Page:Vasari - Lives of the Most Excellent Painters, Sculptors, and Architects, volume 1.djvu/109

Rh times, and introducing the custom of accurately drawing living persons from nature, which had not been used for more than two hundred years. Or, if some had attempted it, as said above, it was not by any means with the success of Giotto. Among the portraits by this artist, and which still remain, is one of his contemporary and intimate friend, Dante Alighieri, who was no less famous as a poet than Giotto as a painter, and whom Messer Giovanni Boccaccio has lauded so highly in the introduction to his story of Messer Forese da Rabatta, and of Giotto the painter himself. This portrait is in the chapel of the palace of the Podesta in Florence; and in the same chapel are the portraits of Ser Brunetto Latini, master of Dante, and of Messer Corso Donati, an illustrious citizen of that day.

The first pictures of Giotto were painted for the chapel of the High Altar, in the Abbey of Florence, where he executed many works considered extremely fine. Among these, an Annunciation is particularly admired; the expression of fear and astonishment in the countenance of the Virgin, when receiving the salutation of Gabriel, is vividly depicted; she appears to suffer the extremity of terror, and seems almost ready to take flight. The altar-piece of that chapel is also by Giotto; but this has been, and continues to be, preserved, rather from the respect felt for the work of so distinguished a man, than from any other motive. There are four chapels in Santa Croce also painted by Giotto: three between the Sacristy and the principal chapel, and one on the opposite side of the church. In the first of the three, which belongs to Messer Ridolfi de’ Bardi, and wherein are the bell-ropes, is the Life of St. Francis. In this picture are several figures