THE COLLEONI STATUE 197
One sole difference between the Naples head and the Venice
statue is perceptible—the treatment of the mane—which
in the latter is luxuriantly curled in the manner peculiar
to Verrocchio in his arrangement of human hair, and in
the former is hogged and stiffly indicated. In this and in
this alone is there any resemblance between the Naples
head and the horse of Donatello. This stiff and stylistic
treatment of the mane is in both cases imitated from the
antique, and we have now to see what antique sculpture
existed in Florence which may have served the two Masters
as model.
It is generally asserted that in the construction of his
horse Donatello imitated the equestrian statue of Marcus
Aurelius in Rome, but if the two be compared scarcely one
point of resemblance is to be found. The head in particular
differs essentially. In the Roman bronze the shape of the
nose and mouth is completely different, and the mane is
clustered in waving masses over the arch of the neck. It
is evident that Donatello in designing his horse had thought
as little as Verrocchio of the Roman statue.
In the Museo Archeologico, Florence, among the Greek
and Roman bronzes is a colossal bronze head of a horse, once
gilded, the fragment of some antique statue (Plate XLVII).
The head has been broken off at the neck, and is now fixed
to a base in the shape of an ornamental collar, which is
plainly the work of the seventeenth century. The bronze
originally formed part of the Medici collection, and was,
during the lifetime of Lorenzo, in the garden of the Palace
in Via Larga. It is mentioned among the works of art
seized by the Signoria for the decoration of the Palazzo
Vecchio, at the confiscation of the Medici possessions in
1495. The entry is as follows: “ 1495. 14 octobre.