The centre figures and the two at the lower corners remind us
forcibly of the pulpits of San Lorenzo.
[Image #3]
THE ANGEL AT THE SHRINE OF SAINT DOMINIC
BOLOGNA
(_By permission of the Fratelli Alinari, Florence_)
Vasari mentions another bas-relief executed at this period, a seated
Madonna with the Infant Jesus, in the manner of Donatello; the inferior
bas-relief, now in the Casa Buonarroti, is said to be this work. If the
club-shaped feet and thick hands of the Madonna are compared with the
beautiful long feet and graceful hands of the angel holding a candlestick,
at San Domenico, in Bologna, certainly by Michael Angelo, it cannot be
supposed that these two works were either executed or even designed by the
same artist. The pose of the Holy Child in the Madonna bas-relief has been
arranged by some one who has seen "The Day" on the tomb of Giuliano at San
Lorenzo; in the background are children on a stairway, somewhat in the
style of Donatello, but they are more like imitations of the later works
of Michael Angelo. The folds of the draperies are like the folds of some
silken material, whereas the folds of the robe of the angel at San
Domenico are large, like the folds of a blanket, a characteristic of all
the draperies designed by the master. This bas-relief, now in the Casa
Buonarroti, was presented to Cosimo de Medici, first Grand Duke of
Tuscany, by Michael Angelo's nephew Leonardo,(67) as a work by his uncle,
but we do not know that Leonardo was a good judge of his uncle's works,
and this bas-relief was supposed to have been executed more than fifty
years before its presentation; afterwards it came back into the possession
of the Buonarroti family, and was presented by them to the city of
Florence along with the house in Via Ghibellina.
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