's style under him, did the
Passion of Jesus Christ there, completing it in its present form in
the year 1403, to the great delight of the Pisans. Afterwards, it is
said, he finished the chapel of the Pugliesi; and as the works which
he did there at S. Girolamo greatly pleased the Florentines, because
he had expressed in a lively manner many gestures and attitudes which
had not been attempted by any painters before his time, the Commune
of Florence in the year that Gabriel Maria, lord of Pisa, sold that
city to the Florentines for 200,000 scudi (after Giovanni Gambacorta
had stood a siege of thirteen months, although even he at length
agreed to the sale), employed Stamina to paint on a wall of the
Palazzo di parte Guelfa, St Denis the bishop, with two angels, and
below it an accurate representation of the city of Pisa. In the
execution of this he displayed such diligence in every detail,
especially in the colouring in fresco, that notwithstanding the
action of air and water and a northern aspect, the picture has always
remained in excellent condition, and even now it has all the
appearance of having been newly painted, an achievement worthy of
high praise. Gherardo having by this and other works acquired a great
reputation and much renown both at home and abroad, death, the
envious enemy of virtuous deeds, cut off at the height of his powers
the great promise of much better things than the world had yet seen
from him; and having come to his end unexpectedly in the forty-ninth
year of his age, he was buried with much pomp in the church of S.
Jacopo sopra Arno.

The pupils of Gherardo were Masolino da Panicale, who was at first an
excellent goldsmith and then a painter, and some others whom it is
not necessary to mention, as they did not possess any remarkable
talent.

The portrait of Gherardo occurs in the story of St Jerome, mentioned
above; he is one of the figures who are standing about the dying
saint, represented in profile with a hood about his head and a mantle
buttoned about him. In our book are some designs of Gherardo done
with the pen on parchment, which are of considerable excellence.

Lippo, Painter of Florence.

Invention has been, and always will be considered the true mother of
architecture, painting and poetry, as well as of all the superior
arts and of all the marvels produced by man. By its aid artists
develop their ideas, caprices and fancies, and are able to display
more variety, for a