and sites are not so easily procured, it seems probable that for many years the sound of boys at play will be heard in the convent walls instead of the slow footsteps of silent friars. FOOTNOTES: [82] The donor of this chapel was Gentile de Monteflori, a franciscan, created cardinal in 1298 by Boniface VIII. [83] Simone was born at Siena in 1283, and died at Avignon in 1344. He belonged to the school of Duccio, though influenced to some degree by his contemporary Giotto, whose work at Assisi he had full opportunity to study. [84] _Central Italian Painters of the Renaissance_, B. Berenson, p. 47. [85] _Sketches of the History of Christian Art_, by Lord Lindsay, p. 134, vol. i. [86] _The Central Italian Painters of the Renaissance._ Bernhard Berenson, p. 48. [87] Built by the Orsini brothers, the founders of the Chapel del Sacramento, in the beginning of the fourteenth century. [88] It is curious that the early Umbrian painters had so little share in the decoration of the franciscan Basilica, the only other picture of the school is the one in the Chapel of St. Anthony the Abbot, and a fresco by some scholar of Ottaviano Nelli on the wall near the entrance of the Lower Church. [89] Not only had the friars to guard their own things, but also the vast treasures of the Popes who, especially during their sojourn at Avignon, found San Francesco a convenient store-house. See on p. 20 for the story of how these goods were stolen by the citizens and the penalty this brought upon the town. [90] _La Benedizione di San Francesco_, Livorno, 1900. [91] See chapter vi. p. 171 for description of the frescoes here, and of those above the altar. For Cimabue's Madonna on the right wall of the Transept see chapter v. p. 155. [92] In 1529 the campanile, which rather gives the impression of a watch-tower, was used by Captain Bernardino da Sassoferrato, as a sure place of refuge when the Prince of Orange entered Assisi with his victorious army. From its heights he kept his enemy at bay for three days, and finally escaped to Spello leaving the city a prey to another despot. [93] Open to visitors at two o'clock. [94] Cary's translation. Dante, _Inferno_, canto xxvii. CHAPTER VIII _Giotto's Legend of St. Francis in the Upper Church_ "What, therefore, Giotto gave to art was, before all things, vitality."--J. A. SYMONDS. _Renaissance in Italy._