picture of Our
Lady with the child in her arms, surrounded by several angels, on a
gold ground. In order to make room for the marble altar which is now
there it was soon afterwards removed from its original situation and
placed inside the church, near the door on the left hand. For this
work he was much praised and rewarded by the Pisans. In Pisa also he
painted a panel of St Agnes surrounded by a number of small figures
representing scenes from her life, at the request of the Abbot of S.
Paolo in Ripa d'Arno. The panel is to-day over the altar of the
Virgin in that church.

The name of Cimabue having become generally known through these
works, he was taken to Assisi, a city of Umbria, where, in
conjunction with some Greek masters, he painted a part of the
vaulting of the lower Church of S. Franceso, and on the walls, the
life of Jesus Christ and that of St Francis. In these paintings he
far surpassed the Greek masters, and encouraged by this, he began to
paint the upper church in fresco unaided, and on the large gallery
over the choir, on the four walls, he painted some subjects from the
history of Our Lady, that is to say, her death, when her soul is
carried to Heaven by Christ on a throne of clouds, and when He crowns
her in the midst of a choir of angels, with a number of saints
beneath. These are now destroyed by time and dust. He then painted
several things at the intersections of the vaulting of that church,
which are five in number. In the first one over the choir he
represented the four Evangelists, larger than life-size, and so well
done, that even to-day they are acknowledged to possess some merit;
and the freshness of the flesh colouring shows, that by his efforts,
fresco-painting was beginning to make great progress. The second
intersection he filled with gilt stars on an ultramarine field. In
the third he represented Jesus Christ, the Virgin his mother, St John
the Baptist and St Francis in medallions, that is to say, a figure in
each medallion and a medallion in each of the four divisions of the
vault. The fourth intersection like the second he painted with gilt
stars on ultramarine. In the fifth he represented the four Doctors of
the church, and beside each of them a member of the four principal
religious orders. This laborious undertaking was carried out with
infinite diligence. When he had finished the vaults he painted the
upper part of the walla on the left side of the church from one end
to the ot