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Chap. X. DONATELLO. 277 selection of form. They could not but impart to every thing he undertook a masculine energy equally original in stamp and powerful in its impression on the beholder. Donatello, indeed, was a man whose influence on cotem porary art was beyond measure great, whose fame ex tended far outside the bounds of Italy, and who stands forth in history as the archetype, on which Michael Angelo was modelled. Michael Angelo might truly admire the polish of Ghiberti, and declare that the gates of S. Giovanni were worthy of guarding the entrance to Paradise; but his own style was faithfully moulded on that of Dona tello; and we recognize in two great Florentines of dif ferent ages the same characteristic features. The complex of Donatello’s numerous works reveals the extraordinary powers of one whose spirit and fire carried him beyond the limits of sober and select thought. He worked and created with a vehemence properly called furia, by the Italians, and suggesting comparison with the fiery war steed, who, with swollen nostrils, strains at the curb and disdains the bit. His works are the true reflex of his nature. Yet his command of means was in no wise common; and it is to him more than to Ghiberti that we owe the style which Vasari usually calls “mo dern”. 1 The study of the models of antiquity was more marked in its influence on his productions than upon those of Ghiberti. One may still contemplate with sur prise the classic style preserved in works embodying the subjects, and imitating the manner, of the Greek time; 2 one admires the more distant but not less certain trace of that influence in works illustrative of Bible history. If, among the many statues of David which Donatello produced, we choose one which now adorns the collection of the Uffizi, we shall agree with Vasari 3 that the life 1 No doubt Ghiberti and Bru nelleschi had their fair share in the creation of the modern style ; for one man cannot alone pro duce so great a change. But Donatello was the chief instru ment in it. 2 See the hro'nze patera in Casa Martelli at Florence. 3 Vas. Vol. III. p. 252. The
