one unbroken and progressive chain of scenes;
the ministry of Christ being completely typified by his first and last
conspicuous miracle: while the very unimportance of some of the
subjects, as for instance that of the Watching the Rods, is useful in
directing the spectator rather to pursue the course of the narrative,
than to pause in satisfied meditation upon any single incident. And it
can hardly be doubted that Giotto had also a peculiar pleasure in
dwelling on the circumstances of the shepherd life of the father of
the Virgin, owing to its resemblance to that of his own early years.

The incidents represented in these first twelve paintings are recorded
in the two apocryphal gospels known as the "Protevangelion" and
"Gospel of St. Mary."[13] But on comparing the statements in these
writings (which, by the by, are in nowise consistent with each other)
with the paintings in the Arena Chapel, it appeared to me that Giotto
must occasionally have followed some more detailed traditions than are
furnished by either of them; seeing that of one or two subjects the
apocryphal gospels gave no distinct or sufficient explanation.
Fortunately, however, in the course of some other researches, I met
with a manuscript in the British Museum (Harl. 3571,) containing a
complete "History of the most Holy Family," written in Northern
Italian of about the middle of the 14th century; and appearing to be
one of the forms of the legend which Giotto has occasionally followed
in preference to the statements of the Protevangelion. I have
therefore, in illustration of the paintings, given, when it seemed
useful, some portions of this manuscript; and these, with one or two
verses of the commonly received accounts, will be found generally
enough to interpret sufficiently the meaning of the painter.

[Footnote 13: It has always appeared strange to me, that
ecclesiastical history should possess no more authentic records of the
life of the Virgin, before the period at which the narrative of St.
Luke commences, than these apocryphal gospels, which are as wretched
in style as untrustworthy in matter; and are evidently nothing more
than a collection, in rude imitation of the style of the Evangelists,
of such floating traditions as became current among the weak
Christians of the earlier ages, when their inquiries respecting the
history of Mary were met by the obscurity under which the Divine will
had veiled her humble person and character. There must