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."