Page:Vasari - Lives of the Most Excellent Painters, Sculptors, and Architects, volume 1.djvu/52

38 Croce, and he now painted for him a colossal crucifix on wood, which is still to be seen in that church. The execution of this crucifix gave great satisfaction to the prior, who caused the artist to accompany him to his convent of San Francesco in Pisa, where Cimabue painted a picture of San Francesco. This was considered by the Pisans to be a work of extraordinary merit, having more beauty of expression in the head, and more grace in the draperies, than had ever been seen in the Greek manner up to that time, not only in Pisa, but in Italy.

Cimabue afterwards painted for the same church a large picture of the Virgin, with the Infant in her arms, and with angels around her,—this also was on a gold ground ; it was soon afterwards removed from the position it had first occupied to make way for the marble altar which now stands there, and was placed within the church, near the door, and on the left hand ; for this work Cimabue obtained high praise, and was largely rewarded by the Pisans. In the same city of Pisa, he also painted, at the request of the then abbot of San Paolo in Ripa d’Arno, a small picture of St. Agnes, on panel, with the whole story of her life around her, in small figures ; this picture is now over the altar of the Virgin in the above-named church. The name of Cimabue becoming widely known by these labours, he was invited to Assisi, a city of Umbria, where, in company with certain Greek masters, he painted a portion of the vaulted roof in the lower church of San Franceso, together with the life of Jesus Christ and that of St. Francis, on the walls of the same church. In these works he greatly surpassed those Greek masters, and encouraged by this, he began alone to paint the upper church in fresco. In the apsis of the church,