kshop of
Maso del Saggio with his friends and companions. He was also present
with many others in arranging the regatta which the men of the borgo
S. Friano in Arno celebrate on the calends of May, and that when the
ponte alla Carraia, which was then of wood, broke down because it was
too crowded with people, who had run thither to see the spectacle, he
did not perish then like many others, because when the bridge fell
right on a machine, representing Hell in a barque on the Arno, he had
gone to buy some things that were wanted for the feast.

Not long after these things Buonamico was invited to Pisa, and
painted a series of subjects from the Old Testament, from the
Creation of Man to the building of the Tower of Nimrod, for the abbey
of S. Paolo a ripa d'Arno, which then belonged to the monks of
Vallombrosa, on the whole of the crossing of that church, on three
sides, from the roof to the ground. This work, which is now almost
entirely destroyed, is remarkable for the vigour of the figures, the
skill and beauty of the colouring and artist's faculty of expressing
his ideas, although he was not very good in design. On the wall of
this crossing opposite that which contains the side door, there are
some scenes of the life of St Anastasia, where some women, painted in
a graceful manner, exhibit certain antique habits and gestures, very
prettily and well. No less fine are some figures in a barque,
arranged in well designed attitudes, among them being the portrait of
Pope Alexander IV., which it is said Buonamico had from his master
Tafi, who had represented that pontiff in mosaic in St Peter's.
Similarly in the last subject which represents the martyrdom of the
saint, and of others, Buonamico finely expresses in the faces the
fear of death, the grief and dread of those who are standing by to
see her tormented and put to death, while she stands bound to a tree,
and above the fire. Bruno di Giovanni, a painter, assisted Buonamico
in this work. He is called painter in the old book of the company.
This Bruno, also celebrated as a joke-loving man by Boccaccio,
finished the said scenes for the walls, and painted the altar of St
Ursula for the same church, with her company of virgins, inserting in
one hand of the saint a standard with the arms of Pisa, which are a
white cross on a red ground, while she places the other on a woman
who is rising between two mountains, and touches the sea with one
foot and places her hands together i