Page:Vasari - Lives of the Most Excellent Painters, Sculptors, and Architects, volume 1.djvu/491

Rh was placed on the piazza, in an arch of their loggia. It is a work of great excellence, and proves the mastery of the author over his art. There is much grandeur and simplicity in the aspect and vestments of Judith; her greatness of mind, and the power she derives from the aid of God, are made clearly manifest, while the effects of wine and sleep are equally visible in the countenance of Holofernes, as is the result of death in his limbs, which have lost all power, and hang down cold and flaccid. This work was so carefully executed by Donato, that the casting turned out most successfully, and was delicately beautiful: he then finished it so diligently, that it is indeed most wonderful to behold. The basement, also, which is a balustrade, in granite, of simple arrangement, is very graceful in its effect, and the appearance is extremely pleasing to the eye. Donatello himself was so well satisfied with the whole of this work, that he determined. to place his name on it (which he had not donef on the others), as is seen in the words Donatelli Opus. In the court of the before-mentioned Palazzo de’ Signoria is a David, in bronze, by this master, naked, and of the size of life. He has cut off the head of Goliah, and, raising his foot, he places it on the head; in his right hand is the sword. The animation, truth to nature, and softness manifest in this figure, make it almost impossible to artists to believe that it has not been moulded on the living form. This statue formerly stood in the court of the Medici Palace, but, on the exile of Cosimo, it was transported to the position above named (the Signoria). In our day, the Duke Cosimo having made a fountain on the spot which this figure occupied, has caused it to be removed to another court (the place, that is, where the lions formerly stood), where it makes a very fine ornament to that façade