upon his sepulchre.[61] Niccola, meanwhile, did not follow his Roman models in any slavish spirit.
They were neither numerous nor excellent enough to compel blind imitation or to paralyse inventive impulse.

The thoughts to be expressed in marble by the first modern artist were not Greek.

This in itself saved him from that tendency to idle reproduction which proved the ruin of the later neo-pagan sculptors.

Yet the fragments of antique work he found within his reach, helped him to struggle after a higher quality of style, and established standards of successful treatment.

For the rest, his choice of form and the proportions of his figures show that Niccola resorted to native Tuscan models.