in distemper, for the Minerva, a church of the Preaching Friars,
returned to his own country, having been abroad six years. But no long
time after, by reason of the death of Pope Benedict IX, Clement V was
created Pope in Perugia, and Giotto was forced to betake himself with
that Pope to the place where he brought his Court, to Avignon, in order
to do certain works there; and having gone there, he made, not only in
Avignon but in many other places in France, many very beautiful panels
and pictures in fresco, which pleased the Pontiff and the whole Court
infinitely. Wherefore, the work dispatched, the Pope dismissed him
lovingly and with many gifts, and he returned home no less rich than
honoured and famous; and among the rest he brought back the portrait of
that Pope, which he gave afterwards to Taddeo Gaddi, his disciple. And
this return of Giotto to Florence was in the year 1316. But it was not
granted to him to stay long in Florence, because, being summoned to
Padua by the agency of the Signori della Scala, he painted a very
beautiful chapel in the Santo, a church built in those times. From there
he went to Verona, where, for Messer Cane, he made certain pictures in
his palace, and in particular the portrait of that lord; and a panel for
the Friars of S. Francis. These works completed, in returning to Tuscany
he was forced to stay in Ferrara, and he painted at the behest of those
Signori d'Este, in their palace and in S. Agostino, some works that are
still seen there to-day. Meanwhile, it coming to the ears of Dante, poet
of Florence, that Giotto was in Ferrara, he so contrived that he brought
him to Ravenna, where he was living in exile; and he caused him to make
round the Church of S. Francesco, for the Signori da Polenta, some
scenes in fresco that are passing good. Next, having gone from Ravenna
to Urbino, there too he wrought some works. Then, chancing to pass
through Arezzo, he could not but comply with the wish of Piero Saccone,
who had been much his friend; wherefore he made for him in fresco, on a
pillar in the principal chapel of the Vescovado, a S. Martin who has cut
his cloak in half and is giving one part of it to a beggar, who is
standing before him almost wholly naked. Then, having made for the Abbey
of S. Fiore a large Crucifix painted in distemper on wood, which is
to-day in the middle of that church, he returned finally to Florence,
where, among many other works, he made some pictures in the Convent of
the Nuns of Faenza, both in fresco and in distemper, that are not in
existence to-day, by reason of the destruction of that convent. In the
year 1322, likewise--Dante, very much his friend, having died in the
year before, to his great sorrow--he went to Lucca, and at the request
of Castruccio, then Lord of that city, his birthplace, he made a panel
in S. Martino with a Christ in air and four Saints, Protectors of that
city--namely, S. Peter, S. Regulus, S. Martin, and S. Paulinus--who
appear to be recommending a Pope and an Emperor, who, according to what
is believed by many, are Frederick of Bavaria and the Anti-Pope Nicholas
V. Some, likewise, believe that Giotto designed the castle and fortress
of Giusta, which is impregnable, at San Frediano, in the same city of
Lucca.
Afterwards, Giotto having returned to Florence, Robert, King of Naples,
wrote to Charles, King of Calabria, his first-born son, who chanced to
be in Florence, that he should send him Giotto to Naples at all costs,
for the reason that, having finished the building of S. Chiara, a
convent of nuns and a royal church, he wished that it should be adorned
by him with noble paintings. Giotto, then, hearing himself summoned by a
King so greatly renowned and famous, went more than willingly to serve
him, and, on arriving, painted many scenes from the Old Testament and
the New in some chapels of the said convent. And the scenes from the
Apocalypse that he made in one of the said chapels are said to have been
inventions of Dante; and this may be also true of those at Assisi, so
greatly renowned, whereof there has been enough said above. And although
Dante at that time was dead, they may have held discourse on these
matters, as often comes to pass between friends.
[Illustration: GIOTTO: MADONNA AND CHILD
(_Florence: Accademia 103. Panel_)]
But to return to Naples; Giotto made many works in the Castel dell'Uovo,
and in particular the chapel, which much pleased that King, by whom he
was so greatly beloved that many times, while working, Giotto found
himself entertained by the King in person, who took pleasure in seeing
him at work and in hearing his discourse. And Giotto, who had ever some
jest on his tongue and some witty repartee in readiness, would entertain
him with his hand, in painting, and with pleasant discourse, in his
jesting. Wherefore, the King saying to him one day that he wished to
make him the first man in Naples, Giotto answered, "And for that end
am I lodged at the Porta Reale, in order to be the first in Naples."
