power remains.  Donatello combines the literal and symbolical meaning of the Cross; the Godhead is still there.  Donatello did not forget that the crucified Christ, when represented by the sculptor, had to preserve all the immortality of the Son of God.  His contadino Christ in Florence has its interest in art; this Christ marks the summit of his plastic ability; but it shows that, without any appeal to terror or emotionalism, without, indeed, suppressing the signs of physical pain, Donatello was able to give an overwhelming portrait of Christ’s agony.  The celestial and the terrestrial are unified and fused into one tremendous concentration of human suffering, tempered by divine power.

[Footnote 195:  Cf., for instance, the Madonna over the door of the Pisa Baptistery.]

[Footnote 196:  Cf. drawings of ewers in Uffizzi by Giacomone da Faenza, sixteenth century.]

* * * * *

[Illustration:  Alinari

MIRACLE OF THE SPEAKING BABE

SANT’ ANTONIO, PADUA]

[Illustration:  Alinari

MIRACLE OF THE MISER’S HEART

SANT’ ANTONIO, PADUA]

[Illustration:  Alinari

MIRACLE OF THE MULE

SANT’ ANTONIO, PADUA]

[Sidenote:  The Bronze Reliefs.]

The four panels of Miracles take the highest rank among Donatello’s bas-reliefs.  Their size is considerable, being about four feet long.  They have one theme in common, namely, the supernatural gifts of St. Anthony and the veneration of the populace.  Donatello’s crowds are admirable; they are deep crowds.  The people are rather hot and jostling each other:  they stand on benches or stairs in order to get a better view of what is proceeding.  The edges of the crowds, where the people are too far off to be active spectators, lose interest in the central incident; they gossip as bystanders or sit down:  often they are shown actually leaving the place.  It is singular how ill-designed many of the classical crowds are, especially the battle-scenes:  they are constructed without regard for the human necessity of standing on something; and we have grotesque topsy-turvy compositions, the individual parts of which are unrivalled in technique.[197] Michael Angelo’s first and last representation of a crowd in sculpture shows the same fault, which, indeed, was far from uncommon.[198] It arose from a desire to show more of the crowd than could be naturally seen from the eye level, and the whole relief was consequently covered with figures, the background proper being suppressed.  In these Paduan reliefs Donatello manages to give ample density and variety, and there is never any doubt as to the ownership of legs or arms.  His early relief at Siena, on the other hand, has a group