her death, her death and
her being carried to Heaven by angels. As the scene was on a large
scale, and the chapel being a very small one of not more than ten
braccia in length and five in height, would not take it all,
especially in the case of the Assumption of Our Lady, Spinello very
judiciously continued the scene to the vaulting on one of the sides
at the place where Christ and the angels are receiving her. In a
chapel of S. Trinita, Spinello made a very fine Annunciation and for
the high altar picture of the church of S. Apostolo he painted in
tempera the Descent of the Holy Spirit upon the Apostles in tongues
of fire. In S. Lucia de' Bardi he also painted a panel and did a
larger one for the chapel of St John the Baptist, decorated by
Giotto.

After these things, and on account of the great reputation which his
labours in Florence had procured for him, Spinello was recalled to
Arezzo by the sixty citizens who governed it, and was commissioned by
the Commune to paint the story of the Magi in the old Duomo outside
the city, and in the chapel of St Gismondo, a St Donate, who by means
of a benediction causes a serpent to burst. Similarly he made some
various figures on many pilasters of that Duomo, and on a wall he did
a Magdalene in the house of Simon anointing Christ's feet, with other
paintings which there is no need to mention, since that church is now
entirely destroyed, though it was then full of tombs, the bones of
saints and other notable things. But in order that the memory of it
may at least remain, I will remark that it was built by the Aretines
more than thirteen hundred years ago, at the time when they were
first converted to the faith of Jesus Christ by St Donato, who
afterwards became bishop of the city. It was dedicated to him, and
richly adorned both within and without with very ancient spoils of
antiquity. The ground plan of the church, which is discussed at
length elsewhere, was divided on the outside into sixteen faces, and
on the inside into eight, and all were full of the spoils of those
times which had originally been dedicated to idols; in short, it was,
at the time of its destruction, as beautiful as such a very ancient
church could possibly be. After the numerous paintings which he had
done in the Duomo, Spinello painted for the chapel of the Marsupini
in S. Francesco, Pope Honorius confirming and approving the rule of
that saint, the pope being a portrait of Innocent IV., he having by
som