DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.61902#0174
154
THE MAKERS OF FLORENCE.
dence that nothing can withstand him. Sure of his own
powers as he was when he carved in secret the crucifix
which was to cover poor Donatello with confusion, he saw
before him, over his carvings, as he worked for the Eoman
goldsmith, the floating vision of the great dome he was to
build—and so built it, all opposition notwithstanding,
clearing out of his way with the almost contemptuous im-
patience of that knowledge which has no doubt of itself,
the competing architects, the uncomprehending Lorenzo.
This certainty and confidence does not always, by any
means, accompany genius, but, when it does, what force
on earth can stand before these two united powers ?
Donatello is a totally different man. Without the humor
of Giotto, and without the higher religious feeling which
gave refinement to the painter, it is again the frank and
simple peasant with whom we find ourselves face to face.
He too is self-confident, but in a very different and much
more winning way than his friend Filippo. It is not in
him to prepare a triumph over friend or foe by the energy
of secret labor and long-concealed plan ; but simply, good
soul, he thinks his crucifix, the first he has made, a raris-
sima cosa, and talks so of it with open-hearted candor and
satisfaction as to give the critic, when taken to see this
great work, occasion to smile. Nor does he grow wiser as
life goes on. As he was making the statue called the
“ Zuccone,” for the decoration of Giotto’s campanile, he
struck the marble, it is said, in an agony of pleasure and
content, bidding it “Speak!” and his favorite oath after
its erection in its place was “By my faith in my Zuccone,”
(Alla fe ch’ io porto al mio Zuccone !) This ingenuous and
artless vanity is rather prepossessing than repellent; its
frank utterance suggests a touching trust in the bystand-
er’s sympathy, and hard-hearted must the spectator be who
can quite close his heart against the appeal. Notwith-
standing this delightful self-applause, we have already seen
THE MAKERS OF FLORENCE.
dence that nothing can withstand him. Sure of his own
powers as he was when he carved in secret the crucifix
which was to cover poor Donatello with confusion, he saw
before him, over his carvings, as he worked for the Eoman
goldsmith, the floating vision of the great dome he was to
build—and so built it, all opposition notwithstanding,
clearing out of his way with the almost contemptuous im-
patience of that knowledge which has no doubt of itself,
the competing architects, the uncomprehending Lorenzo.
This certainty and confidence does not always, by any
means, accompany genius, but, when it does, what force
on earth can stand before these two united powers ?
Donatello is a totally different man. Without the humor
of Giotto, and without the higher religious feeling which
gave refinement to the painter, it is again the frank and
simple peasant with whom we find ourselves face to face.
He too is self-confident, but in a very different and much
more winning way than his friend Filippo. It is not in
him to prepare a triumph over friend or foe by the energy
of secret labor and long-concealed plan ; but simply, good
soul, he thinks his crucifix, the first he has made, a raris-
sima cosa, and talks so of it with open-hearted candor and
satisfaction as to give the critic, when taken to see this
great work, occasion to smile. Nor does he grow wiser as
life goes on. As he was making the statue called the
“ Zuccone,” for the decoration of Giotto’s campanile, he
struck the marble, it is said, in an agony of pleasure and
content, bidding it “Speak!” and his favorite oath after
its erection in its place was “By my faith in my Zuccone,”
(Alla fe ch’ io porto al mio Zuccone !) This ingenuous and
artless vanity is rather prepossessing than repellent; its
frank utterance suggests a touching trust in the bystand-
er’s sympathy, and hard-hearted must the spectator be who
can quite close his heart against the appeal. Notwith-
standing this delightful self-applause, we have already seen