“Herewith is to be written [on my part] and Andrea called Orcagna that I Tommaso di Rossello aforesaid have given to paint for the altar-piece which is made for the altar of [the chapel] in Santa Maria Novella, of a breadth of five braccia, 1 sol. [over 10 feet] there or thereabouts. The aforesaid Andrea is to paint in fine and splendid colors; and gold, silver and everything else are truly to be used in the entire panel and pinnacles, that is [gold] leaf. Only in the side columns may silver be used.... And [with] as many figures as [directed] by me Tommaso it shall be completed. And the said panel to be entirely painted by his own hand. “[1] 354 in twenty months.... “Should it come about that the aforesaid Andrea should not give it to us completed and painted.” “He should pay me for every additional week that he works at the painting as it shall seem right to the judgment of the here named arbitrators.”... “Should it come to more than the aforesaid price, we will take the judgment of Carlo, Paolo and Fra Jacopo.” Such is approximately the sense of this very difficult and quite grammarless annotation of Tommaso Strozzi. The arbitrators must have had occasion to act, for the panel is dated 1357, two years after the promised time. [Illustration: FIG. 33. Ambrogio Lorenzetti. Madonna of San Francesco. ] CHAPTER II SIENA AND THE CONTINUING OF THE MEDIÆVAL STYLE On the Romantic instability of Siena—Fidelity to Byzantine Ideals—Guido, Coppo, the Master of the Altar-front of St. Peter—Duccio and his great Majesty of the Madonna—His twofold tendency: to elaborated staged narrative; to sparse and exquisite decoration—Simone Martini and the Idealistic chivalric style—The Brothers Lorenzetti and the popular panoramic style—Second half of the Fourteenth Century—The Fifteenth Century: Sassetta and Giovanni de Paolo—Matteo, Benvenuto and Neroccio—The Renaissance and the downfall of the School, Francesco di Giorgio, Sodoma.