to complete the paintings commenced by Cimabue. Passing through Arezzo, he painted one of the chapels of the capitular church, that of St. Francis, which is above the baptistery; and on a round column, which stands beside a very beautiful antique Corinthian capital, are portraits of St. Francis and St. Dominick, by his hand, both taken from nature.[1] In the cathedral without Arezzo, he further executed the Martyrdom of St. Stephen, in one of the larger chapels; of which the composition is fine. Having finished these things, he proceeded to Assisi, a city of Umbria, being invited thither by Fra Giovanni of Muro in the March, who was then general of the fraternity of St. Francis. Here, in the upper church, and under the corridor which traverses the windows, he painted a series of thirty-two frescoes, representing passages from the life and acts of the saint; namely, sixteen on each side; a work which he executed so perfectly, as to acquire great fame from it. And, of a truth, there is singular variety in these frescoes; not only in the gestures and attitudes of each figure, but also in the composition of all the stories: the different costumes of those times are also represented; and, in all the accessories, nature is most faithfully adhered to. Among other figures, that of a thirsty man stooping to drink from a fountain, is worthy of perpetual praise: the eager desire with which he bends towards the water is pourtrayed with such marvellous effect, that one could almost believe him to be a living man actually drinking. There are many other parts of this work that well merit remark, but I refrain from alluding to them, lest I become too discursive. Let it suffice to say, that it added greatly to the fame of Giotto, for the beauty of the figures, the good order, just proportion, and life of the whole, while the facility of execution, which he had received from nature, and afterwards perfected by study, was made manifest in every part of the work. Giotto has indeed well merited to be called the disciple of nature rather than of other masters; having not only studiously cultivated his natural faculties, but being perpetually occupied in drawing fresh stores from nature, which was to him the never-failing source of inspiration.
- ↑ The use which Vasari makes of this phrase “ taken from nature,” makes it evident that he uses the words in a very extended sense, and is not to be understood literally, since St. Dominick died in 1221, and St. Francis in 1226.—Ed. Flor. 1846.
