Chapter IV: Part 4

Among the other painters of old time, in whom the well-deserved praise accorded to Cimabue and his pupil Giotto aroused a great deal of fear, for their good workmanship in painting was hailed throughout Italy, was one Margaritone, painter of Arezzo, who recognised equally well with the others who previously occupied the foremost positions in painting in that unhappy age, that the work of these two men would probably all but obliterate his own reputation. Margaritone was considered excellent among the painters of the age who worked in the Byzantine style, and he did a number of pictures in tempera at Arezzo. He worked in fresco also, painting almost the whole of the church of S. Clemente, an abbey of the order of the Camaldolites, but these occupied him a long time and cost him much trouble. The church is entirely destroyed to-day, together with many other buildings, including a strong fortress called S. dementi, because the Duke Cosimo de' Medici not only here, but round the whole circuit of the city, pulled down many buildings and the old walls which had been restored by Guido Petramalesco, a former bishop and lord of the city, in order to reconstruct them with curtains and bastions much stronger and of less circuit than the former ones had been, and consequently more easy to defend with a smaller number of men. Margaritone's pictures in this church contained many figures both small and great, and although they were executed in the Byzantine style, yet they were admitted to show evidence of having been executed with good judgment and with love of art, as may be inferred from the works of this painter which are still extant in that city. Of these the principal is a picture, now in the chapel of the Conception in S. Francesco, representing a Madonna with modern ornamentation, which is held in great veneration by the friars there. In the same church he did a large crucifix, also in the Byzantine style, which is now placed in the chapel where the quarters of the superintendent are situated. The Saviour is delineated upon the axes of the cross, and Margaritone made many such crucifixes in that city. For the nuns of S. Margherita he painted a work which is now placed in the transept of their church. This is canvas stretched on a panel, containing subjects from the life of Our Lady and of St John the Baptist in small figures, executed in a much better style, and with more diligence and grace than the large ones. This work is noteworthy, not only because the little figures in it are so carefully finished that they resemble the work of an illuminator, but because it is a wonderful thing that a picture on canvas should have lasted three hundred years. He did an extraordinary number of pictures for all the city, and a St Francis drawn from life at Sargiano, a convent of the bare-footed friars. To this he placed his name, because he considered that it was more than usually well done. He afterwards made a large crucifix in wood, painted in the Byzantine manner, and sent it to Florence to M. Farinata degli Uberti, a most famous citizen who, in addition to many other notable exploits, had saved his native city from imminent danger and ruin. This crucifix is now in S. Croce, between the chapel of the Peruzzi and that of the Giugni. In S. Domenico, at Arezzo, a church and convent built by the lords of Pietramela in the year 1275, as their coat of arms proves, he did many things before returning to Rome, where he had already given great satisfaction to Pope Urban IV. by doing some things in fresco for him in the portico of St Peter's; for although in the Byzantine style of the time, they were not without merit. After he had finished a St Francis at Ganghereto, a place above Terranuova in the Valdarno, he devoted himself to sculpture, as he was of an ambitious spirit, and he studied with such diligence that he succeeded much better than he had done in painting; for although his first sculptures were in the Byzantine style, as may be seen in four figures in wood of a Deposition from the Cross in the Pieve, and some other figures in relief which are in the chapel of St Francis above the baptismal font, yet he adopted a much better manner after he had visited Florence and had seen the works of Arnolfo, and of the other more celebrated sculptors of the time. In the year 1275 he returned to Arezzo in the suite of Pope Gregory, who passed through Florence on his journey from Avignon to Rome. Here an opportunity presented itself to make himself better known, for the Pope died at Arezzo after having given 30,000 scudi to the Commune wherewith to finish the building of the Vescovado which had been begun by Master Lapo, and had made but little progress. The Aretines therefore ordained that the chapel of St Gregory should be made in memory of the Pope in the Vescovado, in which Margaritone afterwards placed a picture, and in addition that Margaritone should make a marble tomb for the Pope in the Vescovado. He set to work upon the task and brought it to such a successful completion, introducing the Pope's portrait from life both in marble and in painting, that it was considered to be the best work which he had ever produced.

Margaritone then set to work to complete the Vescovado, following the design of Lapo, and he displayed great activity; but he did not complete it, for a few years later, in 1289, war broke out again between the Florentines and Aretines, through the fault of Guglielmo Ubertini, bishop and lord of Arezzo, aided by the Tarlati of Pietramela and by the Pazzi of Val d'Arno, when all the money left by the Pope for the building of the Vescovado was expended upon the war, while evil befell the leaders, who were routed and slain at Campaldino. The Aretines then ordained that the tolls paid by the surrounding country, called a _dazio_, should be set aside for the use of the building, and this toll has lasted to our own day. To return to Margaritone, he seems to have been the first, so far as one can judge by his works, who thought it necessary to take precautions, when painting on wood, that the joints should be secure, so that no cracks or fissures should appear after the completion of the painting, and it was his practice to cover the panel completely with canvas, fastened on by a strong glue made of shreds of parchment and boiled in the fire; he then treated the surface with gypsum, as may be seen in many of his own pictures and in those of others. Over the gypsum, thus mixed with the glue, he made lines and diadems and other rounded ornaments in relief; and it was he who invented the method of grounding in bol-ar-moniac, on which he laid gold leaf which he afterwards burnished. All these things which had never been seen before may be noticed in his works, especially in an antependium in the Pieve of Arezzo, which contains scenes from the life of St Donate, and also in S. Agnesa and S. Niccolo in the same city.

