numbers. It appears to be certain, so far as we can judge, that Puccio had very much the manner of his master Giotto, and was deeply versed in all his methods, which he turned to very good account in the works he executed, although, as some assert, lie did not live long, having injured his health by working too much in fresco, which caused his death. The frescoes, representing passages from the life of St. Martin, in the same chapel, are said to have been painted by Puccio Capanna for Cardinal Gentile. Many works of this master are to be found in different places. In the midst of the street called Portico, in Assisi, for example, there is a Christ at the Column by his hand, with the figure of the Virgin between St. Catherine and St. Clara. In Bologna also there is a picture in the nave of the church,[1] representing the Passion of Christ, with stories from the life of St. Francis ; besides others which I refrain from enumerating for the sake of brevity. I will not, however, omit to mention that in Assisi, where are the greater number of his works, and where it appears to me that he must have taken part in the paintings of Giotto, I have discovered that they consider him as their fellow-citizen, and that there are still certain branches of the Capanna family in that city. The probability seems to be that Puccio was born in Florence, since he has himself written to that effect, but that he afterwards married at Assisi, where his children were born, and where his descendants still remain. As all this is, nevertheless, of very little importance, let it suffice us to know that he was a good master.
Ottaviano da Faenza, also a clever painter, was likewise a disciple of Giotto. He painted many pictures in the church of St. George at Ferrara, belonging to the monks of Monte Oliveto ; and in Faenza, where he lived and died, he painted a figure of the Virgin with St. Peter and St. Paul, in the arch above the door of San Francesco, with other works in the same city and in Bologna.
Another disciple of Giotto, who remained with him many years, and frequently assisted him in his works, was Pace da Faenza, one of whose paintings in fresco may be seen on the façade of San Giovanni-decollato (St. John decapitated) in
- ↑ Vasari does not say in what church, but it may be conjectured to be San Francesco.—Ed. Flor. 1846.
