DONATELLO. DONATO DI BELTO DI BARDO, called Dona tello, was born at Florence in the year 1383. Ile was brought up in the house of a Florentine gentleman named Ruberto Martells a liberal patron of the arta, and received his first instructions from Lorenzo Bleci, from whom ho learned painting in fresco; but he afterwards became more famous as a sculptor. He also practised architecture. In the course of his life he visited many towns of Italy, among which were Venice, Padua (where the people wanted to detain and naturalise him), and Rome. Dountello was much oatmeal by his contemporaries, and executed a great number of works, both in private and public buildings, and for the grand-duko Como I. 11e was the first to employ bas-relief in tolling stories, according to the more elaborate style of Italian sculpture. When he first became no infirm as to be unable to work, the grand-duke Piero I. gave him a small estate : but ho was so much annoyed by the troublesome refer ences of his labourers, that he insisted on relinquishing it; and Piero gave him a pension instead, in daily payments, which perfectly con tented him. lfe died paralytic, December 13, 1466.
The principal works of Donatello are at Florence; but some have decayed, or been removed from their original station. One, a figure of St. Mark, which was nicknamed (according to the common pro pensity of the Florentines) Lo Znccone (the Gourd), on account of its bald head, is much commended. A St. George is also much esteemed ; and Vasari, speaking of a Judith bearing the head of Holofernes, iu bronze, calls it, with all the strength he gathered from his intense love of his art, "A work of great excellence and mastery, which, to hint who considers the simplicity of the outside, in the drapery and in the aspect of Judith, sees manifested from within it the great heart (anima) of that woman and the aid of God; as in the air of that Holofernes, wine and sleep, and death iu his members, which, having lost their spirit, show themselves cold and falling." Donatello left several pupils, to whom ho bequeathed his tools. The most noted are Bertoldo, Nanni d'Anton di Bianco, Rossellino, Disoderlo, and Yellen') di Padova. To the last he left all the works which he retained at his death. (Vivian ; Baldinucci.)