copied by that Piero da Perugia,[1] the miniature painter, who illuminated all the books which constitute the library of Pope Pius, in the cathedral of Siena, and who painted in fresco with considerable facility. Michele of Milan was also a disciple of Agnolo, as was Giovanni Gaddi, his brother, who painted in the cloister of Santo Spirito, as Gaddo and Taddeo had done. The works executed in that cloister by Giovanni are, a Disputation of Christ with the doctors in the temple, the Purification of the Virgin, the Temptation of Christ in the Wilderness, and the Baptism of John. This artist died, after having awakened the highest expectations.[2] Cennino di Drea Cennini, of Colle di Valdelsa,[3] likewise studied painting under Agnolo Gaddi, and being a devoted lover of his art, he wrote a book on the methods of painting in fresco, in distemper, and in every vehicle then known, with the modes of painting in miniature, and the manner in which gold is applied in all these varying methods. This book is now in the hands of Giulfano, a goldsmith of Siena, an excellent master and true friend of the arts. In the first part of Cennini’s work, the author has treated of the nature of colours, wdiether minerals or earths, as he had himself been taught by his master, Agnolo; desiring, perhaps, as he does not seem to have succeeded in attaining to any great eminence in painting, at least to make himself acquainted with the nature of colours, the different glues, chalks, grounds for fresco, &c. with the properties of every kind of vehicle; he further discourses of such colours as are injurious, and to be guarded against in the mixture of colours, and in short of many other matters, concerning which no more need be said here; all those details which were held to be rare and profound secrets
- ↑ See Della Valle, Lettere Sanest, vol. ii, p. 242, and Lanzi, History of Painting, vol. i, p. 426, and vol. ii, p. 89, for the conflicting statements concerning this painter.
- ↑ These paintings are lost, but there is some compensation in the fine fresco, by this master, of Christ on the Cross, with the Virgin and St. John, which Fea discovered in 1798, in the lower church of Assisi.
- ↑ The treatise of Cennino Cennini was translated into English in 1844, by Mrs. Merrifield. This book was long believed to have been written while the author, then very old, was imprisoned for debt; but this has been shewn to be a fallacy. (See Mrs. Merrifield. Ancient Treatises on Oil Painting, vol. i, Introduction, p. 47.) Rumohr informs us, that a painting by Cennini, and which bears his name written by himself, is still existing in the Franciscan convent of Volterra.
