or a period of
seventeen years, no one had been able to make to ring without twelve men
to pull at it. He balanced it, then, in a manner that two could move it,
and once moved one alone could ring it without a break, although it
weighed more than six thousand libbre; wherefore, besides the honour, he
gained thereby as his reward three hundred florins of gold, which was
great payment in those times.

[Illustration: LIPPO MEMMI: MADONNA AND CHILD

(_Berlin: K. Friedrich Museum 1081A. Panel_)]

But to return to our two Memmi of Siena; Lippo, besides the works
mentioned, wrought a panel in distemper, with the design of Simone,
which was carried to Pistoia and placed over the high-altar of the
Church of S. Francesco, and was held very beautiful. Finally, both
having returned to their native city of Siena, Simone began a very large
work in colour over the great gate of Camollia, containing the
Coronation of Our Lady, with an infinity of figures, which remained
unfinished, a very great sickness coming upon him, so that he, overcome
by the gravity of the sickness, passed away from this life in the year
1345, to the very great sorrow of all his city and of Lippo his brother,
who gave him honourable burial in S. Francesco.

Lippo afterwards finished many works that Simone had left imperfect, and
among these was a Passion of Jesus Christ over the high-altar of S.
Niccola in Ancona, wherein Lippo finished what Simone had begun,
imitating that which the said Simone had made and finished in the
Chapter-house of S. Spirito in Florence. This work would be worthy of a
longer life than peradventure will be granted to it, there being in it
many horses and soldiers in beautiful attitudes, which they are striking
with various animated movements, doubting and marvelling whether they
have crucified or not the Son of God. At Assisi, likewise, in the lower
Church of S. Francesco, he finished some figures that Simone had begun
for the altar of S. Elizabeth, which is at the entrance of the door that
leads into the chapels, making there a Madonna, a S. Louis King of
France, and other Saints, in all eight figures, which are only as far as
the knees, but good and very well coloured. Besides this, in the great
refectory of the said convent, at the top of the wall, Simone had begun
many little scenes and a Crucifix made in the shape of a Tree of the
Cross, but this remained unfinished and outlined with the brush in red
over the plaster, as may sti