ed so great diligence that no
greater could be desired. In this work there is seen begun a circle of
saints, both male and female, with so beautiful variety in the faces of
the young, the men of middle age, and the old, that nothing better could
be desired. And there is seen a very sweet manner in these blessed
spirits, with such great harmony that it appears almost impossible that
it could have been done in those times by Stefano, who indeed did do it;
although there is nothing of the figures in this circle finished save
the heads, over which is a choir of angels who are hovering playfully
about in various attitudes, appropriately carrying theological symbols
in their hands, and all turned towards a Christ on the Cross, who is in
the middle of this work, over the head of a S. Francis, who is in the
midst of an infinity of saints. Besides this, in the border of the
whole work, he made some angels, each of whom is holding in his hand one
of those Churches that S. John the Evangelist described in the
Apocalypse; and these angels are executed with so much grace that I am
amazed how in that age there was to be found one who knew so much.
Stefano began this work with a view to bringing it to the fullest
perfection, and he would have succeeded, but he was forced to leave it
imperfect and to return to Florence by some important affairs of his
own.

During that time, then, that he stayed for this purpose in Florence, in
order to lose no time he painted for the Gianfigliazzi, by the side of
the Arno, between their houses and the Ponte alla Carraja, a little
shrine on a corner that is there, wherein he depicted a Madonna sewing,
to whom a boy dressed and seated is handing a bird, with such diligence
that the work, small as it is, deserves to be praised no less than do
the works that he wrought on a larger and more masterly scale.

This shrine finished and his affairs dispatched, being called to Pistoia
by its Lords in the year 1346, he was made to paint the Chapel of S.
Jacopo, on the vaulting of which he made a God the Father with some
Apostles, and on the walls the stories of that Saint, and in particular
when his mother, wife of Zebedee, asks Jesus Christ to consent to place
her two sons, one on His right hand and the other on His left hand, in
the Kingdom of the Father. Close to this is the beheading of the said
Saint, a very beautiful work.

It is reputed that Maso, called Giottino, of whom there will be mention
below, wa