The tabernacle apart, the main appeal of Or San Michele is the statuary and stone-work of the exterior; for here we find the early masters at their best.  The building being the head-quarters of the twelve Florentine guilds, the statues and decorations were commissioned by them.  It is as though our City companies should unite in beautifying the Guildhall.  Donatello is the greatest artist here, and it was for the Armourers that he made his S. George, which stands now, as he carved it in marble, in the Bargello, but has a bronze substitute in its original niche, below which is a relief of the slaying of the dragon from Donatello’s chisel.  Of this glorious S. George more will be said later.  But I may remark now that in its place here it instantly proves the modernity and realistic vigour of its sculptor.  Fine though they be, all the other statues of this building are conventional; they carry on a tradition of religious sculpture such as Niccolo Pisano respected, many years earlier, when he worked at the Pisan pulpit.  But Donatello’s S. George is new and is as beautiful as a Greek god, with something of real human life added.

Donatello (with Michelozzo) also made the exquisite border of the niche in the Via Calzaioli facade, in which Christ and S. Thomas now stand.  He was also to have made the figures (for the Merchants’ Guild) but was busy elsewhere, and they fell to Verrocchio, of whom also we shall have much to see and say at the Bargello, and to my mind they are the most beautiful of all.  The John the Baptist (made for the Cloth-dealers), also on this facade, is by Ghiberti of the Baptistery gates.  On the facade of the Via de’ Lamberti is Donatello’s superb S. Mark (for the Joiners), which led to Michelangelo’s criticism that he had never seen a man who looked more virtuous, and if S. Mark were really like that he would believe all his words.  “Why don’t you speak to me?” he also said to this statue, as Donatello had said to the Zuccone.  Higher on this facade is Luca della Robbia’s famous arms of the Silk-weavers, one of the perfect things.  Luca also made the arms of the Guild of Merchants, with its Florentine fleur-de-lis in the midst.  For the rest, Ghiberti’s S. Stephen, and Ghiberti and Michelozzo’s S. Matthew, on the entrance wall, are the most remarkable.  The blacksmith relief is very lively and the blacksmith’s saint a noble figure.

The little square reliefs let into the wall at intervals are often charming, and the stone-work of the windows is very lovely.  In fact, the four walls of this fortress church are almost inexhaustible.  Within, its vaulted roof is so noble, its proportions so satisfying.  One should often sit quietly here, in the gloom, and do nothing.

The little building just across the way was the Guild House of the Arte della Lana, or Wool-combers, and is now the head-quarters of the Italian Dante Society, who hold a conference every Thursday in the large room over Or San Michele, gained by the flying buttress-bridge.  The dark picture on the outer wall is the very Madonna to which, when its position was at the Mercato Vecchio, condemned criminals used to pray on their way to execution.