not only astonished all who then beheld it, but continues to amaze those who examine it in the present day. The Paduans, moved by the merit of this work, did their utmost to obtain the artist for their fellow-citizen, and sought, by all sorts of caresses, to prevail on him to stay with them. In the hope of retaining him, they gave him the commission to execute stories from the life of Sant’ Antonio of Padua on the predella of the high altar, in the church of the Friars Minors. These stories are in basso-rilievo, and are executed with so much ability, that the most excellent masters in this art stand amazed and confounded before them, when they consider the beautiful and varied compositions they display, with the vast amount of extraordinary figures they contain, and the careful consideration of the perspective manifest in all their parts.[1] The Maries weeping over the Dead Christ, on the front of the altar, are likewise an extremelv fine work of this master. In the palace of one of the Counts Capodilista, Donato constructed the skeleton of a horse, in wood; the neck is wanting, but the remainder may still be seen. The order observed in the junction of the different parts is so remarkable, that whoever considers the manner of this work will be enabled to judge of the varied resources and boldness of the artist.[2] For a convent of nuns, in Padua, Donatello executed a San Sebastiano, in wood, in compliance with the entreaties of a chaplain, their friend, who was a Florentine, and one of his own intimates. This chaplain brought Donato a figure of the saint, old and very ugly, belonging to the nuns, begging that he would make the new statue like that. The master, desiring to oblige the chaplain and the nuns, took pains to imitate their model; but, rude and ugly as the figure he had to copy was, Donato could not do otherwise than mani-
- ↑ This work is highly praised by Cicognara, who has engraved a portion of it. See the Storia della Scultura, etc., vol. ii, plate 7. For a minute description of other works of this master in the same church, see the Lettere Pittoriche, vol. i, p. 70. Fantuzzi, Monumenti Ravennati, and Gualandi, Memorie di Belle Arti, also give various details respecting him.
- ↑ The horse, which still exists, is thirty palms long; but this somewhat excessive length is perhaps accounted for by the fact that it was to be placed on wheels and used in the public spectacles, in which position the proportions would most probably acquire correctness. It is further said—and a little poem in Latin, by Giovanni de’ Martini, attests the fact—that a gigantic figure of Jupiter (corresponding, that is, with the dimensions of the horse) was originally seated on its back.
