There is one detail in the statue of Poggio which raises a problem familiar to students of fifteenth-century art, especially frequent in paintings of the Madonna, namely, the cryptic lettering to be found on the borders of garments.  In the case of Poggio, the hem of the tunic just below the throat is incised with deep and clear cyphers which cannot be read as a name or initials.  Many cases could be quoted to illustrate the practice of giving only the first letters of words forming a sentence.[10] In this case the script is not Arabic, as on Verrocchio’s David.  The lettering on the Poggio, as on Donatello’s tomb of Bishop Pecci at Siena and elsewhere, has not been satisfactorily explained.  Even if painters were in the habit of putting conventional symbols on their pictures in the form of inscriptions, it is not likely that this careful and elaborate carving should be meaningless.  The solution may possibly be found in Vettorio Ghiberti’s drawing of a bell, the rim of which is covered with similar hieroglyphics.  The artist has transcribed in plain writing a pleasant Latin motto which one may presume to be the subject of the inscription.  If this were accurately deciphered a clue might be found to unravel this obscure problem.[11]

[Footnote 10:  The conclusion of Dello’s epitaph, as recorded by Vasari, is H.S.E.S.T.T.L.—­i.e., Hic sepultus est, sit tibi terra levis.  The bas-relief of Faith in the Bargello is signed O.M.C.L., i.e., Opus Mattaei Civitali Lucensis.  There is a manuscript of St. Jerome in the Rylands Library at Manchester in which long texts are quoted by means of the initial letters alone.]

[Footnote 11:  MS. Sketch-Book in Bibl.  Naz., Florence, lettered “Ghiberti,” folio 51a.]

[Illustration:  Alinari

MOCENIGO TOMB

SAN GIOVANNI E PAOLO, VENICE]

Closely analogous to the statue which we must continue to call Poggio is a striking figure of Justice surmounting the tomb of Tommaso Mocenigo in the Church of San Giovanni e Paolo at Venice.  Mocenigo died in 1423, and the tomb was made by two indifferent Florentine artists, whose poor and imitative work must be referred to later on in connection with the St. George.  But the Justice, a vigorous and original figure, holding a scroll and looking downwards, so absolutely resembles the Poggio in conception, attitude, and fall of drapery, that the authorship must be referred to Donatello himself.  It is certainly no copy.  One cannot say how this isolated piece of Donatello’s work should have found its way to Venice, although by 1423 Donatello’s reputation had secured him commissions for Orvieto and Ancona and Siena.  But it is not necessary to suppose that this Justice was made to order for the Mocenigo tomb; had it remained in Florence it would have been long since accepted as a genuine example of the master.

* * * * *