are
really sisters, born at the same time and nourished and animated by
the same spirit. This is seen in Andrea Pisano, who practised
sculpture in the time of Giotto, and made so much improvement in that
art, both by practice and study, that he was considered the best
exponent of the profession who had until then appeared in Tuscany,
especially in casting bronze. For this reason his works were so
honoured and prized by those who knew him, and especially by the
Florentines, that he was able without a pang to change his country,
relations, property, and friends. It was a great advantage to him
that the masters who had preceded him in sculpture had experienced so
much difficulty in the art that their works were rough and common, so
that those who saw his productions, judged him a miracle by
comparison. That these first works were rude may be credited, as has
been said elsewhere, upon an examination of some which are over the
principal door of S. Paolo at Florence, and some stone ones in the
church of Ognissanti, which are so executed as to move to laughter
those who regard them, rather than to excite in them any admiration
or pleasure. It is certain that it was much more easy to recover the
art of sculpture when the statues had been lost, as a man is a round
figure by nature, and is so represented by that art, whereas in
painting, on the other hand, it is not so easy to find the right
shapes and the best manner of portraying them, which are essential to
the majesty, beauty, grace, and ornament of a picture. In one
circumstance fortune was favourable to Andrea, because, as has been
said elsewhere, by means of the numerous victories won by the Pisans
at sea, many antiquities and sarcophagi were brought to Pisa, which
are still about the Duomo and Campo Santo. These gave him great
assistance and much light, advantages which could not be enjoyed by
Giotto, because the ancient paintings which have been preserved are
not so numerous as the sculptures. And although statues have
frequently been destroyed by fire, devastation, and the fury of war,
or buried or transported to various places, yet it is easy for a
connoisseur to recognise the productions of all the different
countries by their various styles. For example, the Egyptian is
slender, with long figures; the Greek is artificial, and much care is
displayed on the nude, while the heads nearly always have the same
turn; and the ancient Tuscan is careful in the treatment of ha