Donatello, by Lord Balcarres by Earl of David Lindsay Crawford
page 32 of 263 (12%)
page 32 of 263 (12%)
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[Footnote 15: Bargello David.]
* * * * * [Illustration: _Alinari_ JEREMIAH CAMPANILE, FLORENCE] [Sidenote: Jeremiah and the Canon of Art.] The Jeremiah, for instance, which is in the niche adjacent to the still more astonishing Zuccone (looking westwards towards the Baptistery), is a portrait study of consummate power. It is the very man who wrote the sin of Judah with a pen of iron, the man who was warned not to be dismayed at the faces of those upon whose folly he poured the vials of anger and scorn; he is emphatically one of those who would scourge the vices of his age. And yet this Jeremiah has his human aspect. The strong jaw and tightly closed lips show a decision which might turn to obstinacy; but the brow overhangs eyes which are full of sympathy, bearing an expression of sorrow and gentleness such as one expects from the man who wept for the miserable estate of Jerusalem--_Quomodo sedet sola civitas!_ Tradition says that this prophet is a portrait of Francesco Soderini, the opponent of the Medici; while the Zuccone is supposed to be the portrait of Barduccio Cherichini, another anti-Medicean partisan. Probabilities apart, much could be urged against the attributions, |
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