanship, and he made his drawings with such mastery and boldness
that they have no equals, as may be seen in my book, wherein I have
figures drawn by his hand, both clothed and nude, animals that make all
who see them marvel, and other most beautiful things of that kind. His
portrait was made by Paolo Uccello, as it has been said in his Life. The
epitaphs are as follows:
SCULTURA H.M. A FLORENTINIS FIERI VOLUIT DONATELLO, UTPOTE
HOMINI, QUI EI, QUOD JAMDIU OPTIMIS ARTIFICIBUS MULTISQUE SAECULIS
TUM NOBILITATIS TUM NOMINIS ACQUISITUM FUERAT, INJURIAVE TEMPOR.
PERDIDERAT IPSA, IPSE UNUS UNA VITA INFINITISQUE OPERIBUS CUMULATISS.
RESTITUERIT: ET PATRIAE BENEMERENTI HUJUS RESTITUTAE
VIRTUTIS PALMAM REPORTARIT.
EXCUDIT NEMO SPIRANTIA MOLLIUS AERA;
VERA CANO; CERNES MARMORA VIVA LOQUI.
GRAECORUM SILEAT PRISCA ADMIRABILIS AETAS
COMPEDIBUS STATUAS CONTINUISSE RHODON.
NECTERE NAMQUE MAGIS FUERANT HAEC VINCULA DIGNA
ISTIUS EGREGIAS ARTIFICIS STATUAS.
QUANTO CON DOTTA MANO ALLA SCULTURA
GIA FECER MOLTI, OR SOL DONATO HA FATTO;
RENDUTO HA VITA A' MARMI, AFFETTO, ED ATTO;
CHE PIU, SE NON PARLAR, PUO DAR NATURA?
The world remained so full of his works, that it may be affirmed right
truly that no craftsman ever worked more than he did. For, delighting in
every kind of work, he put his hand to anything, without considering
whether it was of little or of great value. Nevertheless it was
indispensable to sculpture, this vast activity of Donato in making
figures in every kind of relief, full, half, low, and the lowest;
because, whereas in the good times of the ancient Greeks and Romans it
was by means of many that it became perfect, he alone by the multitude
of his works brought it back to marvellous perfection in our own age.
Wherefore craftsmen should trace the greatness of this art rather to him
than to any man born in modern times, seeing that, besides rendering the
difficulties of the art easy, in the multitude of his works he combined
together invention, design, practice, judgment, and every other quality
that ever can or should be looked for in a divine genius. Donato was
very resolute and ready, executing all his works with consummate
facility, and he always accomplished much more than he had promised.