r highly probable (since no one can affirm such
things absolutely), that he was the son of Stefano, painter of
Florence. Tommaso was so diligent in painting and so fond of it, that
although not many of his works have been found, yet those which are
extant are good and in excellent style. For the draperies, hair,
beards, and other details are executed and composed with such grace
and care that they prove him to have possessed a far better idea of
unity in art than was to be found in the works of Giotto, master of
Stefano his father. In his youth Giottino painted in S. Stefano at
the Ponte Vecchio at Florence, a chapel by the side door, and
although it has suffered a great deal from the damp, yet enough
remains to prove the skill and genius of the craftsman. He next did
SS. Cosmo and Damian beside the mills in the Frati Ermini, of which
but little can now be seen owing to the ravages of time. He did a
chapel in fresco in the old S. Spirito of that city, which was
afterwards destroyed at the burning of that church. Over the
principal door of the same church he painted in fresco the Descent of
the Holy Spirit, and on the piazza of the church, leading to the side
of the Cuculia, next the convent, he did the tabernacle which may
still be seen there, with Our Lady and other saints about her, who in
their heads and other parts approach very closely to the modern
style, because Tommaso endeavoured to vary and change the flesh tints
and to combine a graceful and judicious treatment of the figures with
variety in the colouring and in the draperies. In the chapel of St
Silvester at S. Croce he did the history of Constantine with great
care, with many fine ideas in the gestures of the figures. His next
work was to be placed behind a marble ornament made for the tomb of
M. Bettino de' Bardi, a man of eminent military rank of the time. He
represented him from life, in armour, rising on his knees from the
tomb, summoned by the Last Trump sounded by two angels who accompany
a Christ in the clouds, very well done. At the entrance to S.
Pancrazio, on the right hand side, he did a Christ carrying the
cross, and some saints near, markedly in Giotto's style. In S.
Gallo, a convent outside the gate of that name, and which was
destroyed at the siege, he painted a Pieta in fresco in a cloister, a
copy of which is in S. Pancrazio mentioned above, on a pilaster
beside the principal chapel. He painted SS. Cosmo and Damian in
fresco in S. Maria