Another time, the King saying to him, "Giotto, an I were you, now that
it is hot, I would give over painting for a little;" he answered, "And
I, i' faith, an I were you." Being then very dear to the King, he made
for him a good number of pictures in a hall (that King Alfonso I pulled
down in order to make the Castle), and also in the Incoronata; and among
others in the said hall were the portraits of many famous men, and among
them that of Giotto himself. Now the King having one day out of caprice
besought him to paint his realm for him, Giotto, so it is said, painted
for him an ass saddled, that had at its feet a new pack-saddle, and was
sniffing at it and making semblance of desiring it; and on both the old
pack-saddle and the new one were the royal crown and the sceptre of
sovereignty; wherefore Giotto, being asked by the King what such a
picture signified, answered that such were his subjects and such the
kingdom, wherein every day a new lord was desired.
Departing from Naples in order to go to Rome, Giotto stopped at Gaeta,
where he was forced to paint some scenes from the Old Testament in the
Nunziata, which are now spoilt by time, but yet not so completely that
there may not be seen in them very well the portrait of Giotto himself,
near a large and very beautiful Crucifix. This work finished, not being
able to refuse this to Signor Malatesta, he first occupied himself in
his service for some days in Rome, and afterwards he betook himself to
Rimini, of which city the said Malatesta was lord; and there, in the
Church of S. Francesco, he made very many pictures, which were
afterwards thrown to the ground and destroyed by Gismondo, son of
Pandolfo Malatesta, who rebuilt the whole said church anew. In the
cloisters of the said place, also, opposite to the wall of the church,
he painted in fresco the story of the Blessed Michelina, which was one
of the most beautiful and excellent works that Giotto ever made, by
reason of the many and beautiful ideas that he had in working thereon;
for besides the beauty of the draperies, and the grace and vivacity of
the heads, which are miraculous, there is a young woman therein as
beautiful as ever a woman can be, who, in order to clear herself from
the false charge of adultery, is taking oath over a book in a most
wonderful attitude, holding her eyes fixed on those of her husband, who
was making her take the oath by reason of mistrust in a black son born
from her, whom he could in no way bring himself to believe to be his.
She, even as the husband is showing disdain and distrust in his face, is
making clear with the purity of her brow and of her eyes, to those who
are most intently gazing on her, her innocence and simplicity, and the
wrong that he is doing to her in making her take oath and in proclaiming
her wrongly as a harlot.
In like manner, very great feeling was that which he expressed in a sick
man stricken with certain sores, seeing that all the women who are round
him, overcome by the stench, are making certain grimaces of disgust, the
most gracious in the world. The foreshortenings, next, that are seen in
another picture among a quantity of beggars that he portrayed, are very
worthy of praise and should be held in great price among craftsmen,
because from them there came the first beginning and method of making
them, not to mention that it cannot be said that they are not passing
good for early work. But above everything else that is in this work,
most marvellous is the gesture that the aforesaid Blessed Michelina is
making towards certain usurers, who are disbursing to her the money from
the sale of her possessions for giving to the poor, seeing that in her
there is shown contempt of money and of the other things of this earth,
which appear to disgust her, and, in them, the personification of human
avarice and greed. Very beautiful, too, is the figure of one who, while
counting the money, appears to be making sign to the notary who is
writing, considering that, although he has his eyes on the notary, he is
yet keeping his hands on the money, thus revealing his love of it, his
avarice, and his distrust. In like manner, the three figures that are
upholding the garments of S. Francis in the sky, representing Obedience,
Patience, and Poverty, are worthy of infinite praise, above all because
there is in the manner of the draperies a natural flow of folds that
gives us to know that Giotto was born in order to give light to
painting. Besides this, he portrayed Signor Malatesta on a ship in this
work, so naturally that he appears absolutely alive; and some mariners
and other people, in their promptness, their expressions, and their
attitudes--and particularly a figure that is speaking with some others
and spits into the sea, putting one hand up to his face--give us to know
the excellence of Giotto. And certainly, among all the works of painting
made by this master, this may be said to be one of the best, for the
reason that there is not one figure in so great a number that does not
show very great craftsmanship, and that is not placed in some
characteristic attitude. And therefore it is no marvel that Signor
Malatesta did not fail to reward him magnificently and to praise him.
Having finished his labours for that lord, he complied with the request
of a Prior of Florence who was then at S. Cataldo d'Arimini, and made a
S. Thomas Aquinas, reading to his friars, without the door of the
church. Departing thence, he returned to Ravenna and painted a chapel in
fresco in S. Giovanni Evangelista, which is much extolled. Having next
returned to Florence with very great honour and ample means, he painted
a Crucifix on wood and in distemper for S. Marco, larger than life and
on a ground of gold, which was placed on the right hand in the church.
