Pagan times, gathered
together in that city from all parts of the world, the Pisans wished
the walls to be decorated with a series of noble paintings.
Accordingly Giotto went to Pisa, and beginning at the end of one of
the walls of the Campo Santo he depicted the life of the patient Job
in six frescoes. Now it occurred to him that the marbles of the part
of the building in which he was at work were turned towards the sea,
and being exposed to the south-east wind, they are always moist and
throw out a certain saltness, as do nearly all the bricks of Pisa,
and because the colours and paintings are eaten away by these causes,
and as he wished to protect his work from destruction as far as
possible, he prepared a coating for the whole of the surface on which
he proposed to paint his frescoes, which consisted of a plaster or
incrusture made up of lime, chalk and brick-dust. This device has
proved so successful, that the paintings which he subsequently
executed on this surface, have endured to this day, and they would
have stood better had not the neglect of those who should have taken
care of them, allowed them to be much damaged by the damp. The want
of attention to this detail, which would have involved little
trouble, has caused the pictures to suffer a great deal in some
places where the damp has converted the crimsons into black and
caused the plaster to fall off. Besides this it is the nature of
chalk when mixed with lime to become corroded and to peel, whence it
happens that the colours are destroyed, although they may originally
appear to take well. These frescoes contain the portrait of M.
Farinata degli Uberti, besides many fine figures, among which one may
remark some countrymen, who in bringing the sad news to Job, exhibit
the utmost sorrow for the lost animals and the other misfortunes.
There is also much grace in the figure of a servant, who with a fan
of branches stands near the bowed figure of Job, abandoned by
everyone else, for in addition to the figure being well executed in
every particular, his attitude is wonderful, as with one hand he
drives away the flies from his leprous and noisome master, and holds
his nose with the other with disgust, to escape the smell. Very fine
also are the other figures of these pictures and the heads of both
men and women, and the delicate treatment of the drapery, so that it
is small wonder that the work brought Giotto such renown in that city
and elsewhere; that Pope Bene