Page:The painters of Florence from the thirteenth to the sixteenth century (1915).djvu/78

56 Piero dei Franceschi with the idea of his famous series at Arezzo. The portrait of the artist, with a short beard and red hood, may still be distinguished among the crowd assembled to witness the Emperor's entry into Jerusalem. Another series of frescoes which Agnolo painted later in life, in the Chapel of the Holy Girdle at Prato, show a marked improvement in composition and vivacity. These represent the early history of the Virgin, and tell the legend of the Girdle which dropped at her Assumption, and was caught by the doubting Thomas. In the eleventh century it was discovered in Palestine by Michele Dagomari, a citizen of Prato, who wedded the daughter of its owner, and brought back the precious relic with his bride to his Tuscan home. Unfortunately the later scenes, which represent the marriage of Michele, his return to Prato, and the procession bearing the Holy Girdle to the Duomo, are irreparably ruined. These works must have been the last which Agnolo ever executed. The Chapel was consecrated, and the Girdle solemnly deposited within its walls in 1395. A year later, on the 16th of October 1396, the painter himself died and was buried in Santa Croce. His sons gave up painting for trade, and opened a house in Venice, where they became wealthy merchants. One of his scholars was Cennino Cennini, whose name is well known, not because of his pictures, which have perished, but for the sake of the "Treatise on Painting," which he wrote in the early years of the fifteenth century. Cennino was born at Colle di Val d'Elsa, near Florence, about 1370, and was apprenticed to Agnolo Gaddi during twelve yearsyears. [sic] After his master's death