g
the most interesting and various of the forerunners of the Renaissance.

Within Or San Michele you learn the secret of the stoned-up windows
which one sees with regret from without. Each, or nearly each, has
an altar against it. What the old glass was like one can divine from
the lovely and sombre top lights in exquisite patterns that are left;
that on the centre of the right wall of the church, as one enters,
having jewels of green glass as lovely as any I ever saw. But blues,
purples, and reds predominate.

The tabernacle apart, the main appeal of Or San Michele is the statuary
and stone-work of the exterior; for here we find the early masters
at their best. The building being the head-quarters of the twelve
Florentine guilds, the statues and decorations were commissioned by
them. It is as though our City companies should unite in beautifying
the Guildhall. Donatello is the greatest artist here, and it was
for the Armourers that he made his S. George, which stands now, as
he carved it in marble, in the Bargello, but has a bronze substitute
in its original niche, below which is a relief of the slaying of the
dragon from Donatello's chisel. Of this glorious S. George more will
be said later. But I may remark now that in its place here it instantly
proves the modernity and realistic vigour of its sculptor. Fine though
they be, all the other statues of this building are conventional;
they carry on a tradition of religious sculpture such as Niccolo
Pisano respected, many years earlier, when he worked at the Pisan
pulpit. But Donatello's S. George is new and is as beautiful as a
Greek god, with something of real human life added.

Donatello (with Michelozzo) also made the exquisite border of the
niche in the Via Calzaioli facade, in which Christ and S. Thomas now
stand. He was also to have made the figures (for the Merchants' Guild)
but was busy elsewhere, and they fell to Verrocchio, of whom also we
shall have much to see and say at the Bargello, and to my mind they
are the most beautiful of all. The John the Baptist (made for the
Cloth-dealers), also on this facade, is by Ghiberti of the Baptistery
gates. On the facade of the Via de' Lamberti is Donatello's superb
S. Mark (for the Joiners), which led to Michelangelo's criticism that
he had never seen a man who looked more virtuous, and if S. Mark
were really like that he would believe all his words. "Why don't
you speak to me?" he also said to this statue, as Donatel