rhythmic movement--the forerunner of the "singing tribune" for Florence
cathedral, at which he worked intermittently from 1433 to 1440, and
which is now restored to its original complete form at the museum of the
Opera del Duomo. But Donatello's greatest achievement of his "classic
period" is the bronze "David" at the Bargello, the first nude statue of
the Renaissance, the first figure conceived in the round, independent of
any architectural surroundings--graceful, well-proportioned, superbly
balanced, suggestive of Greek art in the simplification of form, and yet
realistic, without any striving after ideal proportions. The same
tendencies are to be noted in the bronze _putto_ at the Bargello.

In 1443 Donatello was invited to Padua to undertake the decoration of
the high altar of S. Antonio, but in the period preceding his departure
he not only assisted Brunelleschi in the decoration of the sacristy of
S. Lorenzo, towards which the bronze doors are his chief contribution,
but found time to chisel, or model in wax or terra-cotta, for Cosimo and
other private patrons, most of the portrait busts and small reliefs,
which are now distributed over the museums of the world. His first work
in Padua was the bronze crucifix for the high altar, a work immeasurably
superior to the early wooden crucifix at S. Croce, both as regards
nobility of expression and subtlety of form. In the very year when
Donatello arrived in Padua the famous Condottiere Erasmo de' Narni,
called Gattamelata, had died, and when it was decided to honour his
memory with an equestrian statue, it was only natural that this master
should be chosen to undertake a task from the difficulties of which all
others may well have shrunk--had shrunk, indeed, since classic times.
This commission, and the reliefs and figures for the high altar, kept
Donatello in Padua for ten years, though during that time he visited
Venice (where he carved the wooden "St John" at the Frari) and probably
Mantua, Ferrara and Modena. At least, he was in communication with of
Borso d'Este of Modena about a project for an equestrian statue, and had
to give expert opinion about two equestrian statues at Ferrara. In his
workshop in Padua he gathered around him quite a small army of
assistants, stone-carvers, metal-workers, painters, gilders and
bronze-casters. The Gattamelata was finished and set up in 1453--a work
powerful and majestic in its very repose; there is no striving for
dramatic effe