DRAWING BY GHIRLANDAIO,
'The men of the market-place,'
Uffizi Gallery, Florence.
DRAWING BY LEONARDO DA VINCI,
'He loved to draw strange monsters,'
Uffizi Gallery, Florence.
DRAWING BY RAPHAEL,
'Round-limbed rosy children, half human, half divine,'
Uffizi Gallery, Florence.
DRAWING BY MICHELANGELO,
'A terrible head of a furious old man,'
Uffizi Gallery, Florence.
DRAWING BY GIORGIONE,
'A man in Venetian dress helping two women to mount one
of the niches of a marble palace,'
Uffizi Gallery, Florence.
DRAWING BY TINTORETTO,
'The head of a Venetian boy, such as Tintoretto met daily
among the fisher-folk of Venice,'
Uffizi Gallery, Florence.
GIOTTO
It was more than six hundred years ago that a little peasant baby was born in the small village of Vespignano, not far from the beautiful city of Florence, in Italy. The baby's father, an honest, hard-working countryman, was called Bondone, and the name he gave to his little son was Giotto.
Life was rough and hard in that country home, but the peasant baby grew into a strong, hardy boy, learning early what cold and hunger meant. The hills which surrounded the village were grey and bare, save where the silver of the olive-trees shone in the sunlight, or the tender green of the shooting corn made the valley beautiful in early spring. In summer there was little shade from the blazing sun as it rode high in the blue sky, and the grass which grew among the grey rocks was often burnt and brown. But, nevertheless, it was here that the sheep of the village would be turned out to find what food they could, tended and watched by one of the village boys.