[Illustration:  Alinari

MARBLE DAVID

BARGELLO, FLORENCE]

The fourth statue made for the Cathedral proper is contemporary with the St. John.  The marble David, ordered in 1408 and completed in 1416, was destined for a chapel inside the church.  The Town Commissioners, however, sent a somewhat peremptory letter to the Domopera and the statue was handed over to them.  It was placed in the great hall of the Palace, was ultimately removed to the Uffizzi, and is now in the Bargello Museum.  The David certainly has a secular look.  This ruddy youth of a fair countenance, crowned with a wreath, stands in an attitude which is shy and perhaps awkward, and by his feet lies the head of Goliath with the smooth stone from the brook deeply embedded in his forehead.  The drapery of the tunic is close fitting, moulded exactly to the lines of his frame, and above it a loose cloak hangs over the shoulders and falls to the ground with a corner of cloth looped over one of the wrists in a familiar way.[12] It would be idle to pretend that the David is a marked success like the St. John.  It neither attains an ideal, as in the St. George, nor is it a profound interpretation of character like the Habbakuk or Jeremiah.  Its effect is impaired by this sense of compromise and uncertainty.  It is one of the very rare cases in which Donatello hesitated between divergent aims and finally translated his doubts into marble.

[Footnote 12:  Cf. Madame Andre’s prophet and figures on Mandorla door.]

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[Sidenote:  Statues of the Campanile.]

We must now refer to a group of statues which adorn the Campanile, the great Bell tower designed by Giotto for the Cathedral.  Not counting the numerous reliefs, there are sixteen statues in all, four on each side of the tower, and in themselves they epitomise early Florentine sculpture.  Donatello’s statues of Jeremiah, Abraham, and St. John the Baptist offer no difficulties of nomenclature, but the Zuccone and the Habbakuk are so called on hypothetical grounds.  The Zuccone has been called by this familiar nickname from time immemorial:  bald-head or pumpkin—­such is the meaning of the word, and nobody has hitherto given a reasoned argument to identify this singular figure with any particular prophet.  As early as 1415 Donatello received payment for some of this work, and the latest record on the subject is dated 1435.  We may therefore expect to find some variety in idea and considerable development in technique during these twenty years.  Donatello was not altogether single-handed.  It is certain that by the time these numerous works were being executed he was assisted by scholars, and the Abraham was actually made in collaboration with Giovanni di Bartolo, surnamed Il Rosso.  It is not easy to discriminate between the respective shares of the partners.  Giovanni was one of those men whose style varied with the dominating