Part 4 (1/2)

In person Giotto was so ugly that his admirers made jokes about it; but he itty and attractive in conversation, and so lad to praise him while he lived, and since his death his fame has been cherished by all who have written of him There are many anecdotes told of Giotto One is that on a very hot day in Naples, King Robert said to the painter, ”Giotto, if I were you, I would leave work, and rest” Giotto quickly replied, ”So would I, sire, _if I were you_”

When the sa asked hido a saddle on which were a crown and sceptre, while at the feet of the ass there was a new saddle with a shi+ning nen and sceptre, at which the ass was eagerly s By this he intended to show that the Neapolitans were so fickle that they were always looking for a new king

There is a story which has been often repeated which says, that in order to paint his crucifixes so well, he persuaded a man to be bound to a cross for an hour as a model; and when he had hiony as he wished to paint When the Pope saw the picture he was so pleased with it that he wished to have it for his own chapel; then Giotto confessed what he had done, and showed the body of the dead ry that he threatened the painter with the same death, upon which Giotto brushed the picture over so that it seeretted the loss of the crucifix that he proood Giotto exacted the proe, reood as before According to tradition all famous crucifixes were drawn from this picture ever after

When Boniface VIII sent a er asked Giotto to show hi of the art which had le ht to be a ave rise to a proverb still much used in Italy:--_Piu tondo che l'O di Giotto_, or, ”Rounder than the O of Giotto”

Giotto had a wife and eight children, of who is known but that his son Francesobcareat honors in the Church of Santa Maria del Fiore Lorenzo de Medici erected a monument to his memory The pupils and followers of Giotto were very nu these TADDEO GADDI, and his son AGNOLO, are most famous: others were MASO and BERNARDO DI DADDO; but I shall not speak in detail of these artists

While Giotto wasthe art of Florence famous, there was an artist in Siena who raised the school of that city to a place of great honor This was SIMONE MARTINI, who lived from 1283 to 1344, and is often called SIMONE MEMMI because he married a sister of another painter, LIPPO MEMMI

The most important works of Simone which remain are at Siena in the Palazzo Pubblico and in the Lower Church at assisi There is one beautiful work of his in the Royal Institution, at Liverpool, which illustrates the text, ”Behold, thy father and I have sought Thee, sorrowing”

While the Papal court was at Avignon, in 1338, Simone removed to that city Here he became the friend of Petrarch and of Laura, and has been praised by this poet as Giotto was by Dante

Another eminent Florentine artist was ANDREA ORCAGNA, as he is called, though his real name was ANDREA ARCAGNUOLO DI CIONE He was born about 1329, and died about 1368 It has long been the custona some of the most important frescoes in the Campo Santo at Pisa; but it is so doubtful whether he worked there that I shall not speak of thena first studied his father's craft; he was also an architect, sculptor, mosaist, and poet, as well as a painter Heof ath rank as a painter; as a sculptor, his tabernacle in the Church of Or San Michele speaks his praise Mr C C Perkins thus describes it: ”Built of white marble in the Gothic style, enriched with every kind of ornament, and storied with bas-reliefs illustrative of the Madonna's history from her birth to her death, it rises in stately beauty toward the roof of the church, and, whether considered from an architectural, sculptural, or symbolic point of view, must excite the warmest admiration in all who can appreciate the perfect unity of conception through which its bas-reliefs, statuettes, busts, intaglios, lass, and enamels are welded into a unique whole”

But perhaps it is as an architect that Orcagna is ns for the Loggia de Lanzi in Florence

This was built as a place for public assembly, and the discussion of the topics of the day in rainy weather; it received its nauard-house which was called that of the Landsknechts (in Gerna probably died before the Loggia was completed, and his brother Bernardo succeeded hiia is one of the ht of the Palazzo Signoria, near the gallery of the Uffizi, and itself the storehouse of precious works of sculpture

There were also in these early days of the fourteenth century schools of art at Bologna and Modena; but we know so little of theive any account of them here, but will pass to the early artists whoto the true Renaissance in Italy

