Page:Vasari - Lives of the Most Excellent Painters, Sculptors, and Architects, volume 1.djvu/490

476 opposite to the church of that oratory; it is in marble, of the antique order called Corinthian, and differs entirely from the Gothic manner. This tabernacle was intended for the reception of two statues, but these Donato would not complete, because he could not come to an agreement with the syndics in respect to the price. They were consequently executed in bronze, after his death, by Andrea del Verrochio, as will be related hereafter. In that façade of Santa Maria del Fiore, which faces the Campanile, Donato executed four figures, each five braccia high, two of which are portraits from the life, one of Francesco Soderini when a youth, the other of Giovanni di Barduccio Cherichini, now called the Zuccone. The latter is considered the most extraordinary and most beautiful work ever produced by Donatello, who, when he intended to affirm a thing in a manner that should preclude all doubt, would say, “By the faith that I place in my Zuccone.” And while he was working on this statue he would frequently exclaim, while looking at it, “Speak then! why wilt thou not speak?” Over the door of the Campanile, on the side facing the Canonicate, is the figure of Abraham about to sacrifice Isaac, by this master, with another prophet. These figures were formerly placed between two other statues. For the Signoria of Florence, Donatello cast, in bronze, a statue of Judith cutting off the head of Holofernes. This