We shall speak later of the Simone Fiorentino who worked with other sculptors at Rimini upon the marbles of San Francesco, and now return to the scholars of Ghiberti not yet mentioned. Antonio del Pollajuolo, the son of Jacopo d'Antonio Benci, called Pollajuolo, born at Florence in 1429, was apprenticed at an early age to Ghiberti's step-father, the goldsmith Bartolo di Michele, under whom he acquired that great skill as a niellist, caster, and worker of metals, which he displayed in many precious articles for church use, and personal adornment, now irrecoverably lost. His extant works are a bas-relief of the Nativity, made for the silver altar in the 'Opera" of the Cathedral at Florence, a bronze relief of the Crucifixion, the bust of a warrior in terra-cotta, and a bronze group of Hercules and Cacus at the Bargello, an enamelled Pax at the Uffizi, a quail rising from her nest in the bronze frieze of Andrea Pisano's Baptistry gate, two Papal monuments at St. Peter's, and two bas-reliefs in bronze at S. Pietro in Vincoli.

66

The excessive mannerism of style, and exaggeration in pose and facial expression, which strike us in his pictures,t and in his one engraving of ten naked men fighting in a wood,‡ are from the very nature of the case far less conspicuous in his bronzes, though clearly visible in the reliefs of the seven Virtues, and the ten liberal Arts (see page 116), upon the carved sides of the highly ornamented couch which, with the sepulchral effigy upon it (see page 115), forms the monument of Pope Sixtus IV. in the chapel of the Sacrament at St. Peter's (1493). Called to Rome by Innocent VIII. after his accession in 1484, to make this monument of his predecessor, Pollajuolo remained there to make that of Pope Innocent, who died in 1492. Not content with the usual custom of representing the deceased lying upon a sarcophagus, he placed a second statue. above it, of the seated Pontiff, stretching out one hand in bene

* Cellini rays he was so called because he was a poulterer. This is denied by Baldinucci and Gaye (op. cit. i. pp. 265, 266), on the ground that Antonio and Piero ranked as citizens. The family was artistic. The famous architect Cronaca belonged to it, as did Matteo, the pupil of Antonio Rossellino, a sculptor of great promise, who died at an early age. + Small pictures of the labours of Hercules at the Uffizi, Tobias and the Angel, National Gallery.

Bartsch, Le Peintre Graveur, vol. ix. p. 47.

diction, and holding in the other a lance, which represents that given by Sultan Bajazet to the Grand Master of Rhodes, who sent it to Rome as the veritable weapon used to pierce our Lord's side at the Crucifixion. This monument, placed at a considerable height above the pavement, cannot be scrutinised closely enough to judge its minor details, such as the

statuettes of the Cardinal Virtues on either side of the seated statue, and the crowned woman, emblematic of Divine Providence, seated between Faith and Hope, in the lunette above it.

The bas-reliefs of the imprisonment and liberation of St. Feter, upon the bronze reliquary which contains the supposed chains of the Apostle, at S. Pietro in Vincoli, are among the last works of Pollajuolo, who died at Rome about 1496, and was buried in the left aisle of this church, near the principal

entrance.

As an ornamental sculptor he is known to us only by the famous quail in the frieze of the Andrea Pisano gate at the Baptistry, to which we have already referred as having been assigned to Lorenzo Ghiberti, in 1453, after whose death it was continued and completed by his son Vittorio, with the help of Pollajuolo, and perhaps other assistants. In treatment it is. absolutely naturalistic, and, though beautiful, is therefore very much out of keeping with the style of the reliefs upon the gates which it enframes. Like the frieze around Ghiberti's second gate, which is even less conventional, if possible, it is

made up of leaves, flowers and fruits, whose every detail is literally rendered. The quail, with his wings just spread, the squirrel cracking a nut, the weasel creeping towards the bird, are masterly in execution, but unfit for the use to which they are put, on account of the absolutely unconventional way in which they are treated. In the best Renaissance ornament, where the child plays a conspicuous part, masks, tripods, wreaths and ribbons, as well as plants, fruits and flowers, are freely introduced, but these are treated flatly, and not in the round, on the principle of absolute imitation. They are in fact abstracts of nature, which give us the spirit of life and growth, and thus harmonize with the architectural forms around them.

