ivacious and well coloured.
And in the same church, in the Chapel of S. Tommaso d'Aquino, he made a
panel in distemper with fanciful invention, which is much praised,
placing therein the said S. Thomas seated, portrayed from the life: I
say from the life, because the friars of that place had an image of him
brought from the Abbey of Fossa Nuova, where he died in the year 1323.
Below, round S. Thomas, who is placed seated in the air with some books
in his hand, which are illuminating the Christian people with their rays
and lustre, there are kneeling a great number of doctors and clergy of
every sort, Bishops, Cardinals, and Popes, among whom is the portrait
of Pope Urban VI. Under the feet of S. Thomas are standing Sabellius,
Arius, Averroes, and other heretics and philosophers, with their books
all torn; and the said figure of S. Thomas is placed between Plato, who
is showing him the _Timaeus_, and Aristotle, who is showing him the
_Ethics_. Above, a Jesus Christ, in like manner in the air between the
four Evangelists, is blessing S. Thomas, and appears to be in the act of
sending down upon him the Holy Spirit, and filling him with it and with
His grace. This work, when finished, acquired very great fame and praise
for Francesco Traini, for in making it he surpassed his master Andrea by
a great measure in colouring, in harmony, and in invention. This Andrea
was very diligent in his drawings, as it may be seen in our book.

[Illustration: _Alinari_

S. THOMAS AQUINAS

(_After the painting by_ Francesco Traini. _Pisa: Church of S.
Caterina_)]

FOOTNOTES:

[Footnote 18: This is probably a printer's error for "nemico," as that
Pope was anything but the friend of Manfredi.]

[Footnote 19: See note on p. 57.]

[Footnote 20: Lions of stone, emblems of the city of Florence.]

TOMMASO, CALLED GIOTTINO

LIFE OF TOMMASO, CALLED GIOTTINO,

PAINTER OF FLORENCE

When those arts that proceed from design come into competition and their
craftsmen work in rivalry, without doubt the good intellects, exercising
themselves with much study, discover new things every day in order to
satisfy the various tastes of men; and some, speaking for the present of
painting, executing works obscure and unusual and demonstrating in them
the difficulty of making them, make known by the shadows the brightness
of their genius. Others, fashioning the sweet and delicate, thinking
these to be likely to be more pleasing to the eyes