ab
externis ad nostra transgrediar) duos ego novi pictores egregios,
nec formosos, Jottum Florentinorum civem, cujus inter modernos fama
urgens est, et Simonem Sanensem. Novi scultores aliquot, &c_. Giotto
was buried in S. Maria del Fiore, on the left hand as one enters the
church, where a white marble slab is set up to the memory of this
great man. As I remarked in the life of Cimabue, a contemporary
commentator of Dante said: "Giotto was, and is the chief among the
painters in that same city of Florence, as his works in Rome, Naples,
Avignon, Florence, Padua, and many other parts of the world testify."

Giotto's pupils were Taddeo Gaddi, his godson as I have already
said, and Puccio Capanna, a Florentine, who painted for the Dominican
church of S. Cataldo at Rimini a most perfect fresco representing a
ship apparently about to sink, while the men are throwing their goods
into the water. Puccio has here portrayed himself in the midst of the
sailors. After Giotto's death, the same artist painted a number of
things in the church of S. Francesco at Assisi, and for the chapel of
the Strozzi, beside the door on the river front of the church of
Trinita he did in fresco a coronation of the Virgin with a choir of
angels, in which he followed Giotto's style rather closely, while on
the side walls are some very well executed scenes from the life of St
Lucy. In the Badia of Florence he painted the chapel of S. Giovanni
Evangelista of the family of the Covoni, which is next to the
sacristy. At Pistoia he did frescoes in the principal chapel of S.
Francesco, and the chapel of S. Ludovico, with scenes from the lives
of the patron saints, which are very tolerable productions. In the
middle of the church of S. Domenico in the same city is a crucifix
with a Madonna and St John, executed with much softness, and at the
feet an entire human skeleton, an unusual thing at that time, which
shows that Puccio had made efforts to understand the principles of
his art. This work contains his name, written after this fashion:
_Puccio di Fiorenza me Fece_. In the same church, in the tympanum
above the door of S. Maria Nuova are three half-length figures,--Our
Lady, with the Child on her arm, St Peter on the one side and St
Francis on the other, by the same artist. In the lower church of S.
Francesco at Assisi he further painted in fresco some scenes from the
passion of Jesus Christ, with considerable skill and much vigour, and
in the chapel of S