rk being large and of
there being unveiled, at that time when the bridges were being made, the
Chapter-house of S. Spirito, to the very great fame of Simone Memmi, who
had painted it, there came to the said Prior a desire to call Simone to
the half of this work; wherefore, having discussed the whole matter with
Taddeo, he found him well contented therewith, for the reason that he
had a surpassing love for Simone, because he had been his
fellow-disciple under Giotto and ever his loving friend and companion.
Oh! minds truly noble! seeing that without emulation, ambition, or envy,
ye loved one another like brothers, each rejoicing as much in the honour
and profit of his friend as in his own! The work was divided, therefore,
and three walls were given to Simone, as I said in his Life, and Taddeo
had the left-hand wall and the whole vaulting, which was divided by him
into four sections or quarters in accordance with the form of the
vaulting itself. In the first he made the Resurrection of Christ,
wherein it appears that he wished to attempt to make the splendour of
the Glorified Body give forth light, as we perceive in a city and in
some mountainous crags; but he did not follow this up in the figures and
in the rest, doubting, perchance, that he was not able to carry it out
by reason of the difficulty that he recognized therein. In the second
section he made Jesus Christ delivering S. Peter from shipwreck, wherein
the Apostles who are manning the boat are certainly very beautiful; and
among other things, one who is fishing with a line on the shore of the
sea (a subject already used by Giotto in the mosaics of the Navicella in
S. Pietro) is depicted with very great and vivid feeling. In the third
he painted the Ascension of Christ, and in the fourth the coming of the
Holy Spirit, where there are seen many beautiful attitudes in the
figures of the Jews who are seeking to gain entrance through the door.
On the wall below are the Seven Sciences, with their names and with
those figures below them that are appropriate to each. Grammar, in the
guise of a woman, with a door, teaching a child, has the writer Donato
seated below her. After Grammar follows Rhetoric, and at her feet is a
figure that has two hands on books, while it draws a third hand from
below its mantle and holds it to its mouth. Logic has the serpent in her
hand below a veil, and at her feet Zeno of Elea, who is reading.
Arithmetic is holding the tables of the abacus,