ctly ready to take up once more the
threads of her life. How long she lived this second time and what
became of her I have not been able to discover. Her tiny sister,
behind the bier, is even quainter. On the left is a little group
of the comely Florentine ladies in whom Ghirlandaio so delighted,
tall and serene, with a few youths among them.

It is interesting to note that Ghirlandaio in his S. Trinita frescoes
and Benedetto da Maiano in his S. Croce pulpit reliefs chose exactly
the same scenes in the life of S. Francis: interesting because
when Ghirlandaio was painting frescoes at San Gimignano in 1475,
Benedetto was at work on the altar for the same church of S. Fina,
and they were friends. Where Ghirlandaio and Giotto, also in S. Croce,
also coincide in choice of subject some interesting comparisons may
be made, all to the advantage of Giotto in spiritual feeling and
unsophisticated charm, but by no means to Ghirlandaio's detriment
as a fascinating historian in colour. In the scene of the death of
S. Francis we find Ghirlandaio and Giotto again on the same ground,
and here it is probable that the later painter went to the earlier
for inspiration; for he has followed Giotto in the fine thought that
makes one of the attendant brothers glance up as though at the saint's
ascending spirit. It is remarkable how, with every picture that one
sees, Giotto's completeness of equipment as a religious painter becomes
more marked. His hand may have been ignorant of many masterly devices
for which the time was not ripe; but his head and heart knew all.

The patriarchs in the spandrels of the choir are by Ghirlandaio's
master, Alessio Baldovinetti, of whom I said something in the chapter
on S. Maria Novella. They once more testify to this painter's charm
and brilliance. Almost more than that of any other does one regret the
scarcity of his work. It was fitting that he should have painted the
choir, for his name-saint, S. Alessio, guards the facade of the church.

The column opposite the church came from the baths of Caracalla and
was set up by Cosimo I, upon the attainment of his life-long ambition
of a grand-dukeship and a crown. The figure at the top is Justice.

S. Trinita is a good starting-point for the leisurely examination of
the older and narrower streets, an occupation which so many visitors
to Florence prefer to the study of picture galleries and churches. And
perhaps rightly. In no city can they carry on their researc