hieratic conventions.  Mount Athos has the pathetic interest of showing the dark ages surviving down to our own day in the vigour of unabated decadence.  Though not subjected to any serious canon, the predecessors of Donatello seemed at one time in danger of becoming conventionalised.  But Donatello would not permit his art to be divorced from appeals to reason and intellect; once started, his theory held its own.  Donatello was bound by no laws; with all its cadence and complexity his art was unsuited to a canon as would be the art of music.  He seems almost to have disregarded the ordinary physical limitations under which he worked.  He had no “cant of material,” and whether in stone, bronze, wood, or clay, he went straight ahead in the most unconcerned manner.

[Footnote 16:  In 1496.  See Gruyer, “Les Illustrations,” 1879, p. 206.]

[Footnote 17:  C. Mueller, “Ancient Art and its Remains,” p. 227.]

[Footnote 18:  Pliny, xxxvi. 44.]

[Footnote 19:  Printed in Richter’s “Literary Works of Leonardo da Vinci,” vol. i.]

[Footnote 20:  By Francis Grose, the Antiquary.  London, 1788.]

* * * * *

[Illustration:  Alinari

HABAKKUK

CAMPANILE, FLORENCE]

[Sidenote:  Habbakuk and the Sense of Distance.]

We do not know much about Habbakuk.  He left two or three pages of passionate complaint against the iniquity of the land, but his “burden” lacks those outbursts of lyric poetry which are found in most of the other minor prophets.  Donatello gives him the air of a thinker.  He holds a long scroll to which he points with his right hand while looking downward, towards the door of the Cathedral.  It is a strong head, as full of character as the Jeremiah.  But Habbakuk is less the man of action, and the deep lines about the mouth and across the forehead show rather the fruits of contemplation.  There may be a note of scepticism in the face.  But this Habbakuk is no ascetic, and there is much strength in reserve:  his comment though acrid would be just.  The veins in the throat stand out like cords.  They are much more noticeable in the photograph than when one sees the statue from the Piazza.  It must be remembered that these figures on the Campanile are something like fifty-five feet from the ground:  they were made for these lofty positions, and were carved accordingly.  They show Donatello’s sense of distance; the Zuccone shows his sense of light and shade, the Abraham his sense of proportion.  Donatello had the advantage of making these figures for particular places; his sculpture was eminently adapted to the conditions under which it was to be seen.  In the vast majority of cases modern sculpture is made for undetermined positions, and is fortunate if it obtains a suitable emplacement.  It seldom gets distance, light and proportion in harmony with the technical character of the carving.  Donatello