He was old when he left Padua, and on his departure he had completed the greatest undertaking of his career—­the High Altar of the Santo, with all its marble setting and the bronze figures.  A crucifix, the Madonna and Child, six saints, a Pieta, twelve panels of angels, four reliefs of St Anthony’s Miracles, the Symbols of the Evangelists, and a large marble Entombment.  Donatello’s altar was unfortunately dismantled in the seventeenth century, and the statues were dispersed throughout the Church.  The altar was reconstructed a few years ago, and the bronzes have suffered during their exile, but they are still in good preservation.  The new marble altar is a thoughtful and painstaking construction; its details are derived from Donatellesque motives, and the bronzes are fitted in with skill.  It cannot, however, be in any sense a reproduction of the old altar, of which no drawing is preserved.  And the earliest description, which has been carefully followed as far as circumstances allow, shows that the existing sculpture is incomplete:  at least four marble reliefs have been lost.[194] One may further remark that the twelve angels in high relief, now forming the face of the altar frontal, are so designed, especially as regards their aureoled heads, that one concludes it must have been Donatello’s intention for them to have been looked up to rather than looked down upon.  The present arrangement of the altar is simple and effective.  The frontal itself is composed of children singing and playing music.  In the centre is the Pieta, and on either side is an Evangelist’s symbol flanked by two saints on the level of the top of the altar.  The retable has two miracle reliefs, and between them a small bronze Christ, which has been put there in error.  Above the retable is the Madonna with two saints on either side:  the crucifix surmounts the whole composition.  The back of the altar has the remaining Miracle reliefs and Evangelist symbols, together with the Entombment.

[Footnote 191:  Michael Angelo Gloria; Donatello Fiorentino e le sue opere ... a Padova, 1895, from which the dates are all quoted.]

[Footnote 192:  See Kristeller’s Mantegna, translated by S.A.  Strong, 1901, p. 17.]

[Footnote 193:  Over the Sacristy doors in the Cathedral.]

[Footnote 194:  Anonimo Morelliano (1520-40).  Ed. of Bassano, 1800, p. 3. E da dietro l’altar sotto il scabello il Cristo morto, con le altre figure a circo, e le due figure da man destra con le altre due da man sinistra, pur de basso rilevo, ma de marmo, furono de mano de Donatello.]

* * * * *

[Illustration:  Alinari

SAINT FRANCIS, THE MADONNA, AND SAINT ANTHONY

SANT’ ANTONIO, PADUA]

[Sidenote:  The Large Statues.]