And he made another like it in S. Maria Novella, whereon Puccio Capanna,
his pupil, worked in company with him; and this is still to-day over the
principal door, on the right as you enter the church, over the tomb of
the Gaddi. And in the same church, over the tramezzo,[11] he made a S.
Louis for Paolo di Lotto Ardinghelli, and at the foot thereof the
portrait of him and of his wife, from the life.
Afterwards, in the year 1327, Guido Tarlati da Pietramala, Bishop and
Lord of Arezzo, died at Massa di Maremma in returning from Lucca, where
he had been to visit the Emperor, and after his body had been brought to
Arezzo and the most magnificent funeral honours had been paid to it,
Piero Saccone and Dolfo da Pietramala, the brother of the Bishop,
determined that there should be made for him a tomb in marble worthy of
the greatness of so notable a man, who had been a lord both spiritual
and temporal, and head of the Ghibelline party in Tuscany. Wherefore,
having written to Giotto that he should make the design of a tomb very
rich and with all possible adornment, and having sent him the
measurements, they prayed him afterwards that he should place at their
disposal the sculptor who was the most excellent, according to his
opinion, of all that were in Italy, because they were relying wholly on
his judgment. Giotto, who was most courteous, made the design and sent
it to them; and after this design, as will be told in the proper place,
the said tomb was made. And because the said Piero Saccone had infinite
love for the talent of this man, having taken Borgo a San Sepolcro no
long time after he had received the said design, he brought from there
to Arezzo a panel with little figures by the hand of Giotto, which
afterwards fell to pieces; and Baccio Gondi, nobleman of Florence, a
lover of these noble arts and of every talent, being Commissary of
Arezzo, sought out the pieces of this panel with great diligence, and
having found some brought them to Florence, where he holds them in great
veneration, together with some other works that he has by the hand of
the same Giotto, who wrought so many that their number is almost beyond
belief. And not many years ago, chancing to be at the Hermitage of
Camaldoli, where I have wrought many works for those reverend Fathers, I
saw in a cell, whither it had been brought by the Very Reverend Don
Antonio da Pisa, then General of the Congregation of Camaldoli, a very
beautiful little Crucifix on a ground of gold, with the name of Giotto
in his own hand; which Crucifix, according to what I hear from the
Reverend Don Silvano Razzi, monk of Camaldoli, is kept to-day in the
cell of the Superior of the Monastery of the Angeli, as being a very
rare work and by the hand of Giotto, in company with a most beautiful
little picture by Raffaello da Urbino.
For the Frati Umiliati of Ognissanti in Florence, Giotto painted a
chapel and four panels, in one of which there was the Madonna, with many
angels round her and the Child in her arms, and a large Crucifix on
wood, whereof Puccio Capanna took the design and wrought many of them
afterwards throughout all Italy, having much practice in the manner of
Giotto. In the tramezzo[12] of the said church, when this book of the
Lives of the Painters, Sculptors, and Architects was printed the first
time, there was a little panel in distemper painted by Giotto with
infinite diligence, wherein was the death of Our Lady, with the
Apostles round her and with a Christ who is receiving her soul into His
arms. This work was much praised by the craftsmen of painting, and in
particular by Michelagnolo Buonarroti, who declared, as was said another
time, that the quality of this painted story could not be more like to
the truth than it is. This little panel, I say, having come into notice
from the time when the book of these Lives was first published, was
afterwards carried off by someone unknown, who, perhaps out of love for
art and out of piety, it seeming to him that it was little esteemed,
became, as said our poet, impious. And truly it was a miracle in those
times that Giotto had so great loveliness in his painting, considering,
above all, that he learnt the art in a certain measure without a master.
