The struggling figures, Centaurs, and Lapithae, already exhibit Michael Angelo's power over rhythm of line in a crowded composition as in the later groups of "Moses raising the Serpent in the Wilderness," and "The Last Judgment," both in the Sistine Chapel.

The method is extraordinarily free for so young a sculptor; he evidently thinks out his work as it proceeds; his delight in the beauty of the male human form is shown in every figure.
Some critics have been unable to distinguish the figure of Deianeira, as her form has been so little differentiated or emphasised by the master.
She is towards the left of the composition; a man holds her by the hair of her head.

The centre figures and the two at the lower corners remind us forcibly of the pulpits of San Lorenzo.
[Image #3] THE ANGEL AT THE SHRINE OF SAINT DOMINIC BOLOGNA (_By permission of the Fratelli Alinari, Florence_) Vasari mentions another bas-relief executed at this period, a seated Madonna with the Infant Jesus, in the manner of Donatello; the inferior bas-relief, now in the Casa Buonarroti, is said to be this work.

If the club-shaped feet and thick hands of the Madonna are compared with the beautiful long feet and graceful hands of the angel holding a candlestick, at San Domenico, in Bologna, certainly by Michael Angelo, it cannot be supposed that these two works were either executed or even designed by the same artist.

The pose of the Holy Child in the Madonna bas-relief has been arranged by some one who has seen "The Day" on the tomb of Giuliano at San Lorenzo; in the background are children on a stairway, somewhat in the style of Donatello, but they are more like imitations of the later works of Michael Angelo.