THE ITALIAN RENAISSANCE,
Where the works of Michelangelo, Donatello, Ghiberti, Luca della Robbia, and a few other such names meet us in some of their best works. Here is the Lorenzo of Michelangelo with the statues of Day and Night, the David of Donatello, the Cupid of Michelangelo with his unfinished bas-relief of the Virgin and Child, the Mercury of John of Bologna, and various bas-reliefs of the time with the singing boys of Donatello and those of Luca della Robbia. Here, too, is the cast of the trial plate, “The Sacrifice of Isaac,” made by Ghiberti in competition with Brunelleschi and Donatello for the Florence Baptistery Gates, interesting in itself, and in connection with that most important event in the history of modern art.
The last room on this floor is filled with specimens of Greek, Roman, and Asia Minor pottery, with a sufficient number of examples of the sculpture, pottery, and glass of Cyprus, a small but well-chosen group of figurines from Tanagra, and the results of the late researches at Assos by the members of the American Society of Archæology. This room is full of interesting objects, but it is uncomfortably crowded and necessarily ill-arranged. In the next article we shall describe the contents of the second floor of the Museum.