Margaritone produced many works in his own country which were sent out of it, part of which were at Rome in S. Giovanni and in St Peter's, and some at S. Caterina at Pisa, where there is a St Catherine of his over an altar in the transept, containing many small figures in a representation of her life, and also a panel of St Francis with many subjects from his life, on a gold ground. In the upper church of S. Francesco at Assisi is a crucifix by his hand painted in the Byzantine style, on a beam which spans the church. All these works were greatly prized by the people of the time, although they are not valued to-day, except as being curious on account of their age; indeed they could only be considered good in an age when art was not at its zenith, as it is to-day. Margaritone also paid some attention to architecture, although I have not mentioned any things made from his designs because they are of slight importance. However, I must not forget to say that he designed the palace of the governors of the city of Ancona, as I have found, in 1270, in the Byzantine style; and what is more, he carved in sculpture eight windows for the façade, each of which has two columns in the middle, which support two arches. Over each window is a representation in half relief, occupying the space between the arches and the top of the window, of an Old Testament subject, carved in a species of stone found in the country. Under the windows and on the façade are some letters, the purport of which must be conjectured, so badly are they done, which give the date and time at which the work was executed. The design of the church of S. Ciriaco at Ancona was also by his hand. Margaritone died at the age of seventy-seven, regretting, it is said, that he had lived long enough to see the changes of the age and the honours accorded to the new artists. He was buried in the old Duomo of Arezzo, in a tomb of Travertine, which has been destroyed in our own time by the demolition of that church. The following epitaph was written for him:

Hic jacet ille bonus pictura Margaritonus,
Cui requiem Dominus tradat uhique plus.

Margaritone's portrait was in the old Duomo by the hand of Spinello, in the Adoration of the Magi, and was copied by me before the church was pulled down.

Giotto, Painter, Sculptor, and Architect of Florence.

The debt which painters owe to Nature, which serves continually as an example to them, that from her they may select the best and finest parts for reproduction and imitation, is due also to the Florentine painter, Giotto; because, when the methods and outlines of good painting had been buried for so many years under the ruins caused by war, he alone, although born in the midst of unskilful artists, was able, through God's gift in him, to endow art with a proper form after it had been revived in a bad style. Certainly it was nothing short of a miracle, in so gross and unskilful an age, that Giotto should have worked to such purpose that design of which the men of the time had little or no conception, was revived to a vigorous life by his means. The birth of this great man took place in the year 1276, fourteen miles from Florence, in the town of Vespignano, his father, who was a simple field labourer, being named Bondone. He brought up Giotto as well as his position in life allowed. When the boy had attained the age of ten years he exhibited, in all his childish ways, an extraordinary quickness and readiness of mind, which made him a favourite, not only with his father, but with all who knew him, both in the village and beyond it. Bondone then set him to watch a few sheep, and while he was following these from place to place to find pasture, he was always drawing something from nature or representing the fancies which came into his head, with a stone on the ground or on sand, so much was he attracted to the art of design by his natural inclination. Thus one day when Cimabue was going on some business from Florence to Vespignano, he came upon Giotto, who, while his sheep were grazing, was drawing one of them from life with a pointed piece of stone upon a smooth surface of rock, although he had never had any master but nature. Cimabue stopped in amazement at the sight, and asked the boy if he would like to come and stay with him. Giotto replied he would go willingly if his father would consent. Cimabue lost no time in finding Bondone, who joyfully consented and allowed his son to accompany Cimabue to Florence. After his arrival there, assisted by his natural talent and taught by Cimabue, the boy not only equalled his master's style in a short time, but became such a good imitator of nature that he entirely abandoned the rude Byzantine manner and revived the modern and good style of painting, introducing the practice of making good portraits of living persons, a thing which had not been in use for more than two hundred years. And although there were some few portraits made in this manner, as has been said above, yet they had not been very successful, nor were they nearly so well executed as those of Giotto. Among other portraits which he made, the chapel of the Podesta palace at Florence still contains that of Dante Aligheri, his close companion and friend, no less famous as a poet than Giotto then was as a painter. This poet has been warmly praised by M. Giovanni Boccaccio in the introduction to the story of M. Forese da Rabatta. In this same chapel Giotto has also painted his own portrait as well as those of Ser Brunetto Latini, Dante's master, and M. Corso Donati, a famous citizen of the time. Giotto's first paintings were in the chapel of the high altar of the Badia at Florence, in which he made a number of things which were considered beautiful, but especially an Annunciation. In this he has represented with extraordinary truth the fear and astonishment of the Virgin Mary at the salutation of Gabriel, who, in her terror seems ready to run away. The picture of the high altar in the same chapel is also by Giotto's hand, and it has continued to retain its position there, rather because of a certain reverence which is felt for the work of such a man than for any other reason. In S. Croce there are four chapels decorated by his hand, three between the sacristy and the principal chapel, and one on the other side. In the first of these, that of M. Ridolfo de' Bardi, in which the bell ropes hang, is the life of St Francis, at whose death a number of friars exhibit the effect of weeping with considerable fidelity to nature. In the second, which is that of the family of the Peruzzi, are two subjects from the life of St John the Baptist, to whom the chapel is dedicated. Here is a very life-like representation of the dancing of Herodias, and of the promptitude with which some servants are performing the service of the table. In the same chapel are two miracles of St John the Evangelist, the one representing the raising of Drusiana, the other his being caught up into Heaven. The third chapel, that of the Giugni and dedicated to the Apostles, contains representations by Giotto of the martyrdom of many of them. In the fourth, that of the Tosinghi and Spinelli, which is on the north side of the church and is dedicated to the Assumption of Our Lady, Giotto painted the Nativity of the Virgin, her marriage, the Annunciation, the adoration of the Magi, and the presentation of the Christ child to Simeon. This last is a most beautiful thing, for not only is the warmest love depicted in the face of the old man as he receives the Christ, but the action of the child, who is afraid of him and stretches out his arms to return to his mother, could not be represented with more tenderness or greater beauty. In the Death of Our Lady the Apostles are represented with a number of very beautiful angels. The Baroncelli chapel in the same church contains a painting in tempera by Giotto's hand, in which he has represented with great care the coronation of Our Lady. It contains a very large number of small figures and a choir of angels and saints, produced with great diligence. On this work he has written his name and the date in gold letters. Artists who reflect that at this time Giotto was laying the foundations of the proper method of design and of colouring, unaided by the advantages of seeing the light of the good style, will be compelled to hold him in the highest veneration. In the same church of S. Croce there are in addition a crucifix above the marble tomb of Carlo Marzuppini of Arezzo, Our Lady with St John and the Magdalene at the foot of the cross, and opposite on the other side of the building an Annunciation towards the high altar over the tomb of Lionardo Aretino, which has been restored by modern artists with great lack of judgment. In the refectory he has done the history of St Louis, a Last Supper, and a Tree of the Cross, while the presses of the sacristy are decorated with some scenes from the lives of Christ and of St Francis in small figures. At the church of the Carmine in the chapel of St John the Baptist he represented the whole of that saint's life in several pictures; and in the Palazzo della parte Guelfa at Florence there is the history of the Christian faith painted admirably by him in fresco, and containing the portrait of Pope Clement IV., who founded that monastery to which he gave his arms, retained by them ever since.

After these works Giotto set out from Florence for Assisi in order to finish what Cimabue had begun there. On his way through Arezzo he painted the chapel of St Francis, which is above the baptistery in the Pieve there, and a St Francis and a St Dominic, portraits from life, on a round pillar near to a most beautiful antique Corinthian capital. In the Duomo outside Arezzo he decorated the interior of a large chapel with the Stoning of St Stephen, an admirable composition of figures. On completing these things he proceeded to Assisi, a city of Umbria, whither he was summoned by fra Giovanni di Muro della Marca, at that time general of the friars of St Francis. In the upper church of this town he painted a series of thirty-two frescoes of the life of St Francis, under the corridor which traverses the windows, sixteen on each side, with such perfection that he acquired the highest reputation thereby. In truth the work exhibits great variety, not only in the postures of the different figures, but in the composition of each subject, besides which it is very interesting to see the various costumes of those times and certain imitations and observations of Nature. One of the most beautiful of these represents a thirsty man, whose desire for water is represented in the most lively manner as he kneels on the ground to drink from a spring, with such wonderful reality that one might imagine him to be a real person. There are many other things most worthy of notice into which I will not enter now, because I do not wish to be tedious. Let it suffice to say that by these works Giotto acquired the highest reputation for the excellence of his figures, for his arrangement, sense of proportion, fidelity to Nature, and his innate facility which he had greatly increased by study, while in addition to this he never failed to express his meaning clearly. Giotto indeed was not so much the pupil of any human master as of Nature herself, for in addition to his splendid natural gifts, he studied Nature diligently, arid was always contriving new things and borrowing ideas from her.

When these works were completed Giotto painted in the lower church of the same place the upper part of the walls beside the high altar, and all four angles of the vaulting over the spot where the body of St Francis lies, the whole displaying his beautiful and inventive imagination. The first contains St Francis glorified in Heaven, surrounded by those Virtues which are required of those who wish to be perfect in the sight of God. On the one side Obedience puts a yoke on the neck of a friar who kneels before her, the bands of which are drawn by hands to Heaven. With one finger on her mouth she signifies silence, and her eyes are turned towards Jesus Christ, who is shedding blood from his side. Beside her are Prudence and Humility to show that where true obedience exists, there also will be humility and prudence, causing everything to prosper. In the second angle is Chastity, who will not allow herself to be won by the kingdoms, crowns, or palms which are being offered to her. At her feet stands Purity who is washing the naked, while Fortitude is bringing others to be washed and cleansed. On one side of Chastity is Penitence, chasing a winged Love with the cord of discipline and putting to flight Uncleanness. Poverty occupies the third space, treading on thorns with her bare feet; behind her barks a dog, while a boy is throwing stones at her and another is pushing thorns into her legs with a stick. Poverty here is espoused by St Francis, while Jesus Christ holds her hand in the mystical presence of Hope and Chastity. In the fourth and last of these places is a St Francis in glory, clothed in the white tunic of a deacon, in triumph and surrounded by a multitude of angels who form a choir about him and hold a banner on which are a cross and seven stars, while over all is the Holy Spirit. In each of these angles are some Latin words explanatory of the subject. Besides these four angles the paintings on the side walls are most beautiful, and deserve to be highly valued both for the perfection which they exhibit and because they were produced with such skill that they are in an excellent state of preservation to-day. These paintings contain an excellent portrait of Giotto himself, and over the door of the sacristy is a fresco by his hand of St Francis receiving the stigmata, so full of tenderness and devotion that it seems to me to be the most excellent painting that Giotto has produced here, though all are really beautiful and worthy of praise.

When S. Francesco was at length finished Giotto returned to Florence, where he painted with extraordinary care, a picture of St Francis in the fearful desert of Vernia, to be sent to Pisa. Besides a landscape full of trees and rocks, a new thing in those days, the attitude of the saint, who is receiving the stigmata on his knees with great eagerness, exhibits an ardent desire to receive them and an infinite love towards Jesus Christ, who is in the air surrounded by seraphim granting them to him, the varied emotions being all represented in the most telling manner imaginable. The predella of the picture contains three finely executed subjects from the life of the same saint. The work may now be seen in S. Francesco at Pisa, on a pillar beside the high altar, where it is held in high veneration in memory of so great a man. It led the Pisans, on the completion of their Campo Santo from the plan of Giovanni di Niccola Pisano, as already related, to entrust to Giotto the painting of a part of the walls. For as the exterior of the walls was incrusted with marble and sculptures at a great cost, the roof being of lead, and the interior filled with antique sarcophagi and tombs of Pagan times, gathered together in that city from all parts of the world, the Pisans wished the walls to be decorated with a series of noble paintings. Accordingly Giotto went to Pisa, and beginning at the end of one of the walls of the Campo Santo he depicted the life of the patient Job in six frescoes. Now it occurred to him that the marbles of the part of the building in which he was at work were turned towards the sea, and being exposed to the south-east wind, they are always moist and throw out a certain saltness, as do nearly all the bricks of Pisa, and because the colours and paintings are eaten away by these causes, and as he wished to protect his work from destruction as far as possible, he prepared a coating for the whole of the surface on which he proposed to paint his frescoes, which consisted of a plaster or incrusture made up of lime, chalk and brick-dust. This device has proved so successful, that the paintings which he subsequently executed on this surface, have endured to this day, and they would have stood better had not the neglect of those who should have taken care of them, allowed them to be much damaged by the damp. The want of attention to this detail, which would have involved little trouble, has caused the pictures to suffer a great deal in some places where the damp has converted the crimsons into black and caused the plaster to fall off. Besides this it is the nature of chalk when mixed with lime to become corroded and to peel, whence it happens that the colours are destroyed, although they may originally appear to take well. These frescoes contain the portrait of M. Farinata degli Uberti, besides many fine figures, among which one may remark some countrymen, who in bringing the sad news to Job, exhibit the utmost sorrow for the lost animals and the other misfortunes. There is also much grace in the figure of a servant, who with a fan of branches stands near the bowed figure of Job, abandoned by everyone else, for in addition to the figure being well executed in every particular, his attitude is wonderful, as with one hand he drives away the flies from his leprous and noisome master, and holds his nose with the other with disgust, to escape the smell. Very fine also are the other figures of these pictures and the heads of both men and women, and the delicate treatment of the drapery, so that it is small wonder that the work brought Giotto such renown in that city and elsewhere; that Pope Benedict IX., who was proposing to decorate St Peter's with some paintings, sent a courtier from Treviso to Tuscany, to see what manner of man Giotto was, and to report on the quality of his work. On the way the courtier learned that there were other excellent masters in painting and mosaic in Florence, and he interviewed a number of artists at Siena. When he had received designs from these, he proceeded to Florence. Entering Giotto's shop one morning, as he was at work, the envoy explained to him the Pope's intention, and the manner in which he wished to make use of his work, and finally asked Giotto for some small specimen of work to send to His Holiness. Giotto, who was always courteous, took a sheet of paper and a red pencil, pressed his arm to his side to make a compass of it, and then with a turn of his hand, produced a circle so perfect in every particular that it was a marvel to see. This done, he turned smiling to the courtier and said: "Here is the design." The latter, who thought he was joking, said: "Am I to have no other design but this?" "It is enough and more than enough," replied Giotto; "send it in with the others and you will see if it is recognised." The messenger perceived that he would obtain nothing else, and left in a state of considerable dissatisfaction, imagining that he had been laughed at. However, when he sent in the other designs with the names of their authors, he included that of Giotto, and related how the artist had executed it without moving his arm and without compasses. From this the Pope and all the courtiers present recognised to what an extent Giotto surpassed all the other painters of the time in excellence. When the story became public it gave rise to a saying which is still used for people of dull wits: "You are more round (_tondo_) than Giotto's O." This proverb deserves to be considered a good one, not only from the circumstances out of which it arose, but much more for its meaning, which is due to the two-fold significance of the word _tondo_ in Tuscany, that of a perfect circle, and slowness and heaviness of mind. Accordingly the Pope sent for Giotto to Rome, where he received him with great honour, and recognised his worth. He caused him to paint for the tribune of St Peter's five subjects from the life of Christ, and the principal picture for the sacristy, all of which were executed with great care, nothing in tempera ever leaving his hands before it was perfectly finished; thus he richly deserved the reward of 600 gold ducats which the delighted Pope gave to him, bestowing many other favours upon him, so that it became the talk of all Italy.

As I do not wish to omit a memorable circumstance concerning art, I will notice here that there happened to be in Rome at this time a great friend of Giotto named Oderigi d'Aggobbio, an excellent illuminator of the day, who adorned many books for the Pope for the palace library, though they are now mostly destroyed by time. In my own book of old designs there are some remnants by his hand, and he certainly was a clever artist. But a much better master than he was Francis, an illuminator of Bologna, who did some very fair things for the Pope for the same library at that very time, in a like style, as may be seen in my book, where I have some designs by his hand, both for painting and illuminations, among them an eagle, excellently done, and a fine lion tearing up a tree. These two excellent illuminators are referred to by Dante in the passage on the vainglorious in the eleventh chapter of the Purgatorio, in these lines:

"Oh, dissi lui, non se' tu Oderisi
L'onor d'Aggobbio e l'onor di quell' arte
Ch' alluminare è chimata in Parisi?
Frate, diss' egli, più ridon le carte,
Che pennelleggia Franco Bolognese
L'onor è tutto or suo, e mio in parte."

When the Pope had seen these works he was so enchanted by Giotto's style that he commissioned him to surround the walls of St Peter's with scenes from the Old and New Testaments. Giotto therefore began these, and painted the fresco of the angle, seven braccia high, which is above the organ, and many other paintings, of which some have been restored by other artists in our own day, and some have been either destroyed or carried away from the old building of St Peter's during the founding of the new walls and set under the organ. Among these was a representation of Our Lady on a wall. In order that it might not be thrown down with the rest, it was cut out, supported by beams and iron, and so taken away. On account of its great beauty, it was afterwards built into a place selected by the devotion of M. Niccolo Acciancoli, a Florentine doctor enthusiastic over the excellent things of art, who has richly adorned it with stucco and other modern paintings. Giotto is also the author of the mosaic known as the Navicella, which is over the three doors of the portico in the courtyard of St Peter's. This is a truly marvellous work, well deserving its high reputation among all persons of taste. In addition to its excellent design, the apostles are admirably disposed, toiling in different ways in the midst of the tempest, while the winds fill the sail, which bellies out exactly like a real one; and yet it is a difficult task so to unite those pieces of glass to form the light and shade of so real a sail, which, even with the brush, could only be equalled by a great effort. Besides all this, there is a fisherman who is standing on a rock and fishing with a line, whose attitude is expressive of the extreme patience proper to that art, while his face betrays his hope and desire to catch something. Beneath the Navicella are three small arches painted in fresco, but as they are almost entirely effaced, I will say no more about them. All artists, however, unite in praise of these works.

