effort, and there is no vestige of vigour in the rounded backs and soft limbs.  Even if Donatello furnished the original sketch, it is quite impossible that he should have executed or approved the carving.  Madame Andre’s Martyrdom of St. Sebastian is work in which the finishing-touches were probably added by a pupil, but this striking composition shows dramatic qualities which one must associate with Donatello himself.  So also the tondo Madonna belonging to M. Gustave Dreyfus, in which the figures are ranged behind a balustrade, making the “garden enclosed”—­a popular symbolical treatment of the Virgin and Child—­is doubtless from one of Donatello’s designs.[217] Though imperfect, the London Deposition or Lamentation[218] is an important work, and has a value as showing the methods of fastening figures in relief on to the foundation of the background, though in this case the bulk of the background is missing.  Three other reliefs should be mentioned, all representing Christ on the Cross.  Of these, the Berlin example,[219] though sadly injured since its acquisition for the museum, is notable; being, in fact, a genuine sketch by Donatello himself, and in a degree comparable to the clay study of the same subject in London.[220] The bronze relief, belonging to Comte Isaac de Camondo in Paris, is a most remarkable work of the Paduan period.  Donatello has succeeded in conveying the sense of desolating tragedy without any adventitious aid of violence or movement.  The whole thing is massive, and treated with a studied simplicity which concentrates the silence and loneliness of the scene.  It is superb, and superior to a varied treatment of the same subject in the Bargello.  In this well-known relief the crowded scene is full of turmoil and confusion.  In the foreground are the relatives and disciples of Christ.  Many soldiers are introduced, some of whom closely resemble the tall men-at-arms in Mantegna’s frescoes at Padua.  Donatello’s hand is obvious in the angels and in the three crucified figures, which are modelled with masterly conviction.  The rest of the composition has been ruthlessly gilded and chased until the statuesque lines are lost in a mass of tiresome detail; which is regrettable, for the conception is fine.

[Footnote 213:  Victoria and Albert Museum, No. 8717, 1863.]

[Footnote 214:  Museo Archeologico, Doge’s Palace.]

[Footnote 215:  Louvre, “His de la Salle Collection,” No. 385.]

[Footnote 216:  Marble, No. 39 B.]

[Footnote 217:  Cf. a Donatellesque stucco Madonna beneath a baldachino belonging to Signor Bardini, who also possesses a stucco Entombment similar to the London bronze.]

[Footnote 218:  Victoria and Albert Museum, No. 8552, 1863.  Bronze.]

[Footnote 219:  Stucco No. 41.]

[Footnote 220:  See p. 62.]

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[Illustration:  Alinari

MADONNA AND CHILD