In the year 1330, Andrea Pisano, the son of Ugolino, who was settled in Florence, executed one of the bronze gates of the Baptistery in that city. The sculpture illustrates the life of St. John. This work is admirable for its beautiful sentiment and simplicity, though it must be allowed to be deficient in the mechanical excellences of sculpture. Andrea Oreagna, contemporary with Andrea Pisano, was an architect, painter, sculptor, and poet. [ORCAGNA, in BIOG. Dtv.] His works in sculpture, notwithstanding a certain dry quality of execution that per vades them, have great merit. his most esteemed performances are the sculptures on the altar in the chapel or oratory of Or San Michele, in Florence. Orcagna showed great talent in the management of his draperies, preserving considerable breadth in the forms and disposition of the folds, and so composing them as not to conceal the action of the limbs. There are some curious monuments of this early period at Naples, where sculpture was practised by the followers and imitators of Niccolo and Giovanni Pisani. The Neapolitans pretend, indeed, to cite names of sculptors even earlier than the Pisani ; and mention is made of "Maestro" Fiorenza and Agnolo Cosentino of as early a date as tho 9th and 10th centuries. Approaching, however, nearer to the time under consideration, wo find the name of Pietro da Stefani men tioned as a respectable sculptor at Naples. His works are particularly commended for expression, a quality of difficult attainment in what may truly he considered the infancy of art. The two Mamma are also recorded among the sculptors who were at that time decorating Naples with their works. The chief occupation for the artists was in " Depoeiti," or tombs, monumental sculptures, and occasionally enrich ments, in reliefs and small figures, on altars. Tho monuments were often of a very elaborate kind, uniting sculpture with architecture. Stories of figures in niches, or mixed up with Arabesque or Gothic ornaments, rose ono above the other, till, at a certain elevation, the work took a pyramidal form, the apex of which was surmounted by a statue either of the Madonna and Child, or of a patron saint, or some times by an equestrian figure of the deceased. There are some very curious specimens of these composition!' in many parts of Italy; one of the most remarkable is at Naples, in the church of S. Giovanni dei Carbonari.
The works of Luca della Robbia abound in Italy. They possess merit not only as works of art, but as specimens of a manufacture, or rather, a process, of which this sculptor is said to be the inventor and exclusive possessor. This was the art of covering terra-cotta models with a beautiful and peculiar coloured varnish, which renders them as hard as atone. He is supposed never to have disclosed this secret ; but there is a tradition that he committed it to writing, and inclosed the paper, or whatever it was inscribed on, in some one of his models, before he sent it to be baked ; so that it could only be known at the price of destroying, or at least injuring, a number of his works, till the document should appear. Among his productions are some of great beauty. They consist chiefly of groups, in alto-rilievo, of the Madonna and infant Saviour, or Christ and St. John as children, and similar subjects. Luca della Robbia died in 1442.
In the Oalls7 of Sculpture at Florence are preserved some extremely interesting specimens of art of this period, by Benedetto da Rovezzano and others. These works merit a careful examination, as they offer not merely valuable illustration of the progress that was being made in the art at the time they were executed, but they possess qualities which claim for them high praise as examples of rich composition and appro priate expression. Many of them are likewise worthy of attention for an approach to great beauty of form, and for the skilful treatment of the draperies.
The next distinguished names which occur in the annals of restored sculpture are those of Lorenzo Ghiberti and Donato di Betto Bardi, better known as Donatello. Ghiberti has secured a lasting reputation
by his celebrated bronze gates of the Baptistery of Florence, the edifice on which so many preceding sculptors had been employed. The first gates mentioned by historians were executed by Buonano in 1180: they were destroyed by fire. Andrea Pisano was the next artist employed upon them, and his and the later works at that edifice are fortunately still preserved. The contribution of Lorenzo is in a series of rilicvi, ranged in compartments, illustrating subjects from the Old Testament. Michel Angelo is said to have admired them so highly that he declared they were fit to be " the gates of Paradise." Lorenzo brought to this work a great knowledge of composition, a superior acquaintance with the more beautiful forms and movements of the human figure, a refined feeling for expression, and considerable powers of execution. They very fax surpass the works of his predecessors in the revival of sculpture, and, in many respects, have not often been excelled. It is not pretended that these reliefs are free from faults. Their chief imperfection arises out of the undefined notions which then existed of the true principles that respectively govern, or should govern, composition in painting and sculpture. It is obviously out of the province of the latter art (which is confined to representing objects by defined forms alone) to attempt perspective appearances and effects which can only be truly and correctly given by aid of colour, or by the skilful distribution of light and shadow. In the work under considera tion this principle is invaded. Objects are represented in various planes, and those which should be subordinate are, in consequence of the necessary relief given to them in order to define their forms, forced upon the attention, or cast shadows to the injury of more important features in the design. The number of small parts, and a too great minuteness of detail, are also defects in this remarkable work, and deprive it of that breadth of effect which is so admirable a quality in art. [GnmEnri, Lortzszo, in Bioo. Drv.] Donatello was a scholar of Lorenzo de' Bicci, and was born in Florence in the year 1383. The works of Donatello are numerous, and remarkable for their superior qualities. His conceptions were bold, and his execution vigorous, and it is easy to see in his per formances the reason for the compliment paid to his statue of St. Mark by one who could so well appreciate these qualities as Michel Angelo : "Marco, perche non mi pull!" Thies, and a statue of St. George, also in marble, decorate the exterior of the church of Or San Michele at Florence. The St. George is a fine example of grand and simple expression. The figure, dressed in plate armour, stands firmly on both legs, and ho rests his hands on his shield, which is held before him, its pointed band on the ground. There is a calm determination and a quiet dignity in this work. It is probable that the somewhat exaggerated treatment which is observable in this and other produc Mona of Donatello, as well as of Ghiberti, arose from their desire to avoid the dryness and poverty of form in the works of some of their immediate predecessors. [DONATELLO, in Moo. Dry.] Donatello en joyed a great reputation,and there is scarcely a city of any consequence in the north and middle of Italy that cannot boast some specimen of his talent. He introduced a mode of working reliefs that has not often been practised since his time. The sculptured portion is scarcely raised above the• plane of the background. It has the appearance of the design having been drawn on the marble, and then engraved, as it wero, under a strong side-light. This kind of work hardly comes legitimately under the name of sculpture, and can only bo fitted for certain situations, in which, at a little distance, it has more the effect of a picture than of sculpture.