In technical execution the Doni Madonna is faithful to old Florentine usage, but lifeless and unsympathetic.

We are disagreeably reminded by every portion of the surface that Lionardo's subtle play of tones and modulated shades, those _sfumature_, as Italians call them, which transfer the mystic charm of nature to the canvas, were as yet unknown to the great draughtsman.

There is more of atmosphere, of colour suggestion, and of chiaroscuro in the marble _tondi_ described above.

Moreover, in spite of very careful modelling, Michelangelo has failed to make us feel the successive planes of his composition.

The whole seems flat, and each distance, instead of being graduated, starts forward to the eye.