While the stucco-work for the ceiling of the Hall of Kings was in progress, and while Peri no was considering the designs for the stories, the old wall of the church of San Pietro in Rome was in course of being demolished, to make way for the new walls of that fabric, when the masons came to a place where there was a Madonna and other pictures by the hand of Giotto, which being seen by Perino, who was in company with Messer Niccolo Acciaiuoli, a Florentine doctor and his very intimate friend, they were both impressed with so much respect at the sight of these paintings that they would not permit them to be destroyed. Nay, causing the wall around them to be sawed around, they then secured the painting with beams and clamps of iron, and had it carefully placed beneath the organ of San Pietro, in a position where there was neither an altar nor any other construction to be then erected. And before the wall around that Madonna was thrown down, Perino copied the figure of Orso dell’ Anguillara, by whom it was that Messer Francesco Petrarca was crowned on the Capitol, and who was represented as standing at the foot of this Madonna. It was then resolved, to form various decorations in stucco and painting around that work of Giotto, placing there at the same time a monument to the memory of a certain Niccolo Acciaiuolo, who had formerly been a senator of Rome. Perino accordingly made the designs for the same, and instantly set hand to the work, when being aided by his assistants, and more especially by his disciple Marcello,[1] of Mantua, the work was completed very expeditiously and with great care.[2]
Now the sacrament did not hold a very honourable position in the church of San Pietro, so far as the masonry was concerned, wherefore certain deputies were selected by the Brotherhood of the Eucharist, to take charge of that matter, and these men commanded that a chapel should be constructed by Antonio da Sangallo in the centre of the old church, partly from the remains of ancient marbles and partly from marbles to be prepared for the purpose; the building to be further enriched by ornaments of marble,
