somehow, at the age of eighty, been cast into the
Stinche, the debtors' prison. But this is most inilikely ;
besides, the prison records show no such name, the
truth being that the prisoners of the Stinche were
often given manuscripts to copy, and that Cennino's
MS. was probably one of these penance-tasks.
Most likely the old master was exti'emely prosperous,
and enjoyed a calm old age, during which he' set down
his recollections, a much more unusual proceeding in
those days than in these, when it is the fashion for our
grandfathers to tell us all they can remember of their
sprightly youth.
Again, we are not sure if the Florentine Cennino painted most at Florence or at Padua. Vasari assigned to him a fresco representing the Virgin and Saints in the portico of the Hospital of S. Giovanni Battista at Florence, an edifice not begun till 1376 by Bonifacio Lupi, Marquis of Soragna; Vasari adds that this pictm'e was painted with Cennino's own hand, and ' so well coloured that it is in this day in good preservation.' This picture was afterwards removed to the Florentine Gallery. This same Lupi was fond of art, and most likely persuaded the then famous Cennino to settle at Padua. Some say that he married there Donna Ricca Delia Ricca of Citadella, and that they were friends of Francesco Da Carrara, but we must not put too much faith in these records. Cennino must have died at Padua, for his name does not appear on the roll of Florentine painters. Some art critics seem to trace his style in a few mural pictures in the Church of the Confraternity della Croce di Giorno at Volterra, and there is a ' Massacre of the Innocents,' beneath which these words could be once read : — ' Nel Mcccc.x Alogherono questi della compagnia tutti questi storie a Cienni di Francesco di Ser Cienni da Firenze, eccieto quatro evangelisti : sone di Jacopo da Firenze.'
Are these one and the same person ? Certainly a Florentine, and of the school of Agnolo Gaddi. The frescoes have the appearance of those at S. Croce, and resemble them in miniature. Anyhow, we may easily gather from the Treatise that Cennino was industrious, so perhaps a ' Crucifixion ' in the Oratorio di S. Lorenzo at Volterra, and a ' Virgin and Child ' in the Pretorio, falsely assigned to Lippo Memmi, and a few others, may be his. Some have even given him ' The Invention of the Cross,' ' The Death of the Virgin,' 'The Beheading of St. Paul,' and ' The Victory of Constantine ' in the Volterra Church, but these questions we must leave to art critics, who often disagree ; however, from the above, we shall understand the style of painting expected from the hand of Cennino di Drea Cennini da Colle di Valdelsa, for this was his title in full ! ' Drea ' is the short for Andrea, his father's name.
So much then for the somewhat shadowy history of Cennino, but when we come to the book itself there we feel we are dealing with facts, and some of thqni curious facts, which but for Cennino we should not have found out for ourselves.
The first chapter begins of course with a preamble composed in that simple, reverent manner which makes us love, even though we cannot refrain from smiling at, those early artists.
' Here begins the Book of the Art,' says he, ' made and composed by Cennino da Colle in the reverence of God and of the Virgin Mary' (here Cennino must have remembered that he had duly honoured the Holy Mother by representations of her painted with his own hand) ' and of S. Eustachius and of S. Francis.' S. Francis could not be left out in this invocation, for was not Florence full of recollections of this saint, and Cennino, as he wrote, had a vivid recollection of the great master Giotto's picture, representing the goodly company of saints praying on the Penna Delia Vernia, and the appearing of the Seraph with six flaming and shining wings, between which the Crucifixion was seen, and S. Francis received the Stigmata. Giotto repre- sented with great religious feeling the wonderful vision and the fervour of the holy Francis.
But Cennino's list of saints is not yet ended, for he adds, ' S. John and S. Anthony of Padua, and generally all the saints of God,' and what to him came very near to saintly worship, ' in the reverence of Giotto and Taddeo and Agnolo,' and last of all he dedicates his book to ' those who would attain perfection in the arts,' and any of us who humbly follow in the footsteps the old masters trod, gratefully accept his dedication, for this opening sentence shows us a very admirable side of Cennino's character. Humble he was, and reverent ; deeply imbued with the religious feeling, and grateful too to those who had taught him, and who had preceded him, and were of so much greater account than himself, Cennino da Colle. But this preamble being well got through, Cennino cannot begin to say his say without a little story, somewhat ancient and well-known, even in the fifteenth century : the story of Adam and Eve and their fall, and how digging and spinning were the fii'st manual labours of poor humanity, followed in course of time by more scientific studies. The author places science on a higher level than art, but painting treads just behind, and for this great accomplishment we must be endowed with imagination and skill ; — so says Cennino, and who shall contradict him ?
It was a great advance in art, remember, to have anything left to imagination, and when Cennino says ' that liberty is given to the painter to compose a figure either upright or sitting, according to his fancy,' he was not making a trite remark, but was assuring the artist that Giotto had not worked in vain, and that he had inaugurated the emancipation of art from the narrow confines of late Greek workmanship. But much yet remained to be done. Cennino himself would not have suