from the tomb with manifest effort.  One feels that the physical infirmities of the artist are reflected in these two works, so vivid in their presentment of the heavy burden of advanced years.  But in the Resurrection a fresh note is struck.  The bystanders are gathered round the Christ, who gives the Benediction.  His robe is held back by little angels, and the scene is pervaded by an atmosphere of staid and decorous calm.  Donatello has treated this relief in a more archaic spirit.  The absence of paroxysms of acute grief, giving a certain violence to other parts of the pulpits, makes the contrast of this relief more effective; but, even so, this scene of the Ascension is fraught with dramatic emphasis.  The Descent of the Holy Ghost is less interesting.  There is a monotony in the upraised hands, while the feeling of devotional rhapsody is perhaps unduly enforced.  The relief of the Maries at the Tomb, which occupies the western end of this pulpit, is almost Pisanesque in the relative size of the people to the architecture.  There is a combination of trees and pilasters seeming to support the long low roof beneath which the incident is portrayed.  A curious feeling of intimacy is conveyed to the spectator.  The pulpits are full of classical details—­far more so than in anything we find at Padua.  It is very noticeable in the armour of the soldiers, in their shields bearing the letters S.P.Q.R. and the scorpion, and in the antique vases which decorate the frieze.  The centaurs holding the cartel on which Donatello has signed his name are, of course, classical in idea, while the boys with horses are suggested by the great Monte Cavallo statues.[240] Then, again, the architecture is replete with classical forms; in one relief Donatello introduces the Column of Trajan.  But here, as elsewhere, the classicisms are held in check, and never invade or embarrass the dominant spirit of the Quattrocento.  How far Donatello was helped by assistants must remain problematical in the absence of documentary evidence.  Bellano and Bertoldo were in all probability responsible for a good deal.  In the relief of St. Laurence it is possible that Donatello’s share was relatively small.  Moreover, one part of the frieze of children is so closely allied to the work of Giovanni da Pisa at Padua, that one is justified, on stylistic grounds, in suggesting that he may also have been employed.  But it is certain that the share of Bellano must have been limited to the more technical portion of the work, for there is happily nothing to suggest the poverty of his inventive powers.  These pulpits are very remarkable works; they have an inexhaustible wealth of detail in which Donatello can be studied with endless pleasure.  The backgrounds are full of his architectural fancy, and the sustained effort put forth by Donatello is really astonishing.  But he was an octogenarian, and there are signs of decay.  Michael Angelo and Beethoven decayed.  Dante and Shakespeare were too wise to decay; Shelley and Giorgione died too