Page 52 (1/2)

The harper thruers; the violin player flashed his

bow back and forth across the strings; the flautist poured his breath in

quick puffs of jollity, while Donatello shook the ta with unweariable steps As they followed

one another in a wild ring of mirth, it seemed the realization of one

of those bas-reliefs where a dance of nymphs, satyrs, or bacchanals

is twined around the circle of an antique vase; or it was like the

sculptured scene on the front and sides of a sarcophagus, where, as

often as any other device, a festive procession mocks the ashes and

white bones that are treasured up within You eant; but after a while, if you look at thesethem froaythem to a happy close A youth has

suddenly fallen in the dance; a chariot is overturned and broken,

flinging the charioteer headlong to the ground; aon the bosoic incident is shadowed forth or thrust sidelong into the

spectacle; and when once it has caught your eye you can look no more

at the festal portions of the scene, except with reference to this one

slightly suggested doom and sorrow

As in its mirth, so in the darker characteristic here alluded to, there

was an analogy between the sculptured scene on the sarcophagus and the

wild dance which we have been describing In the midst of its madness

and riot Miriaure

that shook its fantastic garments in the air, and pranced before her on

its tiptoes, alility of Donatello himself It was

the model