turned into a bendlet dexter, to show that the King had been pleased to legitimise him in recognition of his services to Joan of Arc.  Jean was a contemporary of Donatello, and the coat may have been placed among the other shields as a compliment to France.  Certainly no quarter of a town could use a mark of cadency below a bendlet, and Florence was more careful than most Italian towns to be precise in her heraldry.  Numbers of stone shields bearing the arms of Florentine families were placed upon the palace walls.  When high up and protected by the broad eaves they have survived; but, as a rule, those which were exposed to the weather, carved as they usually were in soft stone, have perished.[86] Bocchi mentions that Donatello made coats-of-arms for the Becchi, the Boni and the Pazzi.  Others have been ascribed to him, namely, the Stemma of the Arte della Seta, from the Via di Capaccio, that on the Gianfigliazzi Palace, the shield inside the courtyard of the Palazzo Davanzati, and that on the Palazzo Quaratesi, all in Florence.  These have been much repaired, and in some cases almost entirely renewed.  The shield on the eastern side of the old Martelli Palace (in the Via de’ Martelli, No. 9) is, perhaps, coeval with Donatello, but it is insignificant beside the shield preserved inside the present palace.  This coat-of-arms, which is coloured according to the correct metals and tinctures, is one of the finest extant specimens of decorative heraldry.  It is a winged griffin rampant, with the tail and hindlegs of a lion.  The shield is supported by the stone figure of a retainer, cut in very deep relief, as the achievement was to be seen from the street below.  But the shield itself rivets one’s attention.  This griffin can be classed with the Stryge, or the Etruscan Chimaera as a classic example of the fantastic monsters which were used for conventional purposes, but which were widely believed to exist.  It possesses all the traditional attributes of the griffin.  It is fearless and heartless:  its horrible claws strike out to wound in every direction, and the whole body vibrates with feline elasticity, as well as the agile movement of a bird.  Regarding it purely as a composition, we see how admirably Donatello used the space at his command:  his economy of the shield is masterly.  It is occupied at every angle, but nowhere crowded.  The spaces which are left vacant are deliberately contrived to enhance the effect of the figure.  It is the antithesis of the Marzocco.[87] The sculptor must have seen lions, but the Marzocco is not treated in a heraldic spirit, although it holds the heraldic emblem of Florence, the fleur de lys florencee.  Physically it is unsuccessful, for it has no spring, there is very little muscle in the thick legs which look like pillars, and the back is far too broad.  But Donatello is saved by his tact; he was ostensibly making the portrait of a lion; though he gives none of its features, he gives us all the chief leonine characteristics.  He excelled in imaginary animals, like the Chinese artists who make admirable dragons, but indifferent tigers.