Ponte a S. Trinita was being completed,
he decorated a chapel built on a pile, and dedicated to St Michael
the Archangel, an ancient and beautiful building, doing many figures,
both inside and out, and the whole of the principal front. This
chapel was carried away, together with the bridge, in the flood of
1557. Some assert that he owed his name of Giovanni dal Ponte to
these works. In Pisa, in the year 1335, he did some scenes in fresco
behind the altar in the principal chapel of St Paolo a ripa d'Arno,
which are now ruined by damp and time. Another work of his is the
chapel of the Scali in S. Trinita at Florence, and another beside it,
as well as one of the stories of St Paul beside the principal chapel,
which contains the tomb of Maestro Paolo, the astrologer. In S.
Stefano, at the Ponte Vecchio, he did a panel and other paintings in
tempera and fresco for Florence and elsewhere, which won him
considerable renown. He was beloved by his friends, but rather in his
pleasures than in his labours, and he was a friend of men of letters,
and especially of all those who were studying his own art in the hope
of excelling in it; and although he had not troubled to acquire for
himself what he desired for others, he never ceased to advise others
to work diligently. At length, when he had lived fifty-nine years, he
departed this life in a few days in consequence of a disorder of the
chest. Had he lived a little longer, he would have suffered much
inconvenience, as there remained hardly sufficient in his house to
afford him decent burial in S. Stefano dal Ponte Vecchio. His works
were executed about 1345.

Our book of designs of various ancient and modern masters contains a
water-colour by Giovanni representing St George on horseback killing
a serpent; also a skeleton, the two affording an excellent
illustration of his method and his style in designing.

Agnolo Gaddi, Painter of Florence.

The virtue and husbandry of Taddeo Gaddi afford an excellent
illustration of the advantages and honours accruing from excellence
in a noble art, for by his industry and labour he provided a
considerable property, and left the affairs of his family so ordered
that when he passed to the other life his sons Agnolo and Giovanni
were enabled without difficulty to lay the foundations of the vast
wealth and distinction of the house of Gaddi, which is now amongst
the noblest in Florence and of high repute in all Christendom. Indeed
it was n