The result is that when one meets the enthusiasts one remembers them.

There is a little dark fellow in the Brera at Milan whose zeal in displaying the merits of Mantegna's foreshortened Christ is as unforgettable as a striking piece of character-acting in a theatre.

There is a more reserved but hardly less appreciative official in the Accademia at Bologna with a genuine if incommunicable passion for Guido Reni.

And, lastly, there is Alfred Branconi, at S.Croce, with his continual and rapturous "It is faine! It is faine!" but he is a private guide.

The Bargello custodians belong to the other camp.
The fondness of sculptors for David as a subject is due to the fact that the Florentines, who had spent so much of their time under tyrants and so much of their blood in resisting them, were captivated by the idea of this stripling freeing his compatriots from Goliath and the Philistines.