yed from nature on a panel,
whereon he placed his name, as on a work, in his judgment, wrought
better than was his wont. Next, having made a large Crucifix on wood,
painted after the Greek manner, he sent it to Florence to Messer
Farinata degli Uberti, a most famous citizen, for the reason that he
had, among other noble deeds, freed his country from imminent ruin and
peril. This Crucifix is to-day in S. Croce, between the Chapel of the
Peruzzi and that of the Giugni. In S. Domenico in Arezzo, a church and
convent built by the Lords of Pietramala in the year 1275, as their arms
still prove, he wrought many works, and then returned to Rome (where he
had already been held very dear by Pope Urban IV), to the end that he
might do certain works in fresco at his commission in the portico of S.
Pietro; these were in the Greek manner, and passing good for those
times.

[Illustration: _Mansell_

THE VIRGIN AND CHILD, WITH SCENES FROM THE LIVES OF THE SAINTS

(_After the painting by_ Margaritone. _London: National Gallery, 5040_)]

Next, having made a S. Francis on a panel at Ganghereto, a place above
Terra Nuova in Valdarno, his spirit grew exalted and he gave himself to
sculpture, and that with so much zeal that he succeeded much better than
he had done in painting, because, although his first sculptures were in
Greek manner, as four wooden figures show that are in a Deposition from
the Cross in the Prieve, and some other figures in the round placed in
the Chapel of S. Francesco over the baptismal font, none the less he
adopted a better manner after he had seen in Florence the works of
Arnolfo and of the other then most famous sculptors. Wherefore, having
returned to Arezzo in the year 1275, in the wake of the Court of Pope
Gregory, who passed through Florence on his return from Avignon to Rome,
there came to him opportunity to make himself more known, for the reason
that this Pope died in Arezzo, after having presented thirty thousand
crowns to the Commune to the end that there might be finished the
building of the Vescovado, formerly begun by Maestro Lapo and little
advanced, and the Aretines, besides making the Chapel of S. Gregorio
(where Margaritone afterwards made a panel) in the Vescovado, in memory
of the said Pontiff, also ordained that a tomb of marble should be made
for him by the same man in the said Vescovado. Putting his hand to the
work, he brought it to completion, including therein the portrait of the
Pope f