[36] It is noticeable that in Lindsay's Christian Art, it is to the influence of the sculptor, Niccola Pisano, rather than that of Cimabue, that Giotto owed his study of nature, &c., vol. ii. p. 82.
[37] "The date is disputed. Crowe now gives 1266, but I have, throughout, followed Vasari and other writers who give 1276. All the chronology of Giotto, except the date of his death, is highly uncertain."—H. Q.
[38] "At Pietro Mala. The flames rise two or three feet above the stony ground out of which they spring, white and fierce enough to be visible in the intense rays even of the morning sun."—J. R.
[39] This fresco is, I think, the work of one of Giotto's pupils, but probably executed from the master's design, or under his superintendence, or in any case is an imitation of Giotto's method of introducing animal life into his compositions.
[40] After working at Assisi and Pisa, according to Vasari, who is followed by Kugler. It is quite clear that Kugler is wrong in supposing that when Giotto visited Rome in 1298, he had previously executed the frescoes on the ceiling of the Lower Church at Assisi, for those works are evidently later than those of the Upper Church, and even in point of time it is impossible that both series could have been painted prior to 1298, when the painter was but twenty-two.
[41] Vasari says Benedict XI., but Rumohr shows it was Boniface who invited Giotto to Rome. Schorn, in note to Vasari.
[42] Giotto and his Works in Padua. Published for the Arundel Society.
[43] Portions of what is called the Stefaneschi altar piece; I am informed very fine in quality, but cannot speak from experience.
[44] It was subsequently defrayed by the Tuscan government.
[45] Crowe considers them to be undoubtedly his.