influence, a tonic:  it was a living protest against flippancy and carelessness, and his influence was of service even where it was of a purely negative character.  Through Bertoldo Donatello’s influence extended to Michael Angelo, affecting his ideas of form:  But Jacopo della Quercia, who was almost as great a man as Donatello, is the prototype of Michael Angelo’s spirit.  Jacopo ought to have founded a powerful, indeed an overwhelming school of sculpture at Siena.  Cozzarelli, Neroccio, and the Turini just fail to attain distinction; but their force and virility should have fructified Jacopo’s ideas and developed a supreme school of monumental sculpture.  As regards Michael Angelo, there can be no question of his having been influenced by Donatello’s St. John the Evangelist and the Campanile Abraham.  The Madonna delle treppe[242] in a lesser degree is suggested by Donatello.  The Trinity on the niche of St. Louis again reminds one of Michael Angelo’s conception of the Eternal Father.  His Bacchus in Berlin[243] was held to be the work of Donatello himself, and the Pieta in St. Peter’s has also a reminiscence of the older master.  But in all these cases the resemblance is physical.  The intellectual genius of Michael Angelo owed nothing to Donatello.  Condivi records one of Michael Angelo’s rare obiter dicta about his predecessors[244] to the effect that Donatello’s work, much as he admired it, was inadequately polished owing to lack of patience.  The criticism was not very sagacious, and one would least expect it from Michael Angelo, of whose work so much was left unfinished.  But, at any rate, Donatello commanded his approval, and contributed something to one of the greatest artists of the world.  But the ideals of Michael Angelo were too comprehensive to be derived from one source or another, too stupendous to spring from individuals.  He sought out the universal form:  he took mankind for his model; and while he typified humanity he effectively denationalised Italian sculpture.

[Footnote 241:  E.g., work wrongly attributed to Donatello:  the figure of Plenty in the courtyard of the Canigiani Palace, Florence; the Lavabo in San Lorenzo; the two figures on the famous silver altar at Pistoja; the bronze busts in the Bargello; the font at Pietra Santa; chimney-pieces, gateways, stemme, and numberless Madonnas and small bronzes.]

[Footnote 242:  Casa Buonarroti, Florence.]

[Footnote 243:  From the Gualandi Collection.  It is attributed by some to a Neapolitan sculptor.]

[Footnote 244:  “Vita,” 1553, p. 14.]

* * * * *

[Sidenote:  Early Criticism of Donatello.]

Donatello’s activity is the best testimonial to the appreciation of his work during his lifetime.  Sabba del Castiglione was proud to possess a specimen of Donatello’s sculpture.[245] Commissions were showered on him in great numbers, and Gauricus says that he produced more than all his contemporaries.[246] Flavius Blondius of Forli compares him favourably with the ancients.[247] Bartolomeo Fazio warmly praised Donatello, his junior.[248] Francesco d’Olanda[249] and Benvenuto Cellini[250] also admired him.  Lasca credited Donatello with having done for sculpture what Brunellesco did for architecture: