Chapter 9

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."

Giotto's pupils were Taddeo Gaddi, his godson as I have already said, and Puccio Capanna, a Florentine, who painted for the Dominican church of S. Cataldo at Rimini a most perfect fresco representing a ship apparently about to sink, while the men are throwing their goods into the water. Puccio has here portrayed himself in the midst of the sailors. After Giotto's death, the same artist painted a number of things in the church of S. Francesco at Assisi, and for the chapel of the Strozzi, beside the door on the river front of the church of Trinita he did in fresco a coronation of the Virgin with a choir of angels, in which he followed Giotto's style rather closely, while on the side walls are some very well executed scenes from the life of St Lucy. In the Badia of Florence he painted the chapel of S. Giovanni Evangelista of the family of the Covoni, which is next to the sacristy. At Pistoia he did frescoes in the principal chapel of S. Francesco, and the chapel of S. Ludovico, with scenes from the lives of the patron saints, which are very tolerable productions. In the middle of the church of S. Domenico in the same city is a crucifix with a Madonna and St John, executed with much softness, and at the feet an entire human skeleton, an unusual thing at that time, which shows that Puccio had made efforts to understand the principles of his art. This work contains his name, written after this fashion: _Puccio di Fiorenza me Fece_. In the same church, in the tympanum above the door of S. Maria Nuova are three half-length figures,--Our Lady, with the Child on her arm, St Peter on the one side and St Francis on the other, by the same artist. In the lower church of S. Francesco at Assisi he further painted in fresco some scenes from the passion of Jesus Christ, with considerable skill and much vigour, and in the chapel of S. Maria degli Angeli of that church he executed in fresco a Christ in glory, with the Virgin, who is interceding with Him for Christian people, a work of considerable merit, but much smoked by the lamps and candles which are always burning there in great quantity. In truth, so far as one can judge, although Puccio adopted the style and methods of his master Giotto, yet he did not make sufficient use of them in his works, although, as some assert, he did not live long, but sickened and died through working too much in fresco. His hand may also be recognised in the chapel of St Martin in the same church, in the history of the saint, done in fresco for the Cardinal Gentile. In the middle of a street called Portica may also be seen a Christ at the Column, and a picture of Our Lady between St Catherine and St Clare. His works are scattered about in many other places, such as Bologna, where there is a picture of the passion of Christ in the transept of the church, and scenes from the life of St Francis, besides other things which I omit for the sake of brevity. But at Assisi, where the majority of his works are, and where I believe he helped Giotto to paint, I found that they consider him to be a fellow-citizen, and there are some members of the family of the Capanni in that city to this day. From this we may gather that he was born in Florence, since he himself wrote that he was a pupil of Giotto, but that he took his wife from Assisi, and had children there, whose descendants still inhabit the town. But this matter is of very slight importance, and it is enough to know that he was a skilful master. Another pupil of Giotto, and a very skilful painter was Ottaviano da Faenza, who painted many things in S. Giorgio at Ferrara, a convent of the monks of Monte Oliveto. In Faenza, where he lived and died, he painted in the tympanum above the door of S. Francesco, Our Lady and St Peter and St Paul, and many other things in his own country and at Bologna.

Another pupil was Pace di Faenza, who was often with his master, and helped him in many things. At Bologna there are some scenes in fresco by his hand on the outside front of S. Giovanni Decollato. This Pace was a clever artist, especially in painting small figures, as may be seen to-day in the church of S. Francesco at Forli, in a tree of the cross and in a panel in tempera containing the life of Christ, and four small subjects from the life of Our Lady, which are all very well executed. It is said that he executed in fresco for the chapel of St Anthony at Assisi, some scenes from the life of that saint for a duke of Spoleto, who is buried there with a son. These two princes had been killed while fighting in the suburbs of Assisi, as may be seen by a long inscription on the sarcophagus of their tomb. The old book of the company of painters records that one Francesco, called "of Master Giotto," was another pupil of the master, but I know nothing more about him.

Yet another pupil of Giotto was Guglielmo da Forli, who, besides many other works, painted the chapel of the high altar for S. Domenico at Forli, his native place. Other pupils were Pietro Laureati, Simone Memmi of Siena, Stefano of Florence, and Pietro Cavallini of Rome. But as I intend to deal fully with these in their lives, I shall content myself here with simply saying that they were pupils of Giotto. That the master drew extremely well for his day may be seen on a number of parchments containing some water colours, pen and ink drawings, chiaroscuros with the lights in white, by his hand, in our book of designs, which are truly marvellous when compared with those of the masters who preceded him, and afford a good example of his style.

As has been said, Giotto was a very witty and pleasant person, very ready in speech, many of his sayings being still fresh in the memory of his fellow-citizens. Besides the one related by M. Giovanni Boccaccio, several very good stories are told by Franco Sacchetti in his "Three Hundred Tales." I give one in the author's own words, because it contains many expressions and phrases characteristic of the time. The rubric of this one runs: "Giotto, the great painter, is requested by a person of low birth to paint his buckler. Making a jest of the matter, he paints it so as to cover the applicant with confusion."

TALE LXIII.