their wings in diverse attitudes, are in a storm of weeping; and some pressing their hands to their breasts, others wringing them, and others beating the palms, they are showing that they feel the greatest grief at the death of the Son of God; and all, from the middle backwards, or rather from the middle downwards, melt away into air. In this work, well executed in the colouring, which is fresh and vivacious and so well contrived in the junctions of the plaster that the work appears all made in one day, I have found the coat of arms of Gualtieri, Duke of Athens; but by reason of there not being either a date or other writing there, I cannot affirm that it was caused to be made by him. I say, however, that besides the firm belief of everyone that it is by the hand of Pietro, the manner could not be more like his than it is, not to mention that it may be believed, this painter having lived at the time when Duke Gualtieri was in Italy, that it was made by Pietro as well as by order of the said Duke. At least, let everyone think as he pleases, the work, as ancient, is worthy of nothing but praise, and the manner, besides the public voice, shows that it is by the hand of this man.
In the Church of S. Maria at Orvieto, wherein is the most holy relic of the Corporal, the same Pietro wrought in fresco certain stories of Jesus Christ and of the Host, with much diligence; and this he did, so it is said, for Messer Benedetto, son of Messer Buonconte Monaldeschi and lord at that time, or rather tyrant, of that city. Some likewise affirm that Pietro made some sculptures, and that they were very successful, because he had genius for whatever he set himself to do, and that he made the Crucifix that is in the great Church of S. Paolo without Rome; which Crucifix, as it is said and may be believed, is the one that spoke to S. Brigida in the year 1370.
By the hand of the same man were some other works in that manner, which were thrown to the ground when the old Church of S. Pietro was pulled down in order to build the new. Pietro was very diligent in all his works, and sought with every effort to gain honour and to acquire fame in the art. He was not only a good Christian, but most devout and very much the friend of the poor, and he was beloved by reason of his excellence not only in his native city of Rome but by all those who had knowledge of him or of his works. And finally, he devoted himself at the end of his old age to religion, leading an exemplary life, with so much zeal that he was almost held a saint. Wherefore there is no reason to marvel not only that the said Crucifix by his hand spoke to the Saint, as it has been said, but also that innumerable miracles have been and still are wrought by a certain Madonna by his hand, which I do not intend to call his best, although it is very famous in all Italy and although I know very certainly and surely, by the manner of the painting, that it is by the hand of Pietro, whose most praiseworthy life and piety towards God were worthy to be imitated by all men. Nor let anyone believe, for the reason that it is scarcely possible and that experience continually shows this to us, that it is possible to attain to honourable rank without the fear and grace of God and without goodness of life. A disciple of Pietro Cavallini was Giovanni da Pistoia, who made some works of no great importance in his native city.
Finally, at the age of eighty-five, he died in Rome of a colic caught while working in fresco, by reason of the damp and of standing continually at this exercise. His pictures date about the year 1364, and he was honourably buried in S. Paolo without Rome, with this epitaph:
QUANTUM ROMANÆ PETRUS DECUS ADDIDIT URBI
PICTURA, TANTUM DAT DECUS IPSE POLO.
His portrait has never been found, for all the diligence that has been used; it is therefore not included.
Alinari
HEAD OF THE CHRIST IN GLORY
(Detail from "The Last Judgment," after the fresco by Pietro Cavallini. Rome: Convent of S. Cecilia) View larger image
SIMONE SANESE
Anderson
S. LOUIS CROWNING KING ROBERT OF NAPLES
(After the Altarpiece by Simon Sanese [Memmi or Martini]. Naples: Church of S. Lorenzo) View larger image
LIFE OF SIMONE SANESE
[SIMONE MEMMI OR MARTINI]
PAINTER
Truly happy can those men be called, who are inclined by nature to those arts that can bring to them not only honour and very great profit, but also, what is more, fame and a name wellnigh eternal, and happier still are they who have from their cradles, besides such inclination, courtesy and honest ways, which render them very dear to all men. But happiest of all, finally, talking of craftsmen, are they who not only receive a love of the good from nature, and noble ways from the same source and from education, but also live in the time of some famous writer, from whom, in return for a little portrait or some other similar courtesy in the way of art, they gain on occasion the reward of eternal honour and name, by means of their writings; and this, among those who practise the arts of design, should be particularly desired and sought by the excellent painters, seeing that their works, being on the surface and on a ground of colour, cannot have that eternal life which castings in bronze and works in marble give to sculpture, or buildings to the architects.
Very great, then, was that good-fortune of Simone, to live at the time of Messer Francesco Petrarca and to chance to find that most amorous poet at the Court of Avignon, desirous of having the image of Madonna Laura by the hand of Maestro Simone, because, having received it as beautiful as he had desired, he made memory of him in two sonnets, whereof one begins:
Per mirar Policleto a prova fiso
Con gli altri che ebber fama di quell'arte;
and the second:
Quando giunse a Simon l'alto concetto
Ch'a mio nome gli pose in man lo stile.
These sonnets, in truth, together with the mention made of him in one of his Familiar Letters, in the fifth book, which begins: "Non sum nescius," have given more fame to the poor life of Maestro Simone than all his own works have ever done or ever will, seeing that they must at some time perish, whereas the writings of so great a man will live for eternal ages. Simone Memmi of Siena, then, was an excellent painter, remarkable in his own times and much esteemed at the Court of the Pope, for the reason that after the death of Giotto his master, whom he had followed to Rome when he made the Navicella in mosaic and the other works, he made a Virgin Mary in the portico of S. Pietro, with a S. Peter and a S. Paul, near to the place where the bronze pine-cone is, on a wall between the arches of the portico on the outer side; and in this he counterfeited the manner of Giotto very well, receiving so much praise, above all because he portrayed therein a sacristan of S. Pietro lighting some lamps before the said figures with much promptness, that he was summoned with very great insistence to the Court of the Pope at Avignon, where he wrought so many pictures, in fresco and on panels, that he made his works correspond to the reputation that had been borne thither. Whence, having returned to Siena in great credit and much favoured on this account, he was commissioned by the Signoria to paint in fresco, in a hall of their Palace, a Virgin Mary with many figures round her, which he completed
