Page:Vasari - Lives of the Most Excellent Painters, Sculptors, and Architects, volume 1.djvu/126

112 turning from Lucca, whither he had gone to visit the emperor, and his body was carried to Arezzo, where it received the honour of a most solemn and magnificent funeral. It was then resolved by Piero Saccone, and Dolfo da Pietramala, brother of the bishop, that a sepulchral monument in marble, worthy of the greatness of a man who had been lord spiritual and temporal of the city, as well as chief of the Ghibelline party in Tuscany, should be raised to his memory. They wrote accordingly to Giotto, requesting him to prepare designs for a very splendid tomb, adorned with whatever might most worthily enrich it ; and sending him the required measurements. They prayed him, at the same time, to procure them a sculptor, the most excellent, according to his opinion, that could be found in Italy, they referring the whole affair entirely to his judgment. Giotto, who was very obliging, made the design, and sent it them, when the monument was erected accordingly, as will be related in its proper place. Now the talents of Giotto were very highly appreciated by Piero Saccone, and he, having taken the Borgo di San Sepolcro, no long time after he had received the abovenamed design, took a picture thence, which had been formerly painted by Giotto, and which he carried to Arezzo. The figures were small, and the work afterwards fell to pieces, but the fragments were diligently sought by Baccio Gondi, a Florentine gentleman, and lover of the fine arts, who was commissioner of Arezzo : having recovered some of them, he took them to Florence, where he holds them in high estimation, and preserves them carefully, together with other works of the same artist, who produced so many, that, were all enumerated, their amount would seem incredible. And not many years since, when I was myself at the, where I executed many works for the reverend fathers, I saw a small Crucifix by Giotto, in one of the cells, which had been brought thither by the very Reverend Don Antonio, of Pisa, then general of the congregation of Camaldoli. This work, which is on a gold ground, and has the name of Giotto inscribed on it by himself, is very beautiful, and is still preserved, as I was told by the Reverend Don Silvano Razzi, a monk of Camaldoli, in the monastery