At last, when Giotto had painted a large crucifix in tempera in the Minerva, a church of the Friars Preachers, which was then much admired, he returned to his own country, from which he had been absent for six years. But soon after Pope Clement V. was elected at Perugia, on the death of Pope Benedict IX., and Giotto was obliged to accompany the new pontiff to his court at Avignon to execute some works there. Thus, not only in Avignon, but in several other places of France, he painted many very beautiful frescoes and pictures, which greatly delighted the Pope and all his court. When he at length received his dismissal, he was sent away kindly with many gifts, so that he returned, home no less rich than honoured and famous. Among other things which he brought away with him was the Pope's portrait, which he afterwards gave to Taddeo Gaddi, his pupil. The date of this return to Florence was the year 1316. But he was not long permitted to remain in Florence, as he was invited to Padua to do some work for the lords della Scala, for whom he painted a beautiful chapel in the Santo, a church built in those times. He thence proceeded to Verona, where he did some pictures for the palace of Messer Cane, particularly the portrait of that lord, and a picture for the friars of S. Francesco. On the completion of these things he was detained at Ferrara, on his way back to Tuscany, to paint for the lords of Esti in their palace and S. Agostino some things which may be seen there to this day. When the news of Giotto's presence at Ferrara reached the Florentine poet Dante, he succeeded in inducing his friend to visit Ravenna, where the poet was exiled, and caused him to paint some frescoes about the church of S. Francesco for the lords of Polenta, which are of considerable merit. From Ravenna Giotto proceeded to Urbino, and did a few things there. Afterwards he happened to be passing through Arezzo, and being unable to refuse a favour to Piero Saccone, who had been very kind to him, he executed in fresco, on a pillar of the principal chapel of the Vescovado, a St Martin, who is cutting his mantle in two and giving part of it to a beggar who is all but naked. Then, when he had painted in tempera a large crucifix in wood for the Abbey of S. Fiore, which is now in the middle of that church, he at length reached Florence. Here, among many other things, he painted some pictures in fresco and tempera for the Nunnery of Faenza, which no longer exist owing to the destruction of that house.

In 1321 occurred the death of Giotto's dearest friend Dante, to his great grief; and in the following year he went to Lucca, where, at the request of Castruccio, then lord of that city, his birthplace, he made a picture of St Martin, with Christ above in the air, and the four patron saints of the city--St Peter, St Regulus, St Martin, and St Paulinus--who seem to be presenting a pope and an emperor, believed by many to be Frederick of Bavaria and the anti-Pope Nicholas V. There are also some who believe that Giotto designed the impregnable fortress of the Giusta at S. Fridiano at Lucca. When Giotto had returned to Florence, King Robert of Naples wrote to his eldest son Charles, King of Calabria, who was then in that city, to use every means to induce the painter to go to Naples, where the king had just completed the building of the Nunnery of S. Chiara and the royal church, which he wished to have decorated with noble paintings. When Giotto learned that he was wanted by so popular and famous a king, he departed to serve him with the greatest alacrity, and on his arrival he painted many scenes from the Old and New Testaments in some chapels of the monastery. It is said that the scenes from the Apocalypse which he made in one of those chapels were suggested by Dante, as also perchance were some of the much-admired works at Assisi, of which I have already spoken at length; and although Dante was dead at this time, it is possible that they had talked over these things, as friends frequently do. To return to Naples, Giotto did many works in the Castel dell' Uovo, especially in the chapel, which greatly delighted the king, who became so fond of him that he often came to talk with the artist while he was at work, and took delight in seeing him at work and in listening to his conversation. Giotto, who always had a jest ready or some sharp retort, entertained the king with his hand in painting and with his tongue by his pleasant discourse. Thus it once happened that the king told him it was his intention to make him the first man in Naples, to which Giotto replied: "No doubt that is why I am lodged at the Porta Reale to be the first man in Naples." Another day the king said to him: "Giotto, if I were you, this hot day, I would leave off painting for a while." He answered: "So I should, certainly, if I were you." Being thus on very friendly terms with the king, he painted a good number of pictures for him in the chamber which King Alfonso I. pulled down to make the castle, and also in the Incoronata, and among those in the chamber were the portraits of many famous men, Giotto among the number. One day, by some caprice, the king asked Giotto to paint his kingdom. It is said that Giotto painted for him a saddled ass, with another new saddle at its feet at which it was sniffing, as if he wished for it in place of the one he had on. On each saddle were the royal crown and the sceptre of power. When the king asked Giotto for the meaning of this picture, he replied: "Such are your subjects and such is the kingdom, where every day they are wanting to change their master."

