In 1433 he was in Rome again, probably not sorry to be there since Cosimo had been banished and had taken Michelozzo with him.

On the triumphant return of Cosimo in 1434 Donatello's most prosperous period began; for he was intimate with the most powerful man in Florence, was honoured by him, and was himself at the useful age of forty-four.
Of Donatello as an innovator I have said something above, in considering the Florentine Davids, but he was also the inventor of that low relief in which his school worked, called rilievo stiacciato, of which there are some excellent examples at South Kensington.

In Ghiberti's high relief, breaking out often into completely detached figures, he was also a master, as we shall see at S.Lorenzo.But his greatest claim to distinction is his psychological insight allied to perfect mastery of form.

His statues were not only the first really great statues since the Greeks, but are still (always leaving Michelangelo on one side as abnormal) the greatest modern examples judged upon a realistic basis.

Here in the Bargello, in originals and in casts, he may be adequately appreciated; but to Padua his admirers must certainly go, for the bronze equestrian statue of Gattamelata is there.