[46] That the large fresco of Paradise, in which the portraits of Dante and Corso Donati occur is by Giotto, is, I think, quite certain.
[47] The house where Dante lived is still shown to strangers.
[48] I may here say once for all that owing to my ignorance of the Italian language, and the small amount of time at my disposal, it has been out of my power to undertake that research amongst the MSS. stored in the public libraries of Italy by which alone could the accurate chronology of Giotto's life be determined.
[49] Those who are interested in this subject will find an article discussing it in the Spectator of November 10th, 1877, entitled "The Human Element in Landscape Painting."
[50] How a certain reviewer would have scoffed at Giotto for representing the Virgin in this manner!
[51] It has been removed since, and its whereabouts is not now known.
[52] There is a dispute about the period when these frescoes were executed, but the weight of evidence is in favour of their having been done at the earliest period of Giotto's artistic career.
[53] Mr. Thomas Patch does not seem to have appreciated the master much, for he can see little difference between his work and that of the other painters of the same period, e.g. the Sienese and Pisan schools.
[54] According to Baldinucci, Vasari says Benedict IX., and Crowe and Cavalcaselle, Benedict XI (1303). Vide supra, p. 35.
[55] Portrait of Boniface VIII. preserved under glass in the church. Ed. Flor.