DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.57409#0503
DONATO.
487
iolommeo Gondi, of whom we have already spoken in the life
of Giotto, possesses a figure of Our Lady in mezzo-rilievo by
the hand of Donato, which is finished with so much love and
diligence, that it is scarcely possible to imagine anything bet-
ter ; nor will it be readily conceived with what grace and
lightness the master has treated the ornaments of the head,
or the elegance which he has imparted to the vestments of
this figure.* Messer Lelio Torelli also,j- first auditor and
secretary to the lord duke, a no less judicious lover of all the
sciences, talents, and honourable vocations, than excellent as
a lawyer, has a marble figure of the Virgin in his possession
which is likewise by Donatello. But fully to narrate the life
and enumerate the works executed by this master, would
necessitate a longer story than we have proposed to ourselves
in writing the lives of our artists, seeing that he occupied
himself with so many things; giving his attention not only to
works of importance, of which we have spoken sufficiently,
but also to the smallest matters connected with art. He fre-
quently executed the arms of families, for example, placing
them over the chimney-pieces, or on the fronts of the houses
of the citizens, as may still be seen in the house of the Som-
mai, which is opposite to that of the baker, della Vacca, where
there is a most beautiful specimen of this kind : he made a
chest or sarcophagus also, for the family of the Martelli, in
the form of a cradle of wicker-work ; this was intended for
a tomb, and is deposited beneath the church of San Lorenzo,
no tombs of any kind being allowed to appear above, or in
the church itself—the epitaph of that of Cosimo de’ Medici
is alone excepted, and the entrance even of this is placed be-
low, like that of the others. § It is said, that Simone, || the
brother of Donato, having prepared the model for the sepul-
antique; others—among whom is Lanzi—affirm it to be modern. The
latter informs us that it is placed in the Gallery, in the hall of the
modern bronzes.
* Neither of this Virgin, nor of that next mentioned, have we any
trace.—Masselli.
j- A man of letters and legist, who edited the Pandects, after the famous
Pisan (now Florentine) Codex.
J Masselli enumerates many others: among them, a St. John the
Baptist, in marble; an adult figure, much attenuated, and engraved by
Cicognara, but with some expression of doubt as to its authenticity.
§ These tombs are still in their place.—Masselli.
|| See his life, with that of Filarete which follows.—Ibid.
487
iolommeo Gondi, of whom we have already spoken in the life
of Giotto, possesses a figure of Our Lady in mezzo-rilievo by
the hand of Donato, which is finished with so much love and
diligence, that it is scarcely possible to imagine anything bet-
ter ; nor will it be readily conceived with what grace and
lightness the master has treated the ornaments of the head,
or the elegance which he has imparted to the vestments of
this figure.* Messer Lelio Torelli also,j- first auditor and
secretary to the lord duke, a no less judicious lover of all the
sciences, talents, and honourable vocations, than excellent as
a lawyer, has a marble figure of the Virgin in his possession
which is likewise by Donatello. But fully to narrate the life
and enumerate the works executed by this master, would
necessitate a longer story than we have proposed to ourselves
in writing the lives of our artists, seeing that he occupied
himself with so many things; giving his attention not only to
works of importance, of which we have spoken sufficiently,
but also to the smallest matters connected with art. He fre-
quently executed the arms of families, for example, placing
them over the chimney-pieces, or on the fronts of the houses
of the citizens, as may still be seen in the house of the Som-
mai, which is opposite to that of the baker, della Vacca, where
there is a most beautiful specimen of this kind : he made a
chest or sarcophagus also, for the family of the Martelli, in
the form of a cradle of wicker-work ; this was intended for
a tomb, and is deposited beneath the church of San Lorenzo,
no tombs of any kind being allowed to appear above, or in
the church itself—the epitaph of that of Cosimo de’ Medici
is alone excepted, and the entrance even of this is placed be-
low, like that of the others. § It is said, that Simone, || the
brother of Donato, having prepared the model for the sepul-
antique; others—among whom is Lanzi—affirm it to be modern. The
latter informs us that it is placed in the Gallery, in the hall of the
modern bronzes.
* Neither of this Virgin, nor of that next mentioned, have we any
trace.—Masselli.
j- A man of letters and legist, who edited the Pandects, after the famous
Pisan (now Florentine) Codex.
J Masselli enumerates many others: among them, a St. John the
Baptist, in marble; an adult figure, much attenuated, and engraved by
Cicognara, but with some expression of doubt as to its authenticity.
§ These tombs are still in their place.—Masselli.
|| See his life, with that of Filarete which follows.—Ibid.