o that time; and round this arch he made some
stories of S. Nicholas. In like manner, in the Monastery of S. Chiara in
the same city, in the middle of the church, he painted a scene in
fresco, wherein is S. Chiara supported in the air by two angels who
appear real; she is restoring to life a child that was dead, while round
her are standing many women all full of wonder, with great beauty in the
faces and in the very gracious head-dresses and costumes of those times
that they are wearing. In the same city of Assisi, over the gate of the
city that leads to the Duomo--namely, in an arch on the inner side--he
made a Madonna with the Child in her arms, with so great diligence that
she appears alive, and a S. Francis and another Saint, both very
beautiful; both of which works, although the story of S. Chiara
remained unfinished by reason of Tommaso having fallen sick and returned
to Florence, are perfect and most worthy of all praise.

[Illustration: GIOTTINO: THE DESCENT FROM THE CROSS

(_Florence: Uffizi 27. Panel_)]

It is said that Tommaso was melancholic in temperament and very
solitary, but with respect to art devoted and very studious, as it is
clearly seen from a panel in the Church of S. Romeo in Florence, wrought
by him in distemper with so great diligence and love that there has
never been seen a better work on wood by his hand. In this panel, which
is placed in the tramezzo[21] of the church, on the right hand, is a
Dead Christ with the Maries and Nicodemus, accompanied by other figures,
who are bewailing His death with bitterness and with very sweet and
affectionate movements, wringing their hands with diverse gestures, and
beating themselves in a manner that in the air of the faces there is
shown very clearly their sharp sorrow at the so great cost of our sins.
And it is something marvellous to consider, not that he penetrated with
his genius to such a height of imagination, but that he could express it
so well with the brush. Wherefore this work is consummately worthy of
praise, not so much by reason of the subject and of the invention, as
because in it the craftsman has shown, in some heads that are weeping,
that although the lineaments of those that are weeping are distorted in
the brows, in the eyes, in the nose, and in the mouth, this, however,
neither spoils nor alters a certain beauty which is wont to suffer much
in weeping when the painters do not know well how to avail themselves of
the good method