On his departure from Naples for Rome, Giotto stayed at Gaeta, where he was constrained to paint some subjects from the New Testament in the Nunziata, which have suffered from the ravages of time, but not to such an extent that it is not possible to distinguish a portrait of Giotto himself near a large crucifix of great beauty. This done, he remained a few days at Rome, in the service of the Signor Malatesta, whom he could not refuse this favour, and then he went on to Rimini, of which city Malatesta was lord, and there in the church of S. Francesco he painted a large number of pictures, which were afterwards destroyed by Gismondo, son of Pandolfo Malatesta, who rebuilt the whole of that church. In the cloister of the same church, towards the church front, he painted in fresco the life of the Blessed Michelina, which ranks with the best things which he ever did, on account of the many fine things which he took into consideration in executing it, for, quite apart from the beauty of the drapery and the grace and vigour of the heads, which are truly marvellous, there is a young woman of the most exquisite beauty, who in order to free herself from an accusation of adultery, takes a most solemn oath upon a book, keeping her eyes fixed on those of her husband, who has made her swear because his suspicions had been aroused by her giving birth to a black son, whom he could not be persuaded to acknowledge as his own. Just as the husband shows his anger and mistrust in his face, so his wife betrays, to those who look carefully at her, her innocence and simplicity, by the trouble in her face and eyes, and the wrong which is done to her in making her swear and in proclaiming her publicly as an adulteress. Giotto has also expressed with great realism a man afflicted with sores, as all the women who are about him, disgusted by the stench, turn away with various contortions in the most graceful manner imaginable. Then again the foreshortening in a picture containing a number of lame beggars is highly praiseworthy, and should be much prized by artists, since it is from these works that the origin of foreshortening is derived; and when it is remembered that they are the first, they must be considered very tolerable achievements. But the most remarkable thing of all in this series is the action of the saint with regard to certain usurers who are paying her the money realised by the sale of her possessions, which she intends to give to the poor. Her face displays contempt for money and other earthly things, which she seems to abhor, while the usurers are the very picture of human avarice and greed. Similarly the face of one who is counting the money, which he appears to be communicating to the notary who is writing, is very fine, for although his eyes are turned towards the notary, yet he keeps his hand over the money, thus betraying his greed, avarice, and mistrust. Also the three figures in the air representing Obedience, Patience, and Poverty, who are holding up the habit of St Francis, are worthy of the highest praise, chiefly on account of the natural folds of the drapery, showing that Giotto was born to throw light on the art of painting. Finally he has introduced into this work a portrait of the Signor Malatesta in a ship, which is most life-like; and his excellence is also displayed in the vigour, disposition, and posture of the sailors and other people, particularly of one figure who is speaking with others and putting his hand to his face spits into the sea. Certainly these things may be classed among the very best works in painting produced by the master, because, in spite of the large number of figures, there is not one which is not produced with the most consummate art, being at the same time exhibited in an attractive posture. Accordingly there is small need for wonder that the Signor Malatesta loaded him with rewards and praise. When Giotto had completed his works for this Signor, he did a St Thomas Aquinas reading to his brethren for the outside of the church door of S. Cataldo at Rimini at the request of the prior, who was a Florentine. Having set out thence he returned to Ravenna, where he executed a much admired painting in fresco in a chapel of S. Giovanni Evangelista. When he next returned to Florence, laden with honours and riches, he made a large wooden crucifix in tempera for S. Marco, of more than life-size, with a gold ground, and it was put on the right-hand side of the church. He made another like it for S. Maria Novella, in which his pupil Puccio Capanna collaborated with him. This is now over the principal entrance to the church, on the right-hand side, above the tomb of the Gaddi. For the same church he made a St Louis, for Paolo di Lotto Ardinghelli, with portraits of the donor and his wife at the saint's feet. This picture is placed on the screen.

In the following year, 1327, occurred the death of Guido Tarlati da Pietramala, bishop and lord of Arezzo, at Massa di Maremma, on his return from Lucca, where he had been visiting the Emperor. His body was brought to Arezzo, where it received the honour of a stately funeral, and Pietro Saccone and Dolfo da Pietramala, the bishop's brother, determined to erect a marble tomb which should be worthy of the greatness of such a man, who had been both spiritual and temporal lord and the leader of the Ghibelline party in Tuscany. Accordingly they wrote to Giotto, desiring him to design a very rich tomb, as ornate as possible; and when they had supplied him with the necessary measurements, they asked him to send them at once the man who was, in his opinion, the most excellent sculptor then living in Italy, for they relied entirely upon his judgment. Giotto, who was very courteous, prepared the design and sent it to them, and from it the tomb was made, as will be said in the proper place. Now Pietro Saccone was a great admirer of Giotto's worth, and when, not long after, he took the Borgo a S. Sepolero, he brought from that place to Arezzo a picture by the artist's hand, of small figures, which was afterwards broken into fragments; but Baccio Gondi, a Florentine of gentle birth, a lover of the noble arts and of every kind of virtue, made a diligent search for the pieces of this picture when he was commissioner at Arezzo, and succeeded in finding some. He brought them to Florence, where he holds them in great veneration, as well as some other things in his possession, also by Giotto, who produced so much that an enumeration of all his works would excite incredulity. It is not many years since that I happened to be at the hermitage of Camaldoli, where I have done a number of things for the fathers, and in a cell to which I was taken by the Very Rev. Don Antonio da Pisa, then general of the congregation of Camaldoli, I saw a very beautiful crucifix, on a gold ground, by Giotto, with his signature. I am informed by the Rev. Don Silvano Razza, a Camaldolian monk, that this crucifix is now in the cell of the principal, where it is treasured for its author's sake as a most precious thing, together with a very beautiful little picture by the hand of Raphael of Urbino.

