propriate reward of Berna's conscientious labours, celebrating him with their pens who had done them honour by his pictures.

Giovanni of Asciano,* a scholar of Berna, completed the work thus left unfinished.t The same artist executed certain paintings in the hospital of Siena, with others in the ancient palace of the Medici, from which he acquired some reputation. The Sienese painter, Berna, laboured about the year 1381. In addition to what I have said of him, he deserves to be lauded and held in honour by all artists, as having been the first who began to depict animals well. A specimen of his talents in this way, may be seen in a sketch filled with wild beasts from different regions, and preserved in our book. His drawings, generally, are of considerable merit. The Sienese painter Luca di Tomè, was also a disciple of Berna. This Luca painted many pictures in Siena and throughout Tuscany, more particularly the chapel of the Dragomanni family, in the church of San Domenico, in Arezzo, with its altar-piece. The chapel, which is of Gothic architecture, was indeed admirably adorned by this picture, and the frescoes which Luca the Sienese, with great judgment and ability, executed therein.§

* A castle in the Sienese territory.-Montani.

+ Baldinucci places this deplorable event in the year 1380. The first edition of Vasari gives the following epitaph, as written on Berna; but the Florentine commentators remark, that it is obviously of a later period:

"Bernardo Senensi pictori in primis illustri, qui dum naturam diligentius imitatur, quam vitæ sue consulit, de tabulato considens diem suum obüt. Geminianenses hominis de se optime meriti vicem dolentes poss."

The works of Giovanni of Asciano are believed to be all lost.

§ The Livornese edition, published about 1760, and quoted by Ludwig Schorn, declares these works to be still existing. The Florentine editors of 1846, assigning the last Guida di Arezzo as their authority, inform us that the picture has long been lost, but say that a part of the frescoes still remains.

THE SIENESE PAINTER DUCCIO.*

The first mention of this master is in 1282—the last in 1339.] THE men who first originate remarkable inventions have at all times received considerable attention from those who write history, and this arises from the fact that the first discovery of a thing is more prized-because of the charm attached to novelty--than all the improvements that are afterwards made, although by these last it may be that the matter is brought to its ultimate perfection. Nor is this without reason, seeing that if none made a beginning, there would be no place for the gradual amelioration which brings us to the middle point, and none for those last improvements by which the thing invented attains to the perfection of its beauty. Duccio of Siena, therefore, a painter much esteemed, deservedly appropriated a large amount of the fame which fell to the lot of those who succeeded him for many years after, he being the first to commence the decoration of the pavement of the Sienese cathedral with those figures in "chiaro-scuro", wherein the artists of later times have performed the marvellous works that we now see.† Duccio devoted himself to the imitation of the ancient manner, but very judiciously gave his figures a certain grace of outline, which he succeeded in securing notwithstanding the great difficulties presented by the branch of art now in question. Imitating paintings in "chiaro-scuro", Duccio designed and arranged the first commencements of the above named pavement with his own hand; he also executed a picture in the cathedral, which was at first on the high altar, but was afterwards removed to make way for the tabernacle of the Sacrament which we now see there. This picture, according to the description of Lorenzo di Bartolo Ghiberti, represented a coronation of the Virgin, partly in

* For the rectification and completion of this somewhat defective and meagre biography, see Della Valle, Lettere Sanesi, and Rumohr, Ital. Forsch. Vasari was not able to discover the masterpiece of this painter, now restored to the cathedral of Siena.-See note, page 242.

† Cicognara declares these works to equal the most precious mosaics of Greece and Rome.

Duccio may be considered the great founder of the Sienese school, being the first who sought to profit by the bequest left to art by Guido, in his wondrous picture of 1221.-Ed. Flor. 1846.

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the Byzantine manner, but partly also in the manner of the moderns. And as the high altar of this church was entirely isolated, the picture was painted on both sides, the artist having represented all the principal events related in the New Testament on the back part, a work which he executed with infinite care in small figures, which are very beautiful.* I have endeavoured to ascertain where this picture now is, but with all the efforts I have made, I have never been able to discover it. Nor can I find any one who knows what Francesco di Giorgio, the sculptor, did with it when he restored the tabernacle in bronze, together with the marble ornaments by which it is decorated.

Duccio painted many pictures on gold grounds for the city of Siena, and one for the church of Santa Trinità in Florence; this last is an Annunciation.‡ He also executed various Pisa, Lucca, and Pistoja,

works for different churches in which were all highly praised, and which gained him great renown as well as large profits. When Duccio ultimately died, what relations, disciples, or property he left, are circum

* Köhler has given a circumstantial description of this remarkable picture, in the Kunstblatt for 1827. No. xlix. See also Della Valle, Lettere Sanesi, ii, 75-6.

