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272 EARLY CHRISTIAN ART. Chap. IX. of a compass, he completed with one sweep a perfect circle. “Here is my drawing” said Giotto. Am I to have no other than this, replied the courtier scenting a joke in the manner of the artist. “Enough it is and more than enough,” was the answer. The Pope, a better judge than his envoy, admitted the superiority of Giotto, and the story, repeated from mouth to mouth, became the foundation of a pun on the word tondo. For it became proverbial to say of men of dull or coarse character, that they were rounder than the O of Giotto. — Free hand drawing is better understood in our day since the foundation of schools of design, than it was of old; and the practical mind of M. Ruskin recognizes in the feat of Giotto something more than a joke. 1 In this he is right, for a free hand can alone trace bold sweeps of ornament; and ornament now receives an attention which was acknowledged in the thirteenth century, though long denied to it in the nine teenth. Vasari prefaces this amusing anecdote by saying that Benedict was led to inquire respecting Giotto’s talent, because the fame of his illustrations to the life of Job in the Campo Santo of Pisa had reached him. The reader may note, as he proceeds with these pages, that Vasari blundered here as in other places, and that the series of the frescos of Job are by another and feebler hand. The result of Benedict’s inquiries however, was, that he engaged Giotto at a large salary to proceed to Avignon, to exe cute a series illustrating the lives of the martyrs. But before Giotto had had time to start, the death of his new patron intervened, and the commission was not executed. This fact, authoritatively stated by Albertini, 2 has hitherto escaped the commentators who follow the error of Vasari, and describe Giotto as having visited Avignon and other 1 See in the publications of the Arundel Society M r . Ruskin’s able exposition of the style of Giotto and his admirable comments on the paintings of the Scrovegni at Padua. Those also who are una ble to judge of Giotto’s talent from the originals, may study the excellent engravings which M r . Ruskin’s pen illustrates. 2 Opusculum uhi sup. p. 54. The passage runs as follows: “Fuitque (Giotto) a Benedicto XI pont. max. in Avinionem, ad pin-