ir and
somewhat rude. As regards the Romans, and I call Roman for the most
part those things which were brought to Rome after Greece was
subjugated, as all that was good and beautiful in the world was
carried thither; this Roman work, I say, is so beautiful in
expression, attitudes, movements both in nude figures and in
draperies, that the Romans may be said to have extracted the
beautiful from all the other provinces and gathered it into a
single style, making it the best and the most divine of all the arts.

At the time of Andrea all these good methods and arts were lost, and
the only style in use was that which had been brought to Tuscany by
the Goths and the rude Greeks. Thus he noted the new style of Giotto
and such few antiquities as were known to him, and somewhat refined a
great part of the grossness of that wretched manner by his own
judgment, so that he began to work in better style, and endow his
works with far more beauty than had hitherto been seen. When his
intelligence, skill, and dexterity had become known he was assisted
by many of his compatriots, and while he was still a young man, he
was commissioned to make some small figures in marble for S. Maria a
Ponte. These brought him such a good name that he was most earnestly
desired to come to work at Florence by those in charge of the
building of S. Maria del Fiore, as after the facade of the three
doors had been begun, there was a lack of masters to execute the
subjects which Giotto had designed for the beginning of that
structure. Accordingly Andrea went to Florence in order to undertake
that work, and because at that time the Florentines were desirous of
making themselves agreeable and friendly to Pope Boniface VIII., who
was then chief pontiff of the church of God, they wished Andrea,
before everything else, to make his statue in marble. Andrea
therefore set to work, and did not rest until he had finished the
Pope's figure placed between St Peter and St Paul, the three figures
being set up on the facade of S. Maria del Fiore, where they still
are. Afterwards Andrea made some figures of prophets for the middle
door of that church, in some tabernacles or niches. These showed that
he had made great improvements in the art, and that in excellence and
design he surpassed all those who had laboured for that structure up
to that time. Hence it was decided that all works of importance
should be entrusted to him and not to others. Soon after he was
commissio