Donatello, by Lord Balcarres

Transcriber's Note: In the original text the name Verrocchio is, except for one instance, misspelled as Verrochio ; the name Buonarroti is twice misspelled as Buonarotti ; the name Orcagna is once misspelled as Orcagra ; and the name Vasari is once misspelled as Vassari. These have been corrected in this e-text. Variants, archaic forms, or Anglicizations of other names (e.g., Michael Angelo for Michelangelo ; Or San Michele for Orsanmichele ; Brunellesco for Brunelleschi ) have been retained as they appear in the original.
This e-text contains a few words and phrases in Greek. In the original text, some of the Greek characters have diacritical marks which do not display properly in commonly used browsers such as Internet Explorer. In order to make this e-text as accessible as possible, the diacritical marks have been ignored. All text in Greek has a mouse-hover transliteration, e.g., καλος.
LONDON: DUCKWORTH AND CO. NEW YORK: CHARLES SCRIBNER'S SONS 1903
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Printed by Ballantyne, Hanson & Co. At the Ballantyne Press
Alinari
CHRIST ON THE CROSS
SANT' ANTONIO, PADUA

An attempt is made in the following pages to determine the position and character of Donatello's art in relation to that of his contemporaries and successors. The subject must be familiar to many who have visited Florence, but no critical work on the subject has been published in English. I have therefore quoted as many authorities as possible in order to assist those who may wish to look further into problems which are still unsettled. Most of the books to which reference is made can be consulted in the Art Library at South Kensington, and in the British Museum. Foreign critics have written a good deal about Donatello from varied, if somewhat limited aspects. Dr. Bode's researches are, as a rule, illustrative of the works of art in the Berlin Museum. The main object of Dr. Semper was to collect documentary evidence about the earlier part of Donatello's life; Gloria and Gonzati have made researches into the Paduan period; Lusini confines his attention to Siena, Centofanti to Pisa; M. Reymond and Eugène Müntz are more comprehensive in their treatment of the subject.