real country, either because he was born in Modena, or because, descended from a Modenese family, he retained his citizenship, and rather wished to appear a native of Modena than of Trevigi. However this may be, it is a signal honour for Italy to have given such an artist to Germany, a name of which the historians of that great nation have mistakenly availed themselves, in the outset of the historic series of their painters, tracing his origin to Muttersdorff, and making him the master of Theodoric of Prague, followed in succession by Wumser, Schoen, Wolgemut, and Albert Durer. Footnote 4: It was believed some time ago that this painting was produced in 1297, this date being found on the picture, and Sig. Mechel having thus published it in his catalogue of the Royal Gallery at Vienna. Whether it still remains thus inserted I know not; but undoubtedly it ought not to be there. Next to the pictures of Tommaso, ought to be enumerated an altar-piece by Barnaba da Modena, preserved together with the author's name in Alba, and dated 1377, a piece by one writer supposed anterior to Giotto; and in addition to this an _Ancona_, from the hand of Serafino de' Serafini da Modena, containing various busts and entire figures, with the name also of the painter, and the year 1385. It is placed in the cathedral, and its principal subject is the Incoronation of the Virgin. In its composition it very nearly resembles that of Giotto and his school, of which, indeed, more than of any other, the whole character of the piece partakes, only the figures are, perhaps, a little more full, and as it were better fed than those of the Florentine School. If the origin of such resemblance should be sought for, let us consider that Giotto not only employed himself in the adjacent city of Bologna, but likewise in Ferrara, which, together with Modena, was then subject to the house of Este, so that one city might easily afford precepts and examples to another.