the Signoria to paint
in fresco, in a hall of their Palace, a Virgin Mary with many figures
round her, which he completed with all perfection to his own great
credit and advantage. And in order to show that he was no less able to
work on panel than in fresco, he painted in the said Palace a panel
which led to his being afterwards made to paint two of them in the
Duomo, and a Madonna with the Child in her arms, in a very beautiful
attitude, over the door of the Office of the Works of the said Duomo. In
this picture certain angels, supporting a standard in the air, are
flying and looking down on to some saints who are round the Madonna, and
they make a very beautiful composition and great adornment.

[Illustration: SIMONE MARTINI: KNIGHTING OF S. MARTIN

(_Assisi: Lower Church of S. Francesco, Chapel of S. Martin. Fresco_)]

This done, Simone was brought by the General of the Augustinians to
Florence, where he painted the Chapter-house of S. Spirito, showing
invention and admirable judgment in the figures and the horses that he
made, as is proved in that place by the story of the Passion of
Christ, wherein everything is seen to have been made by him with
ingenuity, with discretion, and with most beautiful grace. There are
seen the Thieves on the Cross yielding up their breath, and the soul of
the good one being carried to Heaven by the angels, and that of the
wicked one going, accompanied by devils and all harassed, to the
torments of Hell. Simone likewise showed invention and judgment in the
attitudes and in the very bitter weeping of some angels round the
Crucifix. But what is most worthy of consideration, above everything
else, is to see those spirits visibly cleaving the air with their
shoulders, almost whirling right round and yet sustaining the motion of
their flight. This work would bear much stronger witness to the
excellence of Simone, if, besides the fact that time has eaten it away,
it had not been spoilt by those Fathers in the year 1560, when they,
being unable to use the Chapter-house, because it was in bad condition
from damp, made a vaulted roof to replace a worm-eaten ceiling, and
threw down the little that was left of the pictures of this man. About
the same time Simone painted a Madonna and a S. Luke, with some other
Saints, on a panel in distemper, which is to-day in the Chapel of the
Gondi in S. Maria Novella, with his name.

Next, Simone painted three walls of the Chapter-house of the said S.
Ma