Page:The painters of Florence from the thirteenth to the sixteenth century (1915).djvu/73

1430] A modest and simple man, he retained the deepest veneration for his master's memory to the end, and is said to have signed some of his works with the inscription, "Taddeo, a disciple of Giotto, the good master." No one lamented the decline of art after Giotto's death more deeply than this loyal scholar, and in his old age he is reported to have said to Andrea Orcagna: "Art left the world with Giotto, and is sinking every day to a lower level." On the 29th of August 1366, Taddeo was summoned, together with the chief painters and goldsmiths of the city, to hold a consultation on the Duomo works, and seems to have died before the end of the year. On his death-bed he commended his sons Agnolo and Giovanni to Jacopo da Casentino for their moral training, and to Giovanni da Milano for their artistic education. In this he showed his perception. Jacopo was a native of the district of Casentino, who joined Taddeo when he was painting in the convent-church of La Vernia, and became one of his most devoted followers. He was an inferior artist, as we may learn from those of his frescoes which are still to be seen at Arezzo, but a man of considerable ability, who restored the ancient Roman aqueduct in that town, and supplied its inhabitants with water. But his chief title to fame lies in the fact that, in 1349, he founded the Guild of Florentine painters which bore the name of the Company of St. Luke.

Giovanni da Milano was a far better artist. Born at Caversaio, a village near Como, he early became one of Taddeo's assistants, and worked with him at Arezzo. In 1363, he matriculated in the Painters' Guild, and three years later was admitted to the privileges of a citizen of Florence. At that time he was living