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Chap. VIII. GIOTTO’S PASSION FRESCOS. 251 arms and hands, true elegance and beauty of shape are attained. Nor were the figures, crowded as they are to gether, without that relief which keeps them in the place they are intended to occupy. The quality which became so conspicuous in Masaccio is indeed already apparent, and Giotto manifests a due sense of the importance of aerial perspective. This result he attained by great breadth of modelling, giving rotundity by relief without darkness of shadow. The colour is clear, light, well fused, and laid in with the greatest dexterity of hand. True harmony is attained in the tones of drapery. The outlines are firm and easy, and the practised manipula tion exhibits a marked advance upon that of the ceilings. It is difficult to conceive who else than Giotto could have executed this fine series of frescos; nor is there one amongst Giotto’s followers, who inherited the maxims of his art, that could have developed them as they are here conspicuous. 1 Whether Giotto more than once visited Assisi, is difficult to say; but these frescos were without a doubt produced after the ceilings of the lower church. That he was already a master, and that he was aided by nu merous apprentices is probable. Yet it would be pre sumptuous to affirm which of his pupils assisted him in this or that fresco. It is sufficient to express the con viction that these works, only less vigorous and dramatic than those of the Arena at Padua, are stamped with the qualities of Giotto’s earlier time, and with a simplicity and religious sentiment peculiar only to himself. They cannot be productions of one who, like Giovanni da Mi lano, rose out of the school of the Gaddi, —• a school 1 Some parts have been re touched; but the methods of Giotto are very manifest. Here are the same touch and manipulation on a highly polished surface as in the dance of the daughter of Herodias at S. Croce, and the allegories of Virtue and Vice at the Scrovegni of Padua. Regret at the loss of the sequel of these scenes from the Franciscan mir acle is unavailing; but who will not deplore the barbarism which consented to the destruction of the sides of the choir for the sake of erecting an orchestra,