Giovanni Cenni de’ Pepi, to give him his full name, has been hailed as “the father of modern painting.” The Louvre _Madonna_, which was formerly in the Church of San Francesco at Pisa, was carried off to Paris by Napoleon, but not considered worth the trouble of repacking when in 1815 the Allied Armies called upon the French to surrender the pictorial spoils of war. It is known that Cimabue was working at Pisa at the very end of his life, and, although he was engaged there as mosaicist rather than as a painter, the _provenance_ of this large painting, which is executed in tempera on panel, has to be taken into account in any discussion as to its strict authenticity. It is certainly reminiscent of the _Rucellai Madonna_, and shares much of its character. The painter has repeated, with certain modifications, the Byzantine type of Madonna, whose almond-shaped eyes and long, bony fingers should be noticed. It has been freely restored. From the same church in Pisa comes Giotto’s _St. Francis of Assisi receiving the Stigmata_ (No. 1312). According to the descriptive account handed down to us by the unveracious Vasari, Giotto (1266-1337) was originally a shepherd boy whose latent talent was recognised by the discerning Cimabue, who forthwith took him as his pupil and taught him how to paint, the boy’s genius enabling him early to surpass his master. Although it would be rash unquestioningly to accept this archaic production as an authentic work by Giotto, it is one which any national collection would treasure. It depicts the supreme event in the life of St. Francis, when during his vision virtue passed from the wounded hands, the wounded feet, and the wounded side of the Christ into the same parts of the saint’s body. In the predella are three scenes from the life of St. Francis: (_a_) _Pope Innocent III. dreaming that St. Peter reveals to him that unless the Franciscan Order is founded the Church_ (typified here by the Church of S. John Lateran in Rome) _will fall down_; (_b_) _The Pope founding the Order_; and (_c_) _St. Francis, wearing the brown robes of his Order, and preaching to the birds_: “Whenas St. Francis spake these words to them, those birds began all of them to open their beaks, and stretch their necks, and spread their wings, and reverently bend their heads down to the ground, and by their acts and by their songs to show that the Holy Father gave them joy exceeding great.” THE GIOTTESQUES