The identity of the bicephalic servant holding the water utensils in the Judgment of Pilate (Fig. i) on Donatello's Gospel ambo in San Lorenzo has been a puzzling problem. Early writers did not identify the figure. Recently, H. W. Janson and Irving Lavin postulated that the strange bearer in this unique composition was merely an attribute of Pilate's, created to explicate the governor's character. Janson believes that the double face derives from Janus, or ‘rather, the personification of January’ carrying a jug, as portrayed in Romanesque calendar art. According to this theory, Donatello discarded or did not understand the meaning attached to a bicephalic January, and used the figure to show Pilate ‘torn between the pleas of his wife and the demands of expediency.' Lavin, who is in general agreement with this theory, carefully studied the literature on Pontius Pilate to support it. He divided the literary tradition into three parts—that which was favorable to the governor, against him, or merely neutral. Lavin concluded that Donatello's relief reflects an unfavorable view of Pilate, whom he sees as a man of ‘two minds,’ someone ‘akin to our idea of a hypocrite.'