t this part is as remarkable for its
strength as the other parts are for their beauty. But he devoted the
highest powers of his genius to the scene in half-relief on the back
of the tabernacle, representing in figures of a braccia and a half,
the twelve apostles looking up at the Madonna ascending to heaven in
a mandorla, surrounded by angels. He represented himself in marble as
one of the apostles, an old man, clean shaven, a hood wound round
his head, with a flat round face as shown in his portrait above,
which it taken from this. On the base he wrote these words in the
marble: _Andreas Cionis pictor florentinus oratorii archimagister
extitit hujus, MCCCLIX_. It appears that the erection of the loggia
and of the marble tabernacle, with all the workmanship involved cost
96,000 gold florins, which were very well expended, because in
architecture, in sculpture and other ornaments they are comparable in
beauty with any other work of the time, without exception, and so
excellent as to assure to the name of Andrea Orcagna immortality and
greatness. In signing his paintings he used to write Andrea di Clone,
sculptor, and on his sculptures, Andrea di Cione, painter, wishing
his sculpture to recommend his painting and his painting his
sculpture. Florence is full of his paintings, some of which may be
recognised by the name, such as those in S. Romeo, and some by his
style, like that in the chapter-house of the monastery of the Angeli.
Some which he left imperfect were finished by his brother Bernardo,
who survived him, though not for many years. Andrea, as I have said,
amused himself in making verses and other poems, and when he was an
old man he wrote some sonnets to Burchiello, then a youth. At length
at the age of sixty he completed the course of his life in 1389, and
was borne with honour to burial from his house in the via Vecchia de'
Corazzai.

In the days of the Orcagna there were many who were skilful in
sculpture and architecture, whose names are unknown, but their works
show that they are worthy of high praise and commendation. An example
of such work is the Monastery of the Certosa of Florence, erected at
the cost of the noble family of the Acciaiuoli, and particularly of
M. Niccola, Grand Seneschal of the King of Naples, containing
Niccola's tomb with his effigy in stone, and those of his father and
a sister, both of whose portraits in the marble were made from life
in the year 1366. There also and by the same h