the fact that the contracts given to sculptors by the Chapter do not always specify the personage to be represented.  Moreover, in many cases the statues have no symbol attribute or legend, which usually guide our interpretation of mediaeval art.  Thus Donatello is paid pro parte solutionis unius figure marmoree;[3] or for figuram marmoream.[4] Even when an obvious and familiar explanation could be given, such as Abraham and Isaac, the accounts record an instalment for the figure of a prophet with a naked boy at his feet.[5]

[Footnote 2:  Cinelli, p. 22.]

[Footnote 3:  23, xii. 1418.]

[Footnote 4:  12, xii. 1408.]

[Footnote 5:  30, v. 1421.]

* * * * *

[Illustration:  Alinari

JOSHUA

CATHEDRAL, FLORENCE]

[Sidenote:  The Daniel and Poggio.]

Nine large marble figures for the Cathedral are now accepted as the work of Donatello.  Others may have perished, and it is quite possible that in one at least of the other statues Donatello may have had a considerable share.  With the exception of St. John the Baptist and St. John the Evangelist, all these statues are derived from the Old Testament—­Daniel, Jeremiah and Habbakuk, Abraham and the marble David in the Bargello, together with the two figures popularly called Poggio and the Zuccone.  Among the earliest, and, it must be acknowledged, the least interesting of these statues is the prophet standing in a niche in the south aisle close to the great western door of the Cathedral.  It has been long recognised as a Donatello,[6] and has been called Joshua.  But, apart from the fact that he holds the scroll of a prophet, whereas one would rather expect Joshua to carry a sword, this statue is so closely related to the little prophets of the Mandorla door that it is almost certainly coeval with them, and consequently anterior in date to the period of the Joshua for which Donatello was paid some years later.  We find the same broad flow of drapery, and the weight of the body is thrown on to one hip in a pronounced manner, which is certainly ungraceful, though typical of Donatello’s early ideas of balance.  It probably represents Daniel.  He has the high forehead, the thick curly hair and the youthful appearance of the other prophets, while his “countenance appears fairer and fatter in flesh,"[7] reminding one of Michael Angelo’s treatment of the same theme in the Sistine Chapel.

[Footnote 6:  Osservatore Fiorentino, 1797, 3rd ed., iv. 216.]

[Footnote 7:  Daniel i. 15.]