This work is said to have been carried in triumph from the house of the artist to its place in the cathedral; nor is it less admired in our own times. When removed, as above related, from the high altar, it remained in a room of the chapter-house until the succeeding century, when evil counsels prevailed so far, that the picture was cut in two, and the heads were appended-the one to the altar of Sant' Ansano, the other to the altar of the Sacrament.-Masselli, and the Flor. Ed. 1846.

The Roman edition of 1759 declared this Annunciation to be still in good preservation, and in its original place. Ludwig Schorn repeats this in 1832; but the latest commentators inform us, that the only well authenticated work of Duccio now in Italy, is that in the cathedral of Siena. Of another precious work of this master, which the connoisseurs affirm to be of indubitable authenticity, we have the following notice:-"This picture is a triptych, the height of it is about one braccio. In the central picture is Christ on the Cross, with the Virgin and St. John on each side, and two angels weeping above. On the right-hand leaf or panel, and in the upper part, is the Annunciation; while beneath is the Madonna seated, holding the Divine Infant, with angels in adoration around her throne. On the lower part of the opposite panel are Christ and the Virgin seated, with angels around them; and above is St. Francis, receiving the Stigmata. The work is of extraordinary beauty. It was purchased in Siena by Giovanni Metzger of Florence, many years since, and was sold in 1845, for a large sum, to Prince Albert, when it was brought to England.

stances alike unknown, but the fact that he bequeathed the invention of "chiaro-scuro" pictures in marble, as a legacy to the art of painting, would of itself be sufficient to secure him infinite praise and glory; he must assuredly be numbered among those benefactors who have adorned our art and promoted its progress; since he who first overcomes the difficulties of an extraordinary invention, not only claims our gratitude for his general deserts, but merits, in addition, a more special remembrance for the particular benefit thus conferred.

It is affirmed in Siena that, in the year 1348, Duccio gave the design for the chapel built on the piazza in front of the palace of the Signory; and we find it recorded, that the sculptor and architect Moccio, an artist of very respectable talent, was the fellow-countryman as well as contemporary of Duccio. Many works were performed by Moccio in various parts of Tuscany, especially in Arezzo, where he constructed a tomb for one of the Cerchi, in the church of St. Domenico; which tomb now serves as the support as well as ornament of the organ of the church. And if it should appear to some persons that the tomb in question is not a work of much excellence, yet if it be considered that the artist erected it while still but a youth, that is in 1356, it must be acknowledged to have some merit. Moccio acted as under-architect and sculptor, in the building of Santa Maria del Fiore, and executed some of the marble ornaments of that church. In Arezzo he rebuilt the church of Sant' Agostino, which was very small, in the manner we now see. The cost of this work was borne by the heirs of Picco Saccone de' Tarlati, as that noble had commanded immediately before his death, which took place at Bibbiena in the Casentino. In erecting the church of Sant' Agostino, the architect constructed no arches for the support of the roof, the weight of which was thrown on the arches of the columns: he thereby exposed his work to great peril, and was without doubt too bold. The same artist built the church and convent of Sant' Antonio, which, before the siege of Florence, was situated at the gate leading to Faenza, but which is now totally ruined; in his capacity of sculptor, he decorated the door of the church of Sant' Agostino in Ancona, with various figures and ornaments, similar to those which adorn the door of San Francesco, in

the same city; furthermore, in that church of Sant' Agostino, Moccio erected the sepulchre of Fra Zenone Vigilanti, the bishop and general of the order of St. Augustine; lastly, he built the loggia for the merchants of Ancona, which has since undergone many changes, now from one cause and now from another, and has received various improvements, with modern ornaments of different kinds. All the works of this artist, although considered much beneath mediocrity in our day, were at that time, and according to the knowledge of those men, held in no small estimation. But returning to Duccio, we close our account of his life with the observation, that the works of this painter were executed about the year of our salvation 1350.*

THE PAINTER ANTONIO VINIZIANO.†

[Flourished in the second half of the fourteenth century.]

MANY men, who would gladly remain in the country of their birth, being wounded by the tooth of envy, or oppressed by the persecutions of their fellow-citizens, wander forth to some land, where their talents being acknowledged and appreciated, they there make their home, thus choosing a new country, wherein they then bring forth the fruits of their genius. Nay, they sometimes labour all the more earnestly for distinction, to the end that they may thus in a certain sort take vengeance on those by whom they have been outraged, and not unfrequently become great men by these means, when, had they remained quietly in their native land, they might perchance have attained little beyond mediocrity in the vocation of their choice. Antonio the Venetian, who repaired to Florence‡ for the purpose of studying the art of *Late commentators consider the death of Duccio to have taken place in or about 1339.

† Antonio the Venetian.

Baldinucci affirms this painter to have been a Florentine, supporting his opinion by documents found in the Strozzi Library. Fiorillo and Lanzi agree with Baldinucci to a certain extent, but the latter does not consider the question to be satisfactorily decided.