Cimabue painted a picture of Our Lady for the church of Santa Maria Novella.  The figure was of a larger size than any which had been executed up to that time, and the people of that day who had never seen anything better, considered the work so marvellous that they carried it to the church from Cimabue’s house in a stately procession with great rejoicing and blowing of trumpets, while Cimabue himself was highly rewarded and honoured.  It is reported, and some records of the old painters relate, that while Cimabue was painting this picture in some gardens near the gate of S. Piero, the old King Charles of Anjou passed through Florence.  Among the many entertainments prepared for him by the men of the city, they brought him to see the picture of Cimabue.  As it had not then been seen by any one, all the men and women of Florence flocked thither in a crowd with the greatest rejoicings, so that those who lived in the neighbourhood called the place the ‘Joyful Suburb’ because of the rejoicing there.  This name it ever afterwards retained, being in the course of time enclosed within the walls of the city.

For this story we may thank Vasari, because it helps us to realize the love the people of Florence felt for the pictures in their churches, and the reverence in which they held an artist who could paint a more beautiful picture of the Virgin and Child than any they had seen before.  It is difficult to think of the population of a town to-day walking in procession to honour the painter of a fine picture; but a picture of the Madonna was a very precious thing indeed to a Florentine of the thirteenth century, and we may try to imagine ourselves walking joyfully in that Florentine procession so as the better to understand Florentine Art.

I have repeated this legend about Cimabue, because he was the master of Giotto, who is called the Father of Modern Painting.  The story is that Cimabue one day came upon the boy Giotto, who was a shepherd, and found him drawing a sheep with a pointed piece of stone upon a smooth surface of rock.  He was so much struck with the drawing that he took the boy home and taught him, and soon he in his turn far surpassed his master.  In order to appreciate Giotto we need to go to Assisi, Florence, or Padua, for in each place he has painted a series of wall-paintings.  In the great double church of Assisi, built by the Franciscans over the grave of St. Francis within a few years of his death, Giotto has illustrated the whole story of his life.  An isolated reproduction of one scene would give you no idea of their power.  In many respects he was an innovator, and by the end of his life had broken away completely from the Byzantine school of painting.  He composed each one of the scenes from the life of St. Francis in an original and dramatic manner, and so vividly that a person unacquainted with the story would know what was going on.  Standing in the nave of the Upper Church, you are able to contrast these speaking scenes of the lives of people upon earth, with the faded glories of great-winged angels and noble Madonnas with Greek faces, that were painted in the Byzantine style when the church was at its newest, before Giotto was born.  These look down upon us still from the east end of the church.