Volltext Seite (XML)
much further than it was by Giotto, quite as far as it was by Giovanni da Milano; but, by its side, the great laws of composition are preserved; and in this, the painter shows himself purely Florentine. He gave an impulse to Giot- tesque art without any pedantry of imitation, and pos sessed the motive principles which must regulate its pro gress. He coloured his pictures with warm but still clear tones, using them with a full brush and broadly modelling the parts, yet giving their due share of import ance and finish to details. 1 If Vasari meant that this painter inherited the spirit of Giotto, he was right. The rest of the paintings in the chapel are much damaged. 2 Similar character and style, technical execution, draw ing and colour, reveal the same manner in the crypt chapel or funeral vault of the Strozzi beneath the Cappel- lone dei Spagnuoli in S. Maria Novella, 3 where an in scription, carved on a slab, runs as follows: “Dom. Benedicti Petri et Benedicti Carrocii de Strozzis, et descendentium.” In the crucifixion , 4 the Saviour, in features like one in 1 The intonaco has in many places fallen out. 2 On the wall opposite the fore going, are traces in a lunette of the wailing mothers before Con stantine who sits in a chariot. To the right, the vision of S.S. Paul and Peter, Constantine cry ing out in his sleep, tended by two attendants at the bed foot (all hut obliterated), whilst a ser vant outside looks in inquiringly, lieneath this, in a recess, the Sa viour on the tomb (repainted) with two saints in the vaulting and two prophets in side medallions, lieneath the fresco of the wail ing mothers is a stone monument to Bettino de’ Bardi, on the top of which is painted the kneeling figure of that person in prayer looking up to the Saviour, above him, in a red mantle carried to heaven by angels. This fresco has suffered much from damp. Of the angels, two sound trumps and four bear the emblems of the pas sion. They are weighty in form and proud in bearing. In the vaulting of the recess, in which the tomb and fresco are placed, are two prophets and medallions of saints. Above, two medallions with figures. In the third side of the chapel pierced by a window, are figures, to the right, of S. Zanobi and a bishop, much da maged, to the left, of S. Eomolus well preserved, and a bishop. The frescos of the last mentioned sides are damaged by time, damp, and repainting. 3 This crypt-chapel is not to be confounded with the chapel of the Strozzi in the same church, de corated by Orcagna. 4 Lunette fresco facing the en trance, where, as usual, the Mag dalen grasps the foot of the cross, the Virgin faints in the arms of