Page:Vasari - Lives of the Most Excellent Painters, Sculptors, and Architects, volume 1.djvu/235

Rh picture is painted on the front of the chapel. In Ognissanti, also, Tommaso executed a San Christofano and San Giorgio, but these works having been injured by the malignity of time, were repainted by other hands, and that in such sort as to prove the ignorance of the Provost, who was but slightly conversant with matters relating to art. In the same church is a fresco of the Virgin with the Child in her arms, from the hand of Giottino; this is in an arch, which has remained uninjured, over the door of the sacristy; the work is a very good one, having been executed with great care. By these and other productions, Giottino had acquired so much renown, that the spirit of his master Giotto was declared to have descended on this disciple, the correctness of his design, the vivacity of his colouring, and his close imitation of the elder master’s composition and manner, being all cited in support of that opinion. On the 2nd of July, in the year 1343, the Duke of Athens was driven out of Florence by the people, after having been compelled to resign the signory, and restore their liberty to the Florentine citizens. Giottino was then forced by the twelve Reformers of the State, or induced by the entreaties of Messer Agnolo Acciaiuoli, a most distinguished citizen of that time, to express the contempt of the city for the said duke and his principal followers, by painting their effigies on the tower of the palace of the Podesta. Among these figures, were those of Messer Ceritieri Visdomini, Messer Maladiasse, his Conservator, and Messer Ranieri di San Gimignano, all bearing upon their heads the ignominious cap worn by those condemned to death by the sentence of justice. Around the head of the duke himself, various rapacious animals and beasts of prey were depicted, to signify the nature and qualities of the man; while one of his followers held the palace of the Priors of the city in his hand, which he, as a false traitor to his country, was proffering to the duke. Each of these figures had the arms and ensigns of his family painted beneath him, with inscriptions, which the lapse of time render it difficult now tQ decipher. The manner in