ted by the hand of Giotto the stories of the
martyrdom of many of them. In the fourth, which is on the other side of
the church, towards the north, and belongs to the Tosinghi and to the
Spinelli, and is dedicated to the Assumption of Our Lady, Giotto painted
her Birth, her Marriage, her Annunciation, the Adoration of the Magi,
and when she presents Christ as a little Child to Simeon, which is
something very beautiful, seeing that, besides a great affection that is
seen in that old man as he receives Christ, the action of the child,
stretching out its arms in fear of him and turning in terror towards its
mother, could not be more touching or more beautiful. Next, in the death
of the Madonna herself, there are the Apostles, and a good number of
angels with torches in their hands, all very beautiful. In the Chapel of
the Baroncelli, in the said church, is a panel in distemper by the hand
of Giotto, wherein is executed with much diligence the Coronation of Our
Lady, with a very great number of little figures and a choir of angels
and saints, very diligently wrought. And because in that work there are
written his name and the date in letters of gold, craftsmen who will
consider at what time Giotto, with no glimmer of the good manner, gave a
beginning to the good method of drawing and of colouring, will be forced
to hold him in the highest veneration. In the same Church of S. Croce,
over the marble tomb of Carlo Marsuppini of Arezzo, there is a Crucifix,
with the Madonna, S. John, and Magdalene at the foot of the Cross; and
on the other side of the church, exactly opposite this, over the
burial-place of Lionardo Aretino, facing the high-altar, there is an
Annunciation, which has been recoloured by modern painters, with small
judgment on the part of him who has had this done. In the refectory, on
a Tree of the Cross, are stories of S. Louis and a Last Supper by the
same man's hand; and on the wardrobes in the sacristy are scenes with
little figures from the life of Christ and of S. Francis. He wrought,
also, in the Church of the Carmine, in the Chapel of S. Giovanni
Battista, all the life of that Saint, divided into a number of pictures;
and in the Palace of the Guelph party, in Florence, there is a story of
the Christian Faith, painted perfectly in fresco by his hand; and
therein is the portrait of Pope Clement IV, who created that magisterial
body, giving it his arms, which it has always held and holds still.

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