importance. In
the process of time Taddeo acquired so much money that, by steadily
saving, he founded the wealth and nobility of his family, being
always considered a wise and courteous man. In S. Maria Novella he
painted the chapter-house which was allotted to him by the prior of
the place, who supplied him with the idea. It is known that, because
the work was a great one, and as the chapter-house of S. Spirito was
uncovered at the same time as the bridges were building, to the great
glory of Simone Memmi who painted it, the prior wished to secure
Simone to do half of the work; accordingly he consulted Taddeo, who
was very willing to agree to this, since Simone had been a
fellow-pupil of Giotto with him, and they had always remained close
friends and companions. O truly noble souls to love one another
fraternally without emulation, ambition, or envy, so that each
rejoiced at the advancement and honour of his friend as if it had
been his own. The work was accordingly divided, three sides being
allotted to Simone, as I have said in his life, and the left side and
the whole of the vaulting to Taddeo, who divided his work into four
divisions or quarters, according to the disposition of the vaulting.
In the first he made the Resurrection of Christ, in which he
apparently endeavours to cause the glorified body to emit light,
which is reflected on a city and on some mountain rocks; but he
abandoned this device in the figures and in the rest of the
composition, possibly because he was not confident of his ability to
carry it out, owing to the difficulties which presented themselves.
In the second compartment he made Jesus Christ delivering Peter from
drowning, when the apostles, who are managing the boat, are certainly
very fine, and especially a man who is fishing with a line on the
sea-shore (a thing first attempted by Giotto in the mosaic of the
_Navicella_ in St Peter's), represented with vigorous and life-like
expression. In the third he painted the Ascension of Christ, while
the fourth represents the Descent of the Holy Spirit, remarkable for
the fine attitudes of the Jews, who are endeavouring to enter the
door. On the wall beneath are the seven sciences, with their names,
and appropriate figures below each. Grammar habited like a woman is
teaching a boy; beneath her sits the writer Donato. Next to Grammar
sits Rhetoric, at whose feet is a figure with its two hands resting
on books, while it draws a third hand from ben