The Miracle of the Stingy Man's Heart

myminifactory

The group known as Altare del Santo comprised a total of twenty-nine pieces of sculpture. Among them, four bronze bas-reliefs depicted the miracles of Saint Anthony: the Miracle of the Ass, the Miracle of the New-born Child, the Miracle of the Repentant Son, and the Miracle of the Avaricious Man's Heart. In the Miracles series, Donatello employed a technique of flattened relief on a roughened surface, which served to fragment light and scatter it, thereby creating an atmosphere that is luminous and ethereal, in which the intangible images appear to hover. This marks a significant departure from previous narrative relief scenes, where architecture had played a relatively minor role. In the Miracles series, however, it is the rhythm of the architecture that unites the jostling crowd, making it the chief protagonist. After his death, the heart of a miser was discovered in a chest where he had stored his wealth during his lifetime. This event unfolds on the left edge of the relief titled Miracle of the Avaricious Man's Heart, while Saint Anthony is seen opening the corpse's ribcage.