Donatello | Page 7

symbols on their
pictures in the form of inscriptions, it is not likely that this careful and
elaborate carving should be meaningless. The solution may possibly be
found in Vettorio Ghiberti's drawing of a bell, the rim of which is
covered with similar hieroglyphics. The artist has transcribed in plain
writing a pleasant Latin motto which one may presume to be the
subject of the inscription. If this were accurately deciphered a clue
might be found to unravel this obscure problem.[11]
[Footnote 10: The conclusion of Dello's epitaph, as recorded by Vasari,
is H.S.E.S.T.T.L.--i.e., _Hic sepultus est, sit tibi terra levis_. The
bas-relief of Faith in the Bargello is signed O.M.C.L., i.e., Opus Mattæi
Civitali Lucensis. There is a manuscript of St. Jerome in the Rylands
Library at Manchester in which long texts are quoted by means of the
initial letters alone.]

[Footnote 11: MS. Sketch-Book in Bibl. Naz., Florence, lettered
"Ghiberti," folio 51a.]
[Illustration: Alinari
MOCENIGO TOMB
SAN GIOVANNI E PAOLO, VENICE]
Closely analogous to the statue which we must continue to call Poggio
is a striking figure of Justice surmounting the tomb of Tommaso
Mocenigo in the Church of San Giovanni e Paolo at Venice. Mocenigo
died in 1423, and the tomb was made by two indifferent Florentine
artists, whose poor and imitative work must be referred to later on in
connection with the St. George. But the Justice, a vigorous and original
figure, holding a scroll and looking downwards, so absolutely
resembles the Poggio in conception, attitude, and fall of drapery, that
the authorship must be referred to Donatello himself. It is certainly no
copy. One cannot say how this isolated piece of Donatello's work
should have found its way to Venice, although by 1423 Donatello's
reputation had secured him commissions for Orvieto and Ancona and
Siena. But it is not necessary to suppose that this Justice was made to
order for the Mocenigo tomb; had it remained in Florence it would
have been long since accepted as a genuine example of the master.
* * * * *
[Illustration: Alinari
ST. JOHN THE EVANGELIST
CATHEDRAL, FLORENCE]
[Sidenote: St. John the Evangelist and the marble David.]
The third great statue made for the façade by Donatello is now placed
in a dark apsidal chapel, where the light is so bad that the figure is often
invisible. This is the statue of St. John the Evangelist, and is much

earlier than Poggio, having been ordered on December 12, 1408. Two
evangelists were to be placed on either side of the central door. Nanni
di Banco was to make St. Luke, Niccolo d'Arezzo St. Mark, and it was
intended that the fourth figure should be entrusted to the most
successful of the three sculptors; but in the following year the
Domopera changed their plan, giving the commission for St. Matthew
to Bernardo Ciuffagni, a sculptor somewhat older than Donatello.
Ciuffagni was not unpopular as an artist, for he received plenty of work
in various parts of Italy; but he was a man of mediocre talent, neither
archaic nor progressive, making occasional failures and exercising little
influence for good or ill upon those with whom he came in contact. He
has, however, one valued merit, that of being a man about whom we
have a good deal of documentary information. Donatello worked on the
St. John for nearly seven years, and, according to custom, was under
obligation to complete the work within a specified time. Penalty
clauses used to be enforced in those days. Jacopo della Quercia ran the
danger of imprisonment for neglecting the commands of Siena.
Torrigiano having escaped from England was recalled by the help of
Ricasoli, the Florentine resident in London, and was fortunate to avoid
punishment. Donatello finished his statue in time, and received his final
instalment in 1415, the year in which the figures were set up beside the
great Porch. This evangelist, begun when Donatello was twenty-two
and completed before his thirtieth year, challenges comparison with
one worthy rival, the Moses of Michael Angelo. The Moses was the
outcome of many years of intermittent labour, and was created by the
help of all the advances made by sculpture during a century of progress.
Yet in one respect only can Michael Angelo claim supremacy. Hitherto
Donatello had made nothing but standing figures. The St. John sits; he
is almost inert, and does not seem to await the divine message. But how
superb it is, this majestic calm and solemnity; how Donatello triumphs
over the lack of giving tension to what is quiescent! The Penseroso also
sits and meditates, but every muscle of the reposing limbs is alert. So,
too, in the Moses, with all its exaggeration and melodrama, with its
aspect of frigid sensationalism, which led Thackeray to say he would
not like to be left