tion, that their statues began to appear almost
like living people, and no longer figures of stones, like those of the
first age; and to this those works bear witness that were wrought in
that new manner, as it will be seen in this Second Part, among which the
figures of Jacopo della Quercia have more movement, more grace, more
design, and more diligence; those of Filippo, a more beautiful knowledge
of muscles, better proportion, and more judgment; and so, too, those of
their disciples. But the greatest advance came from Lorenzo Ghiberti in
the work of the gates of S. Giovanni, wherein he showed such invention,
order, manner, and design, that his figures appear to move and to have
souls. But as for Donato,[9] although he lived in their time, I am not
wholly sure whether I ought not to place him in the third age, seeing
that his works challenge comparison with the good works of the ancients;
but this I will say, that he can be called the pattern of the others in
this second age, having united in his own self all the qualities that
were divided singly among many, for he brought his figures to actual
motion, giving them such vivacity and liveliness that they can stand
beside the works of to-day, and, as I have said, beside the ancient as
well.

[Footnote 9: _I.e._, Donatello.]

The same advance was made at this time by painting, from which that most
excellent Masaccio swept away completely the manner of Giotto in the
heads, the draperies, the buildings, the nudes, the colouring, and the
foreshortenings, all of which he made new, bringing to light that modern
manner which was followed in those times and has been followed up to
our own day by all our craftsmen, and enriched and embellished from time
to time with better grace, invention, and ornament; as it will be seen
more particularly in the Life of each master, wherein there will appear
a new manner of colouring, of foreshortenings, and of natural attitudes,
with much better expression for the emotions of the soul and the
gestures of the body, and an attempt to approach closer to the truth of
nature in draughtsmanship, and an effort to give to the expressions of
the faces so complete a resemblance to the living men, that it might be
known for whom they were intended. Thus they sought to imitate that
which they saw in nature, and no more, and thus their works came to be
better planned and better conceived; and this emboldened them to give
rules to their perspectives and t