this work so marvellous, that they carried it to the
church from Cimabue's house in a stately procession with great
rejoicing and blowing of trumpets, while Cimabue himself was highly
rewarded and honoured. It is reported, and some records of the old
painters relate that while Cimabue was painting this picture in some
gardens near the gate of S. Piero, the old king Charles of Anjou
passed through Florence. Among the many entertainments prepared for
him by the men of the city, they brought him to see the picture of
Cimabue. As it had not then been seen by anyone, all the men and
women of Florence flocked thither in a crowd, with the greatest
rejoicings, so that those who lived in the neighbourhood called the
place Borgo Allegri (Joyful Quarter), because of the rejoicing there.
This name it has ever afterwards retained, being in the course of
time enclosed within the walls of the city.

At S. Francesco, at Pisa, where Cimabue executed some other works,
which have been mentioned above, in the cloister, at a corner beside
the doorway leading into the church, is a small picture in tempera by
his hand, representing Christ on the cross, surrounded by some angels
who are weeping, and hold in their hands certain words written about
the head of Christ, and which they are directing towards the ears of
our Lady, who is standing weeping on the right hand side; and on the
other side to St John the Evangelist, who is there, plunged in grief.
The words to the Virgin are: "_Mulier, ecce filius tuus_," and those
to St John: "_Ecce mater tua_." Another angel, separated from these,
holds in its hands the sentence: "_Ex illa hora accepit eam
discipulus in suam_." In this we perceive how Cimabue began to give
light and open the way to inventions, bringing words, as he does
here, to the help of his art in order to express his meaning, a
curious device certainly and an innovation.

By means of these works Cimabue had now acquired a great name and
much profit, so that he was associated with Arnolfo Lapi, an
excellent architect of that time, in the building of S. Maria del
Fiore, at Florence. But at length, when he had lived sixty years, he
passed to the other life in the year 1300, having achieved hardly
less than the resurrection of painting from the dead.

He left behind a number of disciples, and among others Giotto, who
was afterwards an excellent painter. Giotto dwelt in his master's old
house in the via del Cocomero after Cimabue's dea