decorative forms of his art. For the rest the problems which
interested him most were perhaps best worked out in the study of the
male figure.

A recent biographer of Donatello, Hope Rea, points out some
interesting characteristics of his technical workmanship. In every
work subsequent to his St. Mark, "the hair," she says, "is conspicuous
by its appearance of living growth." And again, explaining the
excellence of his drapery, she shows how he went beyond the ordinary
consideration of the general flow and line of the stuffs, to a study
of the sections of the folds. Hence drapery with him "is not only an
arrangement of lines for decorative effect, or a covering for the
figure, but it is a beauty in itself, filled with the living air."

Nanni di Banco is a name naturally associated with that of Donatello,
not only on account of the friendship between the two, but from the
fact that both worked on the church of Or San Michele. Nanni was one
of the smaller men whose work is overshadowed by the fame of a great
contemporary. His art has not sufficient distinction to give it a
prominent place; yet it is not without good qualities. Marcel Reymond
insists that the public has not yet appreciated the just merits of
this neglected sculptor. In his opinion the St. Philip was the
inspiration of Donatello's St. Mark, while Nanni's St. Eloi had an
influence upon St. George.

With Luca della Robbia began the "reign of the bas-relief," as Marcel
Reymond characterizes the period of fifty years between Donatello and
Michelangelo. Women and children were the special subjects of this
sculptor's art, and it is perhaps in the Madonna and Child that we see
his most characteristic touch. How well he could represent spirited
action, we see in some of the panels of the organ gallery. How
dignified was his sense of repose, is seen in the lunette of the
Ascension.

Much as he cared for expression,--"expression carried to its highest
intensity of degree," as Walter Pater put it,--he never found it
necessary to secure this expression at the cost of beauty. That he
studied nature at first hand his works are clear evidence, but that
did not preclude the choice of attractive subjects. His style is "so
sober and contained," writes a recent critic, "so delicate and yet so
healthy, so lovely and yet so free from prettiness, so full of
sentiment, and devoid of sentimentality, that it is hard to find words
for any critical characterization."[2] "Simplic