the Preaching Friars, which was very highly praised at the time : he then returned to his native Florence, whence he had been absent six years. No long time after this, Benedict IX (XI) being dead, Clement V was elected pope at Perugia, when Giotto was obliged to depart again with that pontiff, who removed his court to Avignon, where our artist produced many admirable works ; and not there only, but in many other parts of France, he painted many beautiful pictures and frescoes which infinitely delighted the pontiff and his whole court, insomuch that, when all were finished, Giotto was graciously dismissed with many presents, so that he returned home no less rich than honoured and renowned. Among other things, he brought back with him the portrait of the pontiff, which he afterwards presented to his disciple Taddeo Gaddi. The return of Giotto to Florence took place in the year 1316 ; but he was not long permitted to remain in that city, being invited to Padua by the Signori della Scala, for whom he painted a most magnificent chapel in the Santo,[1] a church just then erected.[2] From Padua he proceeded to Verona, where he painted certain pictures for Messer Cane,[3] the father of Francesca di Rimini, in the palace of that noble, more particularly the portrait of Cane himself : he also executed a picture for the Fraternity of St. Francis. Having completed these works, Giotto departed for Tuscany, but was compelled to halt at Ferrara, where he painted certain works for the Signori d’Este, as well in their palace as in the church of Sant’ Agostino, where they are still to be seen. Meanwhile, as it had come to the ears of Dante that Giotto was in Ferrara, he so contrived that the latter was induced to visit Ravenna, where the poet was then in exile, and where Giotto painted some frescoes, which are moderately good, in the church of San Francesco, for the Signori da Polenta.[4] He then proceeded from Ravenna to Urbino, where he also painted some pictures. After this, as he was passing through Arezzo, he could
- ↑ The church of St. Anthony, of Padua, is so called par eminence—St. Anthony being the patron saint of that city.
- ↑ Of these paintings there remains only a miserable relic, which scarcely suffices to give an idea of its composition.—Ed. Flor. 1846.
- ↑ The Can grande della Scala, famous in Dante.—Par. c. xvii.
- ↑ These pictures, as well as those painted in Verona, have all perished.—Ibid.
