Donatello | Page 6

Poggio and the Zuccone. Among the earliest, and, it must be
acknowledged, the least interesting of these statues is the prophet
standing in a niche in the south aisle close to the great western door of
the Cathedral. It has been long recognised as a Donatello,[6] and has
been called Joshua. But, apart from the fact that he holds the scroll of a
prophet, whereas one would rather expect Joshua to carry a sword, this
statue is so closely related to the little prophets of the Mandorla door
that it is almost certainly coeval with them, and consequently anterior
in date to the period of the Joshua for which Donatello was paid some
years later. We find the same broad flow of drapery, and the weight of
the body is thrown on to one hip in a pronounced manner, which is
certainly ungraceful, though typical of Donatello's early ideas of
balance. It probably represents Daniel. He has the high forehead, the
thick curly hair and the youthful appearance of the other prophets,
while his "countenance appears fairer and fatter in flesh,"[7] reminding
one of Michael Angelo's treatment of the same theme in the Sistine
Chapel.
[Footnote 6: Osservatore Fiorentino, 1797, 3rd ed., iv. 216.]
[Footnote 7: Daniel i. 15.]

Like several of Donatello's statues, this figure is connected with the
name of a Florentine citizen, Giannozzo Manetti, and passes for his
portrait. There is no authority for the tradition, and Vespasiano de'
Bisticci makes no reference to the subject in his life of Manetti. The
statue is, no doubt, a portrait and may well have resembled Manetti, but
in order to have been directly executed as a portrait it could scarcely
have been made before 1426, when Manetti was thirty years old, by
which date the character of Donatello's work had greatly changed.
These traditional names have caused many critical difficulties, as, when
accepted as authentic, the obvious date of the statue has been arbitrarily
altered, so that the statue may harmonise in point of date of execution
with the apparent age of the individual whom it is supposed to portray.
A second example of the confusion caused by the over-ready
acceptance of these nomenclatures is afforded by the remarkable figure
which stands in the north aisle of the Cathedral, opposite the Daniel.
This statue has been called a portrait of Poggio Bracciolini, the
secretary of many Popes. Poggio was born in 1380 and passed some
time in Florence during the year 1456. It has, therefore, been
assumed[8] that the statue was made at this time or shortly afterwards,
either as Donatello's tribute of friendship to Poggio or as an order from
the Cathedral authorities in his commemoration. This theory is wholly
untenable. We have no record of any such work in 1456. The statue
does not portray a man seventy-six years old. Distinguished as Poggio
was, his nature did not endear him greatly to the Florentine churchmen;
and, finally, the style of the sculpture predicates its execution between
1420 and 1430. We can, of course, admit that Poggio's features may
have been recognised in the statue, and that it soon came to be
considered his portrait. In any case, however, we are dealing with a
portrait-statue. The keen and almost cynical face, with its deep and
powerful lines, is certainly no creation of the fancy, but the study of
somebody whom Donatello knew. It is true there are contradictions in
the physiognomy: sarcasm and benevolence alternate, as the
dominating expression of the man's character. The whole face is
marked by the refinement of one from whom precision and niceness of
judgment would be expected. It is not altogether what Poggio's
achievements would lead one to expect; neither is it of a type which, as
has been suggested, would allow us to call it the missing Joshua. The

idea that Job may be the subject is too ingenious to receive more than a
passing reference.[9]
[Footnote 8: Semper, I., p. 132.]
[Footnote 9: Schmarsow, p. 10.]
[Illustration: Alinari
POGGIO
CATHEDRAL, FLORENCE]
There is one detail in the statue of Poggio which raises a problem
familiar to students of fifteenth-century art, especially frequent in
paintings of the Madonna, namely, the cryptic lettering to be found on
the borders of garments. In the case of Poggio, the hem of the tunic just
below the throat is incised with deep and clear cyphers which cannot be
read as a name or initials. Many cases could be quoted to illustrate the
practice of giving only the first letters of words forming a sentence.[10]
In this case the script is not Arabic, as on Verrocchio's David. The
lettering on the Poggio, as on Donatello's tomb of Bishop Pecci at
Siena and elsewhere, has not been satisfactorily explained. Even if
painters were in the habit of putting conventional