in the marble. The Assyrians also
used this low-relief; we find the system fully understood in what are
perhaps the most spirited hunting scenes in the world.[100] In these
we also notice the square and rectangular undercutting similar to that
in many of Donatello's reliefs. Another specimen of this very
low-relief is found in Mr. Quincy Shaw's marble panel of the Virgin
and Child seated among clouds and surrounded by _putti_. This has been
attributed to Donatello on good authority,[101] though it must be
remarked that the cherubs' faces show poverty of invention which might
suggest the hand of a weaker man. Moreover, the cherubs have halos,
which is a later development, and quite contrary to Donatello's early
practice. But the relief is an interesting composition, and if by
Donatello, may be regarded as the parent of a group which attained
popularity. M. Gustave Dreyfus has a smaller marble variant of great
charm, made by Desiderio. A stucco panel treated in much the same
manner is preserved at Berlin. The Earl of Wemyss has an early version
in _repousse_ silver of high technical merit. From this point of view
nothing is more instructive than a Madonna and Child at Milan.[102] It
is probably the work of Pierino da Vinci, and is a thin oval slab of
marble carved on either side. One side is unfinished, and is most
valuable as showing the facility with which the sharp graving tools
were employed to incise the marble. The composition bears a
resemblance to the reliefs just mentioned, and the pose of the two
heads is Donatellesque, but the Child is elongated and ill-drawn.
Again, from a technical point of view, a medallion portrait of the
late Lord Lytton shows that artists of our own day have used
_stiacciato_ with perfect confidence and success.[103] Donatello was
not always quite consistent in its employment. In the Entombment at
Padua it is combined with high-relief. He, no doubt, acted
deliberately; that is to say, he did not sketch a hand in
_stiacciato_, because he had forgotten to provide for it in deeper
relief. But the result is that the quality of the different planes is
lost, and there are discrepancies in the relative values of distance.
The final outcome of _stiacciato_ is the art of the medallist. It is
said that Donatello made a medal, but nobody has determined which it
is. Michelozzo certainly made one of Bentivoglio, about 1445.[104]
This admirable art, which reached its perfection during Donatello's
life