Page:The painters of Florence from the thirteenth to the sixteenth century (1915).djvu/75

1430] lifetime, was a certain Tommaso di Banco, whom Vasari calls by his surname of Giottino, which he acquired, we are told, because in him the spirit and personality of Giotto seemed to live again. It seems doubtful whether the biographer has not confused two different painters in his account, but the man whom he calls Giottino, and whom Ghiberti more correctly describes as Maso di Banco, was a very interesting and attractive artist, who produced several striking works. Giottino, to call him by the commonly-accepted name, was born in 1324, matriculated in the Painters' Guild in 1343, and was admitted to the Company of St. Luke in 1350. After this we hear no more of him, and Vasari tells us that he died of consumption at the early age of thirty, worn out by ceaseless labour and devotion to his art. During his short life Giottino attained a high degree of fame, which in his eyes was of more value than any riches, to which he seems to have been singularly indifferent. Villani speaks of him as a charming man, nomo gentilissimo, and Ghiberti describes him as an illustrious artist, pittore nobilissimo. Both agree with Vasari that he was the author of the frescoes in the Chapel of S. Silvestro in Santa Croce. These paintings, which represent the miracles wrought by Bishop Sylvester, as told in the Golden Legend, are remarkable not only for the natural action and expression of the figures introduced, but for the skill and charm of the composition. The Giottesque practice of combining separate incidents in a single picture has been seldom adopted with such excellent effect as in the last fresco, where the Saint is represented closing the jaws of a dragon, and bringing back two dead Magi