thods, could make so happy a commencement, whether as respects design or colouring, will be compelled to regard him with great respect and admiration. There are, moreover, in the same church of Santa Croce, and above the marble tomb of Carlo Marsuppini of Arezzo, a Crucifix, a figure of the Virgin, a St. John and the Magdalen at the foot of the Cross, all by the hand of Giotto; and on the other side of the church, exactly opposite to the latter, and above the burial-place of Leonardo Aretino, is an Annunciation, near the high altar, which has been restored with very little judgment, by the hand of some modern painter: a great discredit to those who had the custody of these works.[1] In the refectory[2] is a Tree of the Cross,[3] with scenes from the life of St. Louis, and a Last Supper, by the same master. On the presses or wardrobes of the sacristy also, are passages from the life of Christ and that of St. Francis.[4] Giotto likewise painted in the church of the Carmine, depicting the life ot St. John the Baptist, for the chapel of that Saint, in a series of pictures;[5] and in the Guelphic Palace of Florence there is a painting of the Christian Faith, admirably executed in fresco, wherein he has placed the portrait of Clement IV, who founded the society, conferring on it his own arms, which it has borne ever since. After these works were finished, Giotto departed from Florence, and went to Assisi,
- ↑ These pictures have long been hidden under whitewash.
- ↑ The pictures of the old Refectory, now unhappily reduced to a carpet manufactory, are white-washed over, with the exception of the Last Supper; but Rumohr assigns many reasons for doubting their being by Giotto.—See Ital. Forsch., vol. ii, p. 57, note 1.
- ↑ “Tree of the Cross” (Albero di Croce). This is a crucifix, from which proceeds the genealogical tree of the Saviour, with the prophets and patriarchs, on medallions.—Schorn.
- ↑ These paintings on the presses were in all twenty-six, twelve belonging to the life of Christ, the remaining fourteen to that of St. Francis. The first series, and ten of the second, are still preserved in the Academy of the Fine Arts of Florence; the four wanting have passed into the hands of dealers in exchange for other pictures.
- ↑ The church of the Carmine was nearly destroyed by fire in the year 1771; but six of these stories, with five heads from others, remained uninjured, and came into the hands of the engraver, Patch (see Bryan’s Dictionary of Painters and Engravers, London, 1849), by whom they were published. Waagen informs us, that two of these fragments are now in Liverpool: one is in the collection of Mr. Rogers, and other fragments of the frescoes are preserved in the Campo Santo of Pisa.
