ive his figures the utmost possible relief. But the best work
produced by him in that city was in the church of Araceli sul
Campidoglio mentioned above, where he painted in fresco on the
vaulting of the principal apse, Our Lady with the child in her arms,
surrounded by a circle of suns; beneath her is the Emperor Octavian,
adorning the Christ who is pointed out to him by the Tiburtine sybil.
The figures in this work, as has been said elsewhere, are much
better preserved than the others, because dust cannot attack the
vaulting so seriously as the walls. After these things Pietro came to
Tuscany in order to see the works of the other pupils of his master
Giotto, and those of the master himself. Upon this occasion he
painted in S. Marco at Florence many figures which are not visible
to-day, the church having been whitewashed with the exception of an
Annunciation which is beside the principal door of the church, and
which is covered over. In S. Basilio, by the aide of the Macine,
there is another Annunciation in fresco on the wall, so similar to
the one which he had previously made for S. Marco, and to another
which is at Florence that there are those who believe, not without
some amount of reason, that all of them are by the hand of this
Pietro; certainly it is impossible that they could more closely
resemble each other. Among the figures which he made for S. Marco
of Florence was the portrait of Pope Urban V., with the heads of St
Peter and St Paul. From this portrait Fra Giovanni da Fiesole copied
the one which is in a picture in S. Domenico, also at Fiesole. This
is a fortunate circumstance because the portrait which was in S.
Marco was covered with whitewash as I have said, together with many
other figures in fresco in that church, when the convent was taken
from the monks who were there originally and given to the Friars
Preachers, everything being whitewashed with little judgment and
discretion. On his way back to Rome Pietro passed through Assisi in
order not only to see the buildings and notable works done then by
his master and by some of his fellow-pupils, but to leave something
of his own there. In the transept on the sacristy side of the lower
church of S. Francesco he painted in fresco a Crucifixion of Jesus
Christ with armed men on horseback, in varied fashions, with a great
variety of extraordinary costumes characteristic of divers foreign
nations. In the air he made some angels floating on their wings in
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