Donatello | Page 9

the haggard
suffering figures in Siena and Berlin. So far from being morose in
appearance, clad in raiment of camel's hair, fed upon locusts and wild
honey, and summoning the land of Judæa to repent, we have a vigorous
young Tuscan, well dressed and well fed, standing in an easy and
graceful attitude and not without a tinge of pride in the handsome
countenance. In short, the statue is by no means typical of the Saint. It
would more aptly represent some romantic knight of chivalry, a Victor,
a Maurice--even a St. George. It competes with Donatello's own
version of St. George. In all essentials they are alike, and the actual
figures are identical in gesture and pose, disregarding shield and
armour in one case, scroll and drapery in the other. The two figures are
so analogous, that as studies from the nude they would be almost
indistinguishable. They differ in this: that the Saint on the Campanile is
John the Baptist merely because we are told so, while the figure made
for Or San Michele is inevitably the soldier saint of Christendom. It
must not be inferred that the success of plastic, skill less that of
pictorial, art depends upon the accuracy or vividness with which the
presentment "tells its story." Under such a criterion the most popular
work of art would necessarily bear the palm of supremacy. But there
should be some relation between the statue and the subject-matter.
Nobody knew this better than Donatello: he seldom incurred the
criticism directed against Myron the sculptor--Animi sensus non
expressisse videtur.[14] The occasional error, such as that just noticed,
or when he gives Goliath the head of a mild old gentleman,[15] merely
throws into greater prominence the usual harmony between his
conception and its embodiment. The task of making prophets was far
from simple. Their various personalities, little known in our time, were

conjectural in his day: neither would the conventional scroll of the
prophet do more than give a generic indication of the kind of person
represented. Donatello, however, made a series of figures from which
the [Greek: êthos] of the prophets emanates with unequalled force.
[Footnote 14: Pliny, xxxiv. 19, 3.]
[Footnote 15: Bargello David.]
* * * * *
[Illustration: Alinari
JEREMIAH
CAMPANILE, FLORENCE]
[Sidenote: Jeremiah and the Canon of Art.]
The Jeremiah, for instance, which is in the niche adjacent to the still
more astonishing Zuccone (looking westwards towards the Baptistery),
is a portrait study of consummate power. It is the very man who wrote
the sin of Judah with a pen of iron, the man who was warned not to be
dismayed at the faces of those upon whose folly he poured the vials of
anger and scorn; he is emphatically one of those who would scourge
the vices of his age. And yet this Jeremiah has his human aspect. The
strong jaw and tightly closed lips show a decision which might turn to
obstinacy; but the brow overhangs eyes which are full of sympathy,
bearing an expression of sorrow and gentleness such as one expects
from the man who wept for the miserable estate of
Jerusalem--Quomodo sedet sola civitas!
Tradition says that this prophet is a portrait of Francesco Soderini, the
opponent of the Medici; while the Zuccone is supposed to be the
portrait of Barduccio Cherichini, another anti-Medicean partisan.
Probabilities apart, much could be urged against the attributions, which
are really on a par with the similar nomenclatures of Manetti and
Poggio. The important thing is that they are undoubted portraits, their

identity being of secondary interest; the fact that a portrait was made at
all is of far greater moment to the history of art. Later on, Savonarola
(whose only contribution to art was an unconscious inspiration of the
charming woodcuts with which his sermons and homilies were
illustrated) protested warmly against the prevailing habit of giving
Magdalen and the Baptist the features of living and well-known
townsfolk.[16] The practice had, no doubt, led to scandal. But with
Donatello it marks an early stage in emancipation from the bondage of
conventionalism. Not, indeed, that Donatello was the absolute
innovator in this direction, though it is to his efforts that the change
became irresistible. Thus in these portrait-prophets we find the proof of
revolution. The massive and abiding art of Egypt ignored the
personality of its gods and Pharaohs, distinguishing the various persons
by dress, ornament, and attribute. They had their canon of measurement,
of which the length of the nose was probably the unit.[17] The Greeks,
who often took the length of the human foot as unit, were long enslaved
by their canon. Convention made them adhere to a traditional face after
they had made themselves masters of the human form. The early
figures of successful athletes were conventional; but, according to Pliny,
when