s the son of this Stefano; and although many, by reason of the
suggestiveness of the name, hold him the son of Giotto, I, by reason of
certain records that I have seen, and of certain memoirs of good
authority written by Lorenzo Ghiberti and by Domenico del Ghirlandajo,
hold it as true that he was rather the son of Stefano than of Giotto. Be
this as it may, returning to Stefano, it can be credited to him that he
did more than anyone after Giotto to improve painting, for, besides
being more varied in invention, he was also more harmonious, more
mellow, and better blended in colouring than all the others; and
above all he had no peer in diligence. And as for those foreshortenings
that he made, although, as I have said, he showed a faulty manner in
them by reason of the difficulty of making them, none the less he who is
the pioneer in the difficulties of any exercise deserves a much greater
name than those who follow with a somewhat more ordered and regular
manner. Truly great, therefore, is the debt that should be acknowledged
to Stefano, because he who walks in darkness and gives heart to others,
by showing them the way, brings it about that its difficult steps are
made easy, so that with lapse of time men leave the false road and
attain to the desired goal. At Perugia, too, in the Church of S.
Domenico, he began in fresco the Chapel of S. Caterina, which remained
unfinished.

[Illustration: _Berlin Photo. Co._

SS. PAUL, PETER AND JOHN THE BAPTIST

(_After the painting by_ Ugolino Sanese [da Siena]. _Berlin: K.
Friedrich Museum, 1635_)]

There lived about the same time as Stefano a man of passing good repute,
Ugolino, painter of Siena, very much his friend, who painted many panels
and chapels throughout all Italy, although he held ever in great part to
the Greek manner, as one who, grown old therein, had wished by reason of
a certain obstinacy in himself to hold rather to the manner of Cimabue
than to that of Giotto, which was so greatly revered. By the hand of
Ugolino, then, is the panel of the high-altar of S. Croce, on a ground
all of gold, and also a panel which stood many years on the high-altar
of S. Maria Novella and is to-day in the Chapter-house, where the
Spanish nation every year holds most solemn festival on the day of S.
James, with other offices and funeral ceremonies of its own. Besides
these, he wrought many other works with good skill, without departing,
however, from the manner of his master. The s