at of Giotto, which was held in such esteem.
His works consist of a picture for the high altar of S. Croce, on a
gold ground, and another picture which stood for many years on the
high altar of S. Maria Novella, and which is now in the
chapter-house, where every year the Spanish nation celebrates with a
solemn feast the day of St James and its other offices and burial
services. Besides these he did many other things in a good style, but
without in the least departing from the manner of his master. It was
he who painted on a pillar of bricks in the loggia, which Lapo had
built on the piazza of Orsanmichele, that Madonna which, not many
years after, worked so many miracles that the loggia was for a great
time full of images, and to this day is held in the highest
veneration. Finally, in the chapel of M. Ridolfo de' Bardi, in S.
Croce, where Giotto painted the life of St Francis, he did a
crucifix in tempera with the Magdalene and St John weeping, and two
friars on either side. Ugolino died at an advanced age in the year
1349, and was honourably buried at Siena, his native place.

But to return to Stefano, who, they say, was also a good architect,
and what has been said above makes this likely; he died, it is said,
at the beginning of the Jubilee of 1350, at the age of forty-nine,
and was buried at S. Spirito in the tomb of his ancestors with this
epitaph:

Stephano Florentino pictori, faciundis imaginibus ac colorandis
figuris nulli unquam inferiori; Affines moestiss. pos. vix. an.
XXXXIX.

Pietro Laurati, Painter of Siena.

Pietro Laurati, an excellent painter of Siena, proved by his life how
great may be the contentment of men of undoubted talent, who realise
that their works are valued, both in their native land and outside
it, and who see themselves in request by all men; for in the course
of his life he was employed and caressed by all Tuscany. The first
works which brought him into notice were the scenes which he painted
in fresco in la Scala, a hospital of Siena, in which he imitated the
style of Giotto so successfully that these paintings became known
throughout Tuscany and gave rise to the well-founded belief that he
would become a better master than Cimabue, Giotto, and the others, as
he actually did. In these scenes he represented the Virgin mounting
the steps of the Temple, accompanied by Joachim and Anna, and
received by the priest; then her marriage, both remarkable for good
ornamenta