Page:Vasari - Lives of the Most Excellent Painters, Sculptors, and Architects, volume 1.djvu/86

72 the building then constructing by Arnolfo (Santa Maria del Fiore), but also to visit, of whom he had heard great things related while on his travels. But he had scarcely arrived in Florence, before he was appointed, by the Intendants of the fabric, to execute the Madonna, which stands between two angels, over that door of the church which leads into the canonical palace ; a work which was then greatly commended. He afterwards erected the small baptismal font of San Giovanni, adorning it with passages from the life of that saint, in mezzo-rilievo. Then, proceeding to Bologna, he directed the construction of the principal chapel in the, where he was also commissioned, by Teodorico Borgognoni, of Lucca, the Bishop, a friar of the Dominican order, to execute an altar in marble ; and in the year 1298 he completed the marble table in which are seen the Virgin with eight other figures, all of very tolerable workmanship.

In the year 1300, Niccola da Prato, cardinal legate, being despatched by the pope to Florence, in the hope of appeasing the dissensions of the Florentines, employed Giovanni to build a convent for nuns in Prato, which he caused to be called the, after his own name ; in the same district he restored the , with , and on both these buildings the arms of the aforesaid cardinal may still be found. Then the people of Pistoja, holding the name of Niccola, the father of Giovanni, in high respect, for the many excellent works that he had produced in their city, caused Giovanni to construct a for their, similar to that which Niccola had executed for the cathedral of Siena, and in which he was to compete with one erected shortly before by a German, in the , which had been highly praised. This work Giovanni com-