not imagine such buoyant little
creatures treading the earth like mortals. One stands on tip-toe like
a bird poised for flight. The other skips through the air with joyous
motion. The head of one is encircled by a halo, the emblem of purity.
The other wears a fillet of flowers over his curls. Each carries two
little pipes, the simplest of musical instruments.

[Illustration: MUSICAL ANGELS (DONATELLO) Church of San Antonio,
Padua]

It was long ago in the childhood of the race that some shepherd,
plucking a reed from the bank of a stream, first found that the hollow
stem had a voice of its own. The pipe thereafter became a favorite
instrument among primitive people. We read in the Old Testament
Scriptures that the ancient Hebrews used it in the celebration of
their festivities. At the Greek festivals also the pipers had a place
in the procession of musicians.

Our angel pipers are blowing lustily with puffing cheeks--

"Such sweet
Soft notes as yet musician's cunning
Never gave the enraptured air."

They are genuine musicians, not children playing with the pipes as
with toys. They move to the rhythm of their piping, their lifted faces
expressing their delight. Their thin garments cling to their figures,
and the loose ends flutter about them.

Every line of the modelling is beautiful, the poise of the figures
full of rhythmic grace. The angel at the left stands in profile, with
face slightly turned away from the spectator. The right hand figure
skips directly out of his panel, swinging lithely about towards the
left, as he moves. The outlines of both figures describe long fine
curves, with which the edges of the drapery run parallel. In the
drawing of the right hand angel we may trace delicate patterns of
interlacing ovals.

Some portions of the work seem to be modelled in very high relief. The
limbs, we are told, are in low relief, supported on a metal back, an
inch or so thick, by which they are thrown out to a proper distance
from the background.

The altar to which our panels belong is in the church of S. Antonio,
Padua, and was executed by the Florentine sculptor, Donatello, in
1450. The entire scheme of decoration is very elaborate. On the front
is a row of musical angels, in which the panels here reproduced occupy
opposite ends. Above these are five reliefs of larger size; and still
higher are seven life-size statues of saints. The whole is surmounted
by a crucifix. Even the ba