444 EARLY CHRISTIAN ART. Chap. XIX. the part of Orcagna, Ugolino and Jacopo di Lotto, on the part of the cathedral authorities, Matteo di Cecco of Assisi and Maestro Paolo di Matteo, met and made a report (Sept. 10. 1362) to the effect that the colours of the stones and the paste had changed, that the plane of the mosaic was not level and the binding substance not good; hence that the mosaic (in diameter eighty one hands) was not likely to last. 1 In spite of this unfavorable report the authorities of Orvieto met on the Sept. 15. 1362, and or dered sixty florins of gold to be paid to Orcagna. 2 From this time forth no further record of the painter has been preserved except that we find him inscribed in the guild of S. Luke at Florence as a painter in 1369. 3 In 1376, an instrument was drawn up before a public notary at Florence in favour of Cristofano Ristori as tutor to Tessa and Romola, daughters of Orcagna by Francesca his widow. 4 Vasari, who makes Orcagna live till 1389, is thus proved to have committed an error of some years in his computation. It will have been ob served that no mention has been made of Andrea Orcag na’s birth. Before the discovery of the record which proves his death, it was customary to trust to Vasari’s statement that he died in 1389, at the age of sixty, his birth being thus placed in the year 1329—30; but the date of death being false, who shall vouch for the truth of the assertion that Orcagna lived to the age of sixty? This, however, is not the only error into which Vasari has fallen. To him we owe the assertion that Orcagna painted, in the Campo Santo of Pisa, the great frescos of the triumph of death, the Last Judgment and the Inferno. 5 It may be necessary to devote a little space to the consideration of this assertion. 1 The statement may he seen in G. Milanesi, ub. sup. 2 Ibid. 3 Gaye, Carteggio. Yol. II. p. 36 as follows: “Andrea Cioni Pop. S. Michele Bisdominis Or- gagnia M.CCCLXIII. Baldinucci copies the register and gives the date as 1369, hut see Gualandi, ub. sup. Ser. VI. p. 176. 4 See the original record in Bonaini, Mem. Ined. ub. sup. p. 106. 5 Vasari. Vol. II. p.p. 125—7. Ghiberti says nothing of this. But for that reason Rosini. Vol. II. p.p. 73 and 98, reproaches him.