CHAPTER III

PAINTING IN ITALY, FROM THE BEGINNING OF THE RENAISSANCE TO THE PRESENT CENTURY

The reawakening of Art in Italy which followed the darkness of the Middle Ages, dates fro of the fifteenth century and is called the Renaissance The Italians have athe centuries which differs from ours Thus we call 1800 the first year of the nineteenth century, but they call it the first of the eighteenth; so the painters of as to us the fifteenth century are called by Italians the ”_quattrocentisti_,” or men of the fourteenth century, and while to us the term ”_cinquecento_” means the style of the sixteenth century, to the Italians the sains with 1500, is the fifteenth century

I shall use our own ; but this fact should be known to all who read or study art

The first painter of whom I shall now speak is known to us as FRA ANGELICO His name was Guido, the son of Pietro, and he was born at Vicchio in the province of Mugello, in the year 1387 We know that his fa Guido could have led a life of ease; but he early deter friar

Meantime, even as a boy, he showed his taste for art, and there are six years in his life, froe of fourteen to twenty, of which no one can tell the story However, fro this time heand to preparation for his life as a monk

Before he was fully twenty years old, he entered the convent at Fiesole, and took the name of Fra, or Brother Giovanni; soon after, his elder brother joined him there, and becaelico, and again _Il Beato Angelico_, and then, according to Italian custom, the name of the town from which he came was added, so that he was at last called _Il Beato Giovanni, detto Angelico, da Fiesole_, which elic, of Fiesole” The title _Il Beato_ is usually conferred by the church, but it was given to Fra Angelico by the people, because of his saintly character and works

It was in 1407 that Fra Angelico was admitted to the convent in Fiesole, and after seven years of peaceful life there he was obliged to flee with his cono It was at the time when three different popes claimed the authority over the Church of Rome, and the city of Florence declared itself in favor of Alexander V; but the ory XII, and for this reason were driven frono; then the plague broke out in the country about theelico at this time still remain in the churches of Cortona

After an absence of ten years the monks returned to Fiesole, where our artist passed the next eighteen years This was the richest period of his life: his energy was untiring, and his zeal both as an artist and as a priest burned with a steady fire His works were sought for far and wide, andthis tielico would never accept the iven into the treasury of his convent; neither did he accept any commission without the consent of the prior Naturally, the monk-artist executed works for the adornment of his own convent Some of these have been sold and carried to other cities and countries, and those which remain have been too much injured and too much restored to be considered important now

[Illustration: FIG 31--FRA ANGELICO _Froment,” by Fra Bartolommeo, in Santa Maria Nuova, Florence_]

He painted sothis second residence at Fiesole, not only for public places, but for private citizens, that Vasari wrote: ”This Father painted so h the houses of the Florentines, that soood and so h in the course of ht to perfection by one reat Cosiain leave their convent, and rely the brethren submitted, and immediately Cosimo set architects and builders to work to erect a new convent, for the old one was in a ruinous state The new cloisters offered a noble field to the genius of Fra Angelico, and he labored for their decoration with his whole soul; though the rule of the order was so strict that the pictures in the cells could be seen only by the monks, he put all his skill into them, and labored as devotedly as if the whole world could see and praise them, as indeed has since been done His pictures in this convent are so numerous that we must not describe them, but will say that the Crucifixion in the chapter-room is usually called his masterpiece It is nearly twenty-five feet square, and, besides the usual figures in this subject, the Saviour and the thieves, with the executioners, there are holy women, the founders of various orders, the patrons of the convent, and companies of saints In the frame there arean inscription fro to Christ's death; while below all, St Doical tree withhis followers For this reason this picture has great historic value

At last, in 1445, Pope Eugenius IV, who had dedicated the new convent of San Marco and seen the works of Angelico, summoned him to Rome It is said that the Pope not only wished for soelico by giving hih position was offered hielico would not accept of it: he declared hied the Pope to appoint Fra Antonino in his stead This request was granted, and Angelico went on with his work as before, in all hu his heaven-born h the sweet influence of his divine art

The honor which had been tendered hi for--but if he realized this he did not regret his decision, neither was he made bold or vain by the royal tribute which the Pope had paid hielico were done in the chapel of Pope Nicholas V, in the Vatican, and in the chapel which he decorated in the Cathedral of Orvieto He worked there one sunorelli The remainder of his life was passed so quietly that little can be told of it It is not even knoith certainty whether he ever returned to Florence, and by soe fate the key to the chapel which he painted in the Vatican was lost during two centuries, and the pictures could only be seen by entering through aThus it would seem that his last years were passed in the quiet hich he best loved