h in character and in
volume. Here you see what one might call Roman Catholic art--that is,
the art which at once gives pleasure to simple souls and symbolizes
benevolence and safety--carried out to its highest power. Tenderness,
happiness, and purity are equally suggested by every relief here. Had
Luca and Andrea been entrusted with the creation of the world it
would be a paradise. And, as it is, it seems to me impossible but
that they left the world sweeter than they found it. Such examples
of affection and solicitude as they were continually bringing to the
popular vision must have engendered kindness.

I have noted as especially beautiful in the first room Nos. 4,
6, 12, 23, by Andrea; and 10 and 21, by Luca. These, by the
way, are the Bargello ascriptions, but the experts do not always
agree. Herr Bode, for example, who has studied the della Robbias with
passionate thoroughness, gives the famous head of the boy, which is
in reproduction one of the best-known works of plastic art, to Luca;
but the Bargello director says Andrea. In Herr Bode's fascinating
monograph, "Florentine Sculptors of the Renaissance," he goes very
carefully into the differences between the uncle and the nephew,
master and pupil. In all the groups, for example, he says that Luca
places the Child on the Madonna's left arm, Andrea on the right. In
the second room I have marked particularly Nos. 21, 28, and 31,
by Luca, 28 being a deeper relief than usual, and the Madonna not
adoring but holding and delighting in one of the most adorable of
Babies. Observe in the reproduction of this relief in this volume--
how the Mother's fingers sink into the child's flesh. Luca was the
first sculptor to notice that. No. 31 is the lovely Madonna of the
Rose Bower. But nothing gives me more pleasure than the boy's head of
which I have just spoken, attributed to Andrea and also reproduced
here. The "Giovane Donna" which pairs with it has extraordinary
charm and delicacy too. I have marked also, by Andrea, Nos. 71 and
76. Giovanni della Robbia's best is perhaps No. 15, in the other room.

One curious thing that one notes about della Robbia pottery is its
inability to travel. It was made for the church and it should remain
there. Even in the Bargello, where there is an ancient environment,
it loses half its charm; while in an English museum it becomes hard
and cold. But in a church to which the poor carry their troubles,
with a dim light and a little incense, it