MASACCIO.

In the Brancacci Chapel.

"He came to Florence long ago,

And painted here these walls, that shone
For Raphael and for Angelo,

With secrets deeper than his own,
Then shrank into the dark again,
And died, we know not how nor when.

The shadows deepened, and I turned

Half sadly from the fresco grand;
'And is this,' mused I, 'all ye earned,
High-vaulted brain and cunning hand,
That ye to greater men could teach
The skill yourself could never reach?'

'And who were they,' I mused, 'that wrought Through pathless wilds, with labor long, The highways of our daily thought?

Who reared those towers of earliest song That lift us from the throng to peace Remote in sunny silences?'

Out clanged the Ave Mary bells,

And to my heart this message came: Each clamorous throat among them tells What strong-souled martyrs died in flame To make it possible that thou

Shouldst here with brother-singers bow.

Thoughts that great hearts once broke for, we
Breathe cheaply in the common air;
The dust we trample heedlessly

Throbbed once in saints and heroes rare,
Who perished, opening for their race
New pathways to the commonplace.

Henceforth, when rings the health to those
Who live in story and in song,
O nameless dead, that now repose
Safe in Oblivion's chambers strong,

One cup of recognition true

Shall silently be drained to you!"

-James Russell Lowell.

CHAPTER IX.

THE SCULPTORS AND GHIRLANDAJO.

Besides Ghiberti, who wrought the bronze doors of the Baptistery, this time preceding Michael Angelo, produced the sculptors Donatello with his follower, Mino da Fiesole; Luca della Robbia and Verrocchio.

Of Ghiberti's works other than the bronze doors on which he labored faithfully for fifty years, and the memorial to St. Zanobius in the Duomo, are the bronze statues of St. Stephen, St. Matthew and St. John of Or San Michele, and in Santa Croce and Maria Novello are monumental tombs ordered by different Florentine families.

In Santa Croce is a wooden crucifix wrought by Donatello, the first he made, and of which his friend Brunelleschi said the figure was that of a peasant. That criticism is still retailed to us by every guide in Florence.

Brunelleschi in answer to Donatello's retort that he should make one himself, did so, and the one he made was quite superior to Donatello's. It is now in the Church of Santa Maria Novello.

In the Baptistery is a wooden statue of the Magdalene, and in the Bargello is a marble statue of St. John, and when we realize that they were made by Donatello before his sixteenth year, we may marvel at the power they

express.

It was about this time, in the year 1401, that a contest was proclaimed for the commission of the bronze doors of the Baptistery. Ghiberti's model, with Brunelleschi's rejected one, are now shown side by side in the Bargello Mu

seum.

Brunelleschi, in chagrin, ceased to aspire for chief honors as a sculptor, but resolved to excel as an architect. He, accompanied by his young friend, Donatello-that is, "little Donato," his name being Donato di Niccolo di Betto Bardi, "Donato, the son of Nicholas, the son of Betto Bardi"-left Florence for Rome.

The two supported themselves by applying the goldsmith's trade-most artists and sculptors served apprenticeship to goldsmiths-Orcagna, Luca della Robbia, Ghiberti, Verocchio, Andrea del Sarto, Ghirlandajo, Cellini and others and we notice strongly the effects of the goldsmith's art in Angelica's angels. In Rome Brunelleschi and Donatello studied the antique masterpieces to their heart's content, Donatello the statues, and Brunelleschi the architecture.

What inspiration and ability that study ac