ove, although the vulgar think more of a certain
external and obvious delicacy that proves to lack the essential
qualities, which are made up for by diligence, than of the good, wrought
with reason and judgment, but not so highly finished and polished on the
outside.

But to return to Luca; the said work being finished and giving great
satisfaction, he was entrusted with the bronze door of the said
sacristy, which he divided into ten squares--namely, five on either
side, making the head of a man at every corner of each square, in the
border; and he varied the heads one from another, making young men, old,
and middle-aged, some bearded and some shaven, and, in short, each one
beautiful of its kind in diverse fashions, so that the framework of that
door was beautifully adorned. Next, in the scenes in the squares--to
begin at the upper part--he made the Madonna with the Child in her arms,
with most beautiful grace; and in the one beside it, Jesus Christ
issuing from the Sepulchre. Below these, in each of the first four
squares, is the figure of an Evangelist; and below these, the four
Doctors of the Church, who are writing in different attitudes. And the
whole of this work is so highly finished and polished that it is a
marvel, and gives us to know that it was a great advantage to Luca to
have been a goldsmith.

But since, on reckoning up after these works how much there had come to
his hand and how much time he spent in making them, he recognized that
he had gained very little and that the labour had been very great, he
resolved to abandon marble and bronze and to see whether he could gather
better fruits from another method. Wherefore, reflecting that clay could
be worked easily and with little labour, and that it was only necessary
to find a method whereby works made with it might be preserved for a
long time, he set about investigating to such purpose that he found a
way to defend them from the injuries of time; for, after having made
many experiments, he found that by covering them with a coating of
glaze, made with tin, litharge, antimony, and other minerals and
mixtures fused together in a special furnace, he could produce this
effect very well and make works in clay almost eternal. For this
method of working, as being its inventor, he gained very great praise,
and all the ages to come will therefore owe him an obligation.

[Illustration: THE MADONNA OF THE ROSES

(_After_ Luca della Robbia. _Florence: Bargello.