Page:The painters of Florence from the thirteenth to the sixteenth century (1915).djvu/47

1335] side walls are three rows of frescoes, divided by an ornamental framework, painted in imitation of marble mosaics, representing thirty-eight scenes from the life of the Virgin and of Christ. Below these are fourteen allegorical figures, which illustrate the progress of man on the way to heaven and hell, the seven Virtues looking at Christ in glory, on the eastern arch, and the seven Vices on the opposite wall, turning their faces towards the Inferno pictured on the western wall.

The first twelve subjects are taken from the apocryphal gospels known as the Protevangelion, or Gospel of St. Mary. In most cases the traditional composition is retained, but new actors are introduced whose gestures and expression add fresh meaning and reality to the scene, and the whole is brought before us in a new and original manner. Giotto's familiarity with shepherd-life is evident in the early scenes, in the truth with which the weather-beaten faces and rough clothes of the herdsmen are rendered, in the rams butting each other with their horns, and the faithful sheep-dog who hastens to greet his master, when the childless Joachim returns, plunged in sad thought, after the rejection of his offering. The poor cottage home, where the Angel appears at the window to Anna, is represented with the same accuracy. We see the rude oak chest, the wooden trestles, the striped coverlid and white hanging of the bed, and the maid-servant busy at her spinning in the passage outside. The same homely details are reproduced in the Birth of the Virgin, where the nurse washes the babe with the utmost care, and the mother sits up in bed with outstretched