[Footnote 103:  By Alfred Gilbert, R.A., belonging to the present Earl of Lytton.]

[Footnote 104:  See Armand, “Les Medailleurs Italiens,” 1887, iii. p. 3.]

* * * * *

[Illustration:  Alinari

TOMB PLATE OF BISHOP PECCI

SIENA CATHEDRAL]

[Sidenote:  Tombs of Pecci, Crivelli, and Others.]

The tomb of Giovanni de’ Medici in San Lorenzo is interesting, and has been ascribed to Donatello.  There is no documentary authority for this attribution, and on stylistic grounds it is untenable.[105] It is a detached tomb, so common elsewhere, but of singular rarity in Italy.  The isolated tomb like this one, like that of Ilaria del Carretto, or that of Pope Sixtus IV. in St. Peter’s, has great advantages over the tall upright monument applique to a church wall.  The latter is, however, the ordinary type of the Renaissance.  The free-standing tomb can be seen from all aspects and lights.  Although it must be smaller—­some of the later wall-tombs are fifty feet high—­the sculptor was obliged to keep his entire work well within the range of vision, and had to rely on plastic art alone for success.  Much admirable sculpture, especially the effigies, has been lost by being placed too high on some pretentious catafalque in relief against a wall.  The tomb of Giovanni, it is true, though standing in the centre of the sacristy, is covered by a large marble slab, which is the priest’s table.  It throws the tomb into dark shadow and makes it difficult to see the carving.  There are few tombs of important people upon which so much trouble has been expended with so little result.  Donatello is also said to have made a tomb for the Albizzi, but it has perished.[106] The tomb of Chellini in San Miniato, which tradition ascribed to Donatello, is probably the work of Pagno di Lapo.  The prim and priggish Cardinal Accaiuoli in the Certosa of Florence does not suggest Donatello’s hand.  Though conscientious and painstaking, the work is without a spark of energy or conviction.  These latter are slab-tombs, flat plates fastened into the church pavements.  We have two authentic tombs of this character, on both of which Donatello has signed his name.  Had he not done so, we could never have established his authorship of the marble slab-tomb of Archdeacon Crivelli in the Church of Ara Coeli at Rome.  It has been trampled by the feet of so many generations, that all the features have been worn away; the legend is wholly effaced in certain parts, and one corner has had to be restored (though at some early date).  But at best it cannot have compared with Donatello’s similar tomb of Bishop Pecci at Siena, and one could quote numerous instances of equally good work by nameless men.  There is one close to the Crivelli marble itself, another in the Pisa Baptistery, two in Santa Croce, and so forth.  This kind of tomb had to undergo rough