Page:Vasari - Lives of the Most Excellent Painters, Sculptors, and Architects, volume 1.djvu/192

178 master, and was on that account so greatly favoured by the prelates, that they appointed him to paint the inner wall of St. Peter, between the windows: he accordingly executed admirable frescoes, the figures of which were of extraordinary size, as compared with those usually depicted in that age. The subjects were the Four Evangelists, with St. Peter and St. Paul; there were, besides, a considerable number of figures, in a ship, and as Cavallini admired the Greek manner, he has mingled it, in these works, with that of Giotto. This master evidently made all possible elfort to give relief to his figures; but the best of his works in Rome was in the church of Araceli, on the Capitol, where he painted the ceiling of the choir in fresco. The subject is Our Lady, with the Child in her arms, surrounded by a circle of light; and beneath is the emperor Octavian, to whom the Tiburtine Sybil is pointing out the Saviour, when Octavian offers adoration to the divine child. The figures in this work are better preserved than those of the others, because pictures painted on ceilings, as we have remarked elsewhere, are less liable to injury from dust than those on the walls. Having completed these undertakings, Pietro departed for Tuscany, to see the works executed by other disciples of his master Giotto, as well as those of Giotto himself; and on this occasion he painted various figures in the church of St. Mark, in Florence, all of which have now perished, the church having been whitewashed, excepting the picture of the Annunciation, which stands covered near the principal door of the church. On a wall of San Basilio, on the side towards the mills, Cavallini likewise painted an Annunciation in fresco; and this, with another Annunciation, also in Florence, is so exactly similar to that of St. Mark, that many believe them to be all by the hand of Pietro, and not without reason, since it is certain that no paintings can possibly resemble each other more closely than do these works.

Among the figures executed by this artist in the aforesaid church of San Marco, in Florence, was the portrait of pope