These pictorial tendencies of Ghiberti's school which we are disposed to condemn, both as contrary to correct principles, and as the source of future decadence in ornamental art, are fully exemplified in the friezes of both doorways. Little is known of Vittorio Ghiberti, but that he was born in 1417, that he assisted his father in the second Baptistry gate, and that

he had three sons, Francesco, Cione, and Buonaccorso, the last of whom followed the paternal profession of goldsmith and bronze caster. His son, Vittorio II., who had no other glory than that of being Ghiberti's grandson, was the last of his

race.

(3.) THE SCHOLARS OF DONATELLO.

"All those who after Donatello's death were good sculptors in relief, may be called his scholars," says Vasari. This is not saying too much, for he so perfected this branch of sculpture that all who studied it were obliged to turn to his works as models. Bertoldo, Nanni di Banco, Desiderio, Rossellino, and Vellano of Padua, are the four artists whom Vasari specifies as Donatello's pupils, and of these the first, Bertoldo di Giovanni, is not mentioned in connection with him until after his return from Padua in 1456, when they worked together at San Lorenzo. How far the two pulpits in this church were advanced when the master died is not known, but it appears certain that much remained to be done to complete the bronze reliefs. Unequal, and in parts exaggerated, as they are, some of them, as for instance the group around the Cross, the Christ in the Descent to Hell, and the Pentecost, are instinct with an energy and dramatic intensity which indicates that the vigour of the old artist was not extinct when he conceived them, but they give us no clear idea of Bertoldo's capacity, as we cannot estimate his share in them. Those, however, who know his bas-relief at the Bargello of a battle between naked horse and foot soldiers, and his very fine medal of Mahomet II., can have no doubt as to his knowledge and ability, of which Lorenzo de' Medici must have been convinced, when he made him Director of the Academy which he opened to artists in the Gardens of St. Mark. Bertoldo retained this office until his death at Poggio a Cajano, in the last days of December, 1491.

NANNI DI BANCO.

Son of a certain Antonio di Banco, "maestro di pietra," in the service of the "Opera" of the Cathedral in 1407, this sculptor probably learned from him what he knew of sculpture, rather than from Donatello, who kindly helped him out of sundry difficulties caused by his want of thorough training, though he can hardly be considered his master, in the proper sense of the term.

The anecdotes of Vasari about their relations to cach other,

give proof of Donatello's good nature rather than of Nanni's skill. When he was employed by the Guild of the Carpenters and Masons to sculpture their four patron saints for a niche on the outside of Or San Michele, he did so without first calculating its receptive capacity. Finding that he could not crowd them into the allotted space, he turned for help to Donatello, who so curtailed their proportions by a judicious use of the chisel, that they entered into it without difficulty (1408). The bas-relief below them of a sculptor's studio, is well composed, and interesting as a record of such a place at Florence in the fifteenth century, but the saints and the statue of St. Philip in an adjoining niche are in no wise remarkable. Donatello was to have made the latter, but as he asked a higher price for his services than the Guild of the Hosiers was willing to give him, they employed Nanni, who agreed to take whatever any competent judge should consider a fair valuation. When it was finished the Guild made Donatello their umpire, who, to their great surprise, named a larger sum than he had asked to make it himself, on the ground that Nanni had spent a great deal more time upon it than he should have done.

Another statue at Or San Michele, that of St. Eloi, the patron of goldsmiths, has been attributed to Nanni, though as it seems to us withont internal evidence, considering that it is unquestionably superior in style and treatment to his undoubted works. Neither in the Madonna della Cintola, a bas-relief by Nanni (1418-21), over the side portal of the Cathedral opposite the Via de' Serri,t nor in the relief of the sculptor's studio already mentioned, nor in that below the statue of St. Eloi, which represents the expulsion of Satan from a horse by the Saint, is there any resemblance to Donatello's mode of treatment, and this seems to show that Nanni was slow to profit by his opportunities. He died at Florence in 1421, and was buried at Sta. Croce.

* Baldinucci, vol. i. p. 426, attributes it to Nanni, who is also accredited with it in a note-book belonging to the Gaddi family, entitled, "Fragments of the Lives of the Painters." Vasari, vol. ii. p. 164, speaks doubtfully. Furthermore it is not mentioned in a MS. list of painters in the Strozzi Library.

Long attributed to Jacopo della Quercia. Vasari, ed. Milanesi, vol. ii. p. 116, note 1, also p. 165.

Id. vol. ii. p. 116, note 1. See Appendix, letter M.