For the Umiliati brethren of Ognissanti at Florence Giotto painted a chapel and four pictures, one of them representing Our Lady surrounded by a number of angels, with the child at her neck, on a large crucifix of wood, the design of which was subsequently copied by Puccio Capanna, and reproduced in every part of Italy, for he closely followed Giotto's style. When this work of the Lives was printed for the first time, the screen of that church contained a picture painted in tempera by Giotto, representing the death of Our Lady, surrounded by the apostles, while Christ receives her soul into His arms. The work has been much praised by artists, and especially by Michelagnolo Buonarotti who declared, as is related elsewhere, that it was not possible to represent this scene in a more realistic manner. This picture, being as I say held in great esteem, has been carried away since the publication of the first edition of this work, by one who may possibly have acted from love of art and reverence for the work, which may have seemed then to be too little valued, and who thus from motives of pity showed himself pitiless, as our poet says. It is certainly a marvel that Giotto should have produced such beautiful paintings in those times, especially when it is considered that he may in a certain sense be said to have learned the art without a master.

After these things, in the year 1334, on the ninth day of July, he began work on the campanile of S. Maria del Fiore, the foundations of which were laid on a surface of large stones, after the ground had been dug out to a depth of 20 braccia, the materials excavated being water and gravel. On this surface he laid 12 braccia of concrete, the remaining 8 braccia being filled up with masonry. In the inauguration of this work the bishop of the city took part, laying the first stone with great ceremonial in the presence of all the clergy and magistrates. As the work was proceeding on its original plan, which was in the German style in use at the time, Giotto designed all the subjects comprised in the ornamentation, and marked out with great care the distribution of the black, white, and red colours in the arrangement of the stones and lines. The circuit of the tower at the base was 100 braccia, or 25 braccia on each side, and the height 144 braccia. If what Lorenzo di Cione Giberti has written be true, and I most firmly believe it, Giotto not only made the model of this campanile, but also executed some of the marble sculptures in relief, which represent the origin of all the arts. Lorenzo asserts that he had seen models in relief by the hand of Giotto, and particularly those of these works, and this may readily be credited, since design and invention are the father and mother of all the fine arts, and not of one only. According to Giotto's model, the campanile should have received a pointed top or quadrangular pyramid over the existing structure, 50 braccia in height, but because it was a German thing, and in an old-fashioned style, modern architects have always discountenanced its construction, considering the building to be better as it is. For all these things Giotto received the citizenship of Florence, in addition to a pension of one hundred gold florins yearly from the Commune of Florence, a great thing in those days. He was also appointed director of the work which was carried on after him by Taddeo Gaddi, as he did not live long enough to see its completion.

While the campanile was in progress, Giotto made a picture for the nuns of S. Giorgio, and three half-length figures in the Badia of Florence, in an arch over the doorway inside, now whitewashed over to lighten the church. In the great hall of the podesta at Florence, he painted a representation of the Commune, which has been appropriated by many people. The figure represents a judge, seated with a sceptre in his hand, over whose head are the scales, equally poised to indicate the just measures meted out by him, while he is assisted by four Virtues, Fortitude with the soul, Prudence with the laws, Justice with arms, and Temperance with words; a fine painting, and an appropriate and plausible idea.

Giotto made a second visit to Padua, where besides painting a number of chapels and other things, he executed a famous series of pictures in the place of the Arena, which brought him much honour and profit. In Milan also he left a few things which are scattered about the city, and which are considered very beautiful to this day. At length, shortly after his return from Milan, he rendered his soul to God in the year 1336, to the great grief of all his fellow-citizens, and of all those who had known him or even heard his name, for he had produced so many beautiful works in his life, and was as good a Christian as he was an excellent painter. He was buried with honour, as his worth deserved, for in his life he was beloved by everyone, and especially by distinguished men of every profession. Besides Dante, of whom we have spoken above, he and his works were highly esteemed by Petrarch, who in his will left to Signor Francesco da Carrara, lord of Padua, among other things which were held in the greatest veneration, a Madonna by Giotto's hand, as a rare thing, and the gift most worthy to be offered to him. The words of this part of the will ran thus:--_Transeo ad dispositionem aliarum rerum; et predicto igitur domino meo Paduano, quia et ipse per Dei gratiam nan eget, et ego nihil aliud habeo dignum se, mitto tabulam meam sive historiam Beatæ Vlrginis Mariae, operis Jocti pictoris egregii, quæ mihi ab amico meo Michaele Vannis de Florentia missa est, in cujus pulchritudinem ignorantes non intelligunt, magistri autem artis stupent: hanc iconem ipsi domino lego, ut ipsa Virgo benedicta sibi sit propitia apud filium suum Jesum Christum, &c_. It was Petrarch also who said the following words in the fifth book of his Familiari written to his intimate friends: _Atquc (ut a veteribus ad nova, ab externis ad nostra transgrediar) duos ego novi pictores egregios, nec formosos, Jottum Florentinorum civem, cujus inter modernos fama urgens est, et Simonem Sanensem. Novi scultores aliquot, &c_. Giotto was buried in S. Maria del Fiore, on the left hand as one enters the church, where a white marble slab is set up to the memory of this great man. As I remarked in the life of Cimabue, a contemporary commentator of Dante said: "Giotto was, and is the chief among the painters in that same city of Florence, as his works in Rome, Naples, Avignon, Florence, Padua, and many other parts of the world testify."