After these works, in the year 1334, on July 9, he put his hand to the
Campanile of S. Maria del Fiore, whereof the foundation was a platform
of strong stone, in a pit sunk twenty braccia deep from which water and
gravel had been removed; upon this platform he made a good mass of
concrete, that reached to the height of twelve braccia above the first
foundation, and the rest--namely, the other eight braccia--he caused to
be made of masonry. And at this beginning and foundation there
officiated the Bishop of the city, who, in the presence of all the
clergy and all the magistrates, solemnly laid the first stone. This
work, then, being carried on with the said model, which was in the
German manner that was in use in those times, Giotto designed all the
scenes that were going into the ornamentation, and marked out the model
with white, black, and red colours in all those places wherein the
marbles and the friezes were to go, with much diligence. The circuit
round the base was one hundred braccia--that is, twenty-five braccia for
each side--and the height, one hundred and forty-four braccia. And if
that is true, and I hold it as of the truest, which Lorenzo di Cione
Ghiberti has left in writing, Giotto made not only the model of this
campanile, but also part of those scenes in marble wherein are the
beginnings of all the arts, in sculpture and in relief. And the said
Lorenzo declares that he saw models in relief by the hand of Giotto, and
in particular those of these works; which circumstance can be easily
believed, design and invention being father and mother of all these
arts and not of one alone. This campanile was destined, according to the
model of Giotto, to have a spire, or rather a pyramid, four-sided and
fifty braccia high, as a completion to what is now seen; but, for the
reason that it was a German idea and in an old manner, modern architects
have never done aught but advise that it should not be made, the work
seeming to be better as it is. For all these works Giotto was not only
made citizen of Florence, but was given a pension of one hundred florins
yearly by the Commune of Florence, which was something very great in
those times; and he was made overseer over this work, which was carried
on after him by Taddeo Gaddi, for he did not live so long as to be able
to see it finished.
Now, while this work continued to be carried forward, he made a panel
for the Nuns of S. Giorgio, and three half-length figures in an arch
over the inner side of the door of the Badia in Florence, now covered
with whitewash in order to give more light to the church. And in the
Great Hall of the Podesta of Florence he painted the Commune (an idea
stolen by many), representing it as sitting in the form of Judge,
sceptre in hand, and over its head he placed the balanced scales as
symbol of the just decisions administered by it, accompanying it with
four Virtues, that are, Strength with courage, Wisdom with the laws,
Justice with arms, and Temperance with words; this work is beautiful as
a picture, and characteristic and appropriate in invention.
[Illustration: _Alinari_
THE FLIGHT INTO EGYPT
(_After the fresco by_ Giotto. _Padua: Arena Chapel_)]
Afterwards, having gone again to Padua, besides many other works and
chapels that he painted there, he made a Mundane Glory in the precincts
of the Arena, which gained him much honour and profit. In Milan, also,
he wrought certain works, that are scattered throughout that city and
held most beautiful even to this day. Finally, having returned from
Milan, no long time passed before he gave up his soul to God, having
wrought so many most beautiful works in his life, and having been no
less good as Christian than he was excellent as painter. He died in the
year 1336, to the great grief of all his fellow-citizens--nay, of all
those who had known him or even only heard his name--and he was buried,
even as his virtues deserved, with great honour, having been loved by
all while he lived, and in particular by the men excellent in all the
professions, seeing that, besides Dante, of whom we have spoken
above, he was much honoured by Petrarca, both he and his works, so
greatly that it is read in Petrarca's testament that he left to Signor
Francesco da Carrara, Lord of Padua, among other things held by him in
the highest veneration, a picture by the hand of Giotto containing a
Madonna, as something rare and very dear to him. And the words of that
clause in the testament run thus:
"Transeo ad dispositionem aliarum rerum; et praedicto igitur domino meo
Paduano, quia et ipse per Dei gratiam non eget, et ego nihil aliud habeo
dignum se, mitto tabulam meam sive historiam Beatae Virginis Mariae, opus
Jocti pictoris egregii, quae mihi ab amico meo Michaele Vannis de
Florentia missa est, in cujus pulchritudinem ignorantes non intelligunt,
magistri autem artis stupent; hanc iconam ipsi domino lego, ut ipsa
Virgo benedicta sibi sit propitia apud filium suum Jesum Christum."
And the same Petrarch, in a Latin epistle in the fifth book of his
_Familiar Letters_, says these words:
"Atque (ut a veteribus ad nova, ab externis ad nostra transgrediar) duos
ego novi pictores egregios, nec formosos, Joctum Florentinum civem,
cujus inter modernos fama ingens est, et Simonem Senensem. Novi
scultores aliquot," etc.
Giotto was buried in S. Maria del Fiore, on the left side as you enter
the church, where there is a slab of white marble in memory of so great
a man. And, as was told in the Life of Cimabue, a commentator of Dante,
who lived at the same time as Giotto, said: "Giotto was and is the most
eminent among painters in the same city of Florence, and his works bear
testimony for him in Rome, in Naples, in Avignon, in Florence, in Padua,
and in many other parts of the world."