GIOTTO.
31
stone, the figure of one of his sheep as it was quietly
grazing before him. Cimabue rode up to him, and
looking with astonishment at the performance of
the untutored boy, asked him if he would go with
him and learn; to which the boy replied, that he
was right willing, if his father were content. The
father, a herdsman of the valley, by name Bondone,
being consulted, gladly consented to the wish of
the noble stranger, and Giotto henceforth became
the inmate and pupil of Cimabue.
This pretty story, which was first related by
Lorenzo Ghiberti, the sculptor (born 1378), and
since by Vasari and a thousand others, luckily rests
on evidence as satisfactory as can be given for any
events of a rude and distant age, and may well ob-
tain our belief, as well as gratify our fancy ; it has
been the subject of many pictures, and is introduced
in Rogers’s ‘ Italy —
“-Let us wander thro’ the fields
Where Cimabue found the shepherd-boy
Tracing his idle fancies on the ground.”
Giotto was about twelve or fourteen years old
when taken into the house of Cimabue. For his
instruction in those branches of polite learning ne-
cessary to an artist, his protector placed him under
the tuition of Brunetto Latini, who was also the
preceptor of Dante. When, at the age of twenty-
six, Giotto lost his friend and master, he was already
an accomplished man as well as a celebrated painter,
c 2
31
stone, the figure of one of his sheep as it was quietly
grazing before him. Cimabue rode up to him, and
looking with astonishment at the performance of
the untutored boy, asked him if he would go with
him and learn; to which the boy replied, that he
was right willing, if his father were content. The
father, a herdsman of the valley, by name Bondone,
being consulted, gladly consented to the wish of
the noble stranger, and Giotto henceforth became
the inmate and pupil of Cimabue.
This pretty story, which was first related by
Lorenzo Ghiberti, the sculptor (born 1378), and
since by Vasari and a thousand others, luckily rests
on evidence as satisfactory as can be given for any
events of a rude and distant age, and may well ob-
tain our belief, as well as gratify our fancy ; it has
been the subject of many pictures, and is introduced
in Rogers’s ‘ Italy —
“-Let us wander thro’ the fields
Where Cimabue found the shepherd-boy
Tracing his idle fancies on the ground.”
Giotto was about twelve or fourteen years old
when taken into the house of Cimabue. For his
instruction in those branches of polite learning ne-
cessary to an artist, his protector placed him under
the tuition of Brunetto Latini, who was also the
preceptor of Dante. When, at the age of twenty-
six, Giotto lost his friend and master, he was already
an accomplished man as well as a celebrated painter,
c 2