larly when we consider that he acquired his art in a certain sense without any master.[1]
After completing these works, and on the 9th of July 1334, Giotto commenced the campanile of Santa Maria del Fiore ; the foundations were laid on massive stone, sunk twenty braccia beneath the surface, on a site whence gravel and water had previously been excavated : then having made a good concrete to the height of twelve braccia, he caused the remainder, namely eight braccia, to be formed of masonry. The bishop of the city, with all the clergy and magistrates, were present at the foundation, of which the first stone was solemnly laid by the bishop himself. The edifice then proceeded on the plan before mentioned, and in the Gothic manner of those times ; all the historical representations which were to be the ornaments, being designed with infinite care and diligence by Giotto himself, who marked out on the model all the compartments where the friezes and sculptures were to be placed, in colours of white, black, and red. The lower circumference of the tower is of one hundred braccia, twenty-five that is on each of the four sides. The height is one hundred and forty-four braccia. And if that which Lorenzo di Cione Ghiberti has written be true, as I fully believe it is, Giotto not only made the model of the campanile, but even executed a part of the sculptures and reliefs,—those representations in marble, namely, which exhibit the origin of all the arts. Lorenzo also affirms that he saw models in relief from the hand of Giotto, and more particularly those used in these works : an assertion that we can easily believe ; for design and invention are the parents of all the arts, and not of one only. This campanile, according to the design of Giotto, was to have been crowned by a spire or pyramid, of the height of fifty braccia : but as this was in the old Gothic manner, the modern architects have always advised its omission : the building appearing to them better as it is. For all these works, Giotto was not only made a citizen of Florence, but also received a pension of a hundred golden florins yearly—a large sum in those times—from the commune of Florence. He was also appointed superintendent of the work, which he did not live to see
- ↑ See Lanzi, History of Painting, vol. i. Florentine School, Epoch 1, Section 1.
