London,[211] and the two Gattamelata monuments in the
Santo. These tombs are very simple, consisting
of the effigies of the two Condottieri, fully armed,
but with bared heads. Below is a broad stone
relief of children holding the scroll between them,
as on the Coscia tomb in Florence. Above is a
lunette containing painting, the whole composition
being framed by a severe moulding, and surmounted by
the family crest and badge. They are most remarkable.
The two recumbent figures lie calm and peaceful:
they show the ennobling aspect of death, the belief
in a further existence. This sculptor with his
sensitive touch makes us realise the migration.
To “make the good end” was, indeed, a
product of Christianity: antiquity was content
if a man parted from life “handsomely.”
Greek art can, of course, show no sign of the Christian
virtues of death. Like the Egyptians, their object
was to present the dead as still alive, even where
the aid of fiction had to be invoked. To them
sleep and death are often indistinguishable; often
again one is left in doubt as to which of the figures
on a funeral relief represents the departed. With
death the human body, having ceased to be the home
of life, ceased also to be a welcome theme of art.
These two Gattamelatas, father and son, have fought
the good fight, and in the carved effigy acquire a
statuesque repose which is full of dignity and pathos.
The famous warrior of Ravenna, Guido Guidarelli as
he is called, though of a later date, is fashioned
in the same spirit; showing, moreover, certain peculiarities
in the armour which one notices in the tombs at Padua.
The d’Alagni monument in S. Domenico at Naples,
and a tomb in the Carmine of Pisa, are similar in
respect of sentiment. So, too, is the shrine of
Santa Giustina in London, of which the details as
well as the organic treatment leave no doubt as to
its authorship, so closely does it resemble the tomb
of Giovanni Gattamelata. It is a work of singular
refinement and beauty. We see the recumbent figure
of the saint on the facade of a sarcophagus, at either
side of which are little angels made by the same hand
and at the same date as those on Giovanni’s
tomb. Santa Giustina is modelled in low-relief;
the sculptor seems to draw in the stone, and the drapery
is like linen: not a blanket or counterpane,
but some thin clinging material which is moulded to
the form below. In some ways this precious work
is analogous to the more famous bas-relief belonging
to the Earl of Wemyss, the St. Cecilia which has been
ascribed to Donatello. This wonderful thing is
not well known: it has been seldom exhibited,
and the photograph by which it is usually judged is
taken from a reproduction moulded a generation ago.
The original, of rather slaty Lavagna stone, has never
been photographed, and the cast, many thousands of
which exist, entirely fails to show the intangible
and diaphanous qualities of the original. The
widespread popularity of the St. Cecilia would (if