The painters of Florence from the thirteenth to the sixteenth century . int lying dead on his funeral bier, surroundedby weeping friars, who bend over their beloved masterand cover his hands and feet with kisses. At thehead of the bier a priest reads the funeral rite; threebrothers stand at the foot bearing a cross and banner,and the incredulous Girolamo puts his finger into thestigmatised side, while his companions gaze on thesacred wounds with varying expressions of awe andwonder, and one, the smallest and humblest of thegroup, suddenly lifts his eyes and sees the soul ofFrancis borne on ang
The painters of Florence from the thirteenth to the sixteenth century . int lying dead on his funeral bier, surroundedby weeping friars, who bend over their beloved masterand cover his hands and feet with kisses. At thehead of the bier a priest reads the funeral rite; threebrothers stand at the foot bearing a cross and banner,and the incredulous Girolamo puts his finger into thestigmatised side, while his companions gaze on thesacred wounds with varying expressions of awe andwonder, and one, the smallest and humblest of thegroup, suddenly lifts his eyes and sees the soul ofFrancis borne on angel-wings to Heaven. Even thehard outlines and coarse h§.ndling of the restorersbrush cannot destroy the beauty and pathos of thisscene, which still remains without a rival in Florentineart. In later ages more accomplished artists oftenrepeated this composition — Benedetto da Majanocarved the subject on the pulpit of Santa Croce, andGhirlandajo painted it on the walls of the Trinita—butnone ever attained to the simple dignity and patheticbeauty of Giottos «33S] CHILDREN OF GIOTTO 39 The exact date of these frescoes remains uncertain,but they were probably painted soon after research has as yet thrown little light uponthe chronology of Giottos life, and all we can discoveris an occasional notice of the works which he executed,or of the property which he owned in statement, that he succeeded to Cimabueshouse and shop in the Via del Cocomero, to the northof the Duomo, is borne out by the will of the Floren-tine citizen Rinuccio, who, dying in 1312, describes theexcellent painter Giotto di Bondone as a parishionerof Santa Maria Novella, and bequeathes a sum of fivepounds of small florins to keep a lamp burning nightand day before the crucifix painted by the saidmaster, in the Dominican church. Of Giottos eightchildren, the eldest, Francesco, became a painter, andreceived commissions as early as 1319. When hisfather was absent from Florence
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1900, bookdecade1900, booksubjectpainter, bookyear1901
