The reader may have wondered why the frescoes in the chapel of the palace have not yet been mentioned; “where,” writes Vasari, “Giotto depicted amongst others, as can be seen to-day, Dante Alighieri, his contemporary and very great friend, no less famous as a poet than was Giotto as a painter.” The theory is that Giotto painted the chapel in 1295, or between 1300 and 1304 when Florence was at peace, thanks to the mediation of the Pope’s Legate, Cardinal Aquasparta. Now every one acquainted with Florentine history knows that the city was then in a state of internecine warfare and that the well-intentioned efforts of the Cardinal were abortive. The Bianchi were driven out in 1302 when furious faction fights ensued between the “Grandi” and the “Neri,” or popular party, ending in the murder of Corso Donati. The Italian translation of the old chronicler Filippo Villani’s booklet, _De origine civitatis Florentiae et eiusdem famosis civibus_, is often quoted to prove that the portrait of Dante is by Giotto; it says: “He, [Giotto] painted himself, by the aid of a looking-glass, and his contemporary the poet Dante Alighieri in the chapel of the palace of the Podestà, on the wall.” Now the original Latin text runs: _pinxit insuper speculorum suffragio semetipsum sibique contemporaneum Dantem IN TABULA alteris cappelle palatii potestatis_, that is to say, he painted his own and Dante’s portrait in the altar picture on panel. This picture was still extant in 1382, as it is mentioned in an inventory then made of the contents of the palace. Many other cogent reasons, too long to quote here, against the possibility of the fresco being by Giotto are given by Milanesi, in his notes to Vasari’s life of Giotto, and both he and Passerini agree that no mural paintings could have survived the terrible fire which devastated the building in 1332. The altar picture, on the other hand, must have been saved, or it would not have been mentioned by Filippo Villani, or be in the inventory. Signor Milanesi suggests that it was painted about 1326, when large sums were being spent on the decoration of the palace to fit it for the reception of the Duke of Calabria, and Florence was beginning to recognize the genius of the man she had exiled and vilified. Certainly it is unlikely that Giotto, however great his friendship for Dante may have been, would have painted the portrait of a condemned exile, as Dante was in 1302, in a picture destined for an altar in the palace of the chief magistrate of the city. The frescoes on the east wall of the chapel, divided by a window, represent Paradise in three divisions. The King standing in front of the almost entirely repainted effigy of Dante probably represents Robert of Anjou, King of Naples, and the cardinal on the opposite side of the window, Messer Bertrando del Poggetto; at his feet a kneeling figure, part of whose face and head is effaced, may be the Bishop of Florence. The figure beside Dante is supposed to