About the year 1325, Giotto was invited by King Robert to paint the church of S. Chiara in Naples, which he decorated with subjects from the New Testament, and the mysteries of the Apocalypse, with some designs suggested to him at a former time by Dante, as was currently reported in the days of Vasari. These pictures were effaced about the beginning of the present century, as they rendered the church dark; but there remains, among other things in good preservation, a Madonna called della Grazia, which the generous piety of the religious possessors preserved for the veneration of the faithful. Giotto painted some pictures also in the church of S. Maria Coronata; and others which no longer exist, in the Castello dell'Uovo. He selected for his assistant in his labours, a Maestro Simone, who, in consequence of enjoying Giotto's esteem, acquired a great name in Naples. Some consider him a native of Cremona, others a Neapolitan, which seems nearer the truth. His style partakes both of Tesauro and Giotto, whence some consider him of the first, others of the second master; and he may probably have been instructed by both. However that may be, on the departure of Giotto he was employed in many works which King Robert and the Queen Sancia were prosecuting in various churches, and particularly in S. Lorenzo. He there painted that monarch in the act of being crowned by the Bishop Lodovico, his brother, to whom upon his death and subsequent canonization, a chapel was dedicated in the Episcopal church, and Simone appointed to decorate it, but which he was prevented from doing by death. Dominici particularly extols a picture by him of a Deposition from the Cross, painted for the great altar of the Incoronata; and thinks it will bear comparison with the works of Giotto. In other respects, he confesses that his conception and invention were not equally good, nor did his heads possess so attractive an air as those of Giotto, nor his colours such a suavity of tone.