Baptists; nor does the next figure represent David, as is generally supposed, but owes that error to the circumstance that when the David that originally stood here was moved to the north side, the old plinth bearing his name was left behind.  This famous figure is stated by Vasari to be a portrait of a Florentine merchant named Barduccio Cherichini, and for centuries it has been known as Il Zuccone (or pumpkin) from its baldness.  Donatello, according to Vasari, had a particular liking for the work, so much that he used to swear by it; while, when engaged upon it, he is said to have so believed in its reality as to exclaim, “Speak, speak! or may a dysentery seize thee!” It is now generally considered to represent Job, and we cannot too much regret the impossibility of getting near enough to study it.  Next is the Jeremiah, which, according to Vasari, was a portrait of another Florentine, but which, since he bears his name on a scroll, may none the less be taken to realize the sculptor’s idea of Jeremiah.  It is (according to the photographs) a fine piece of rugged vivacity, and the head is absolutely that of a real man.  On the opposite side of the tower is the magnificent Abraham’s sacrifice from the same strong hand, and by it Habakkuk, who is no less near life than the Jeremiah and Job, but a very different type.  At both Or San Michele and the Bargello we are to find Donatello perhaps in a finer mood than here, and comfortably visible.

For most visitors to Florence and all disciples of Ruskin, the chief interest of the campanile ("The Shepherd’s Tower” as he calls it) is the series of twenty-seven reliefs illustrating the history of the world and the progress of mankind, which are to be seen round the base, the design, it is supposed, of Giotto, executed by Andrea Pisano and Luca della Robbia.  To Andrea are given all those on the west (7), south (7), east (5), and the two eastern ones on the north; to Luca the remaining five on the north.  Ruskin’s fascinating analysis of these reliefs should most certainly be read (without a total forgetfulness of the shepherd’s other activities as a painter, architect, humorist, and friend of princes and poets), but equally certainly not in the American pirated edition which the Florentine booksellers are so ready (to their shame) to sell you.  Only Ruskin in his best mood of fury could begin to do justice to the misspellings and mispunctuations of this terrible production.

Ruskin, I may say, believes several of the carvings to be from Giotto’s own chisel as well as design, but other and more modern authorities disagree, although opinion now inclines to the belief that the designs for Pisano’s Baptistery doors are also his.  Such thoroughness and ingenuity were all in Giotto’s way, and they certainly suggest his active mind.  The campanile series begins at the west side with the creation of man.  Among the most attractive are, I think, those devoted to agriculture, with the spirited oxen, to astronomy, to architecture, to weaving, and to pottery.  Giotto was even so thorough as to give one relief to the conquest of the air; and he makes Noah most satisfactorily drunk.  Note also the Florentine fleur-de-lis round the base of the tower.  Every fleur-de-lis in Florence is beautiful—­even those on advertisements and fire-plugs—­but few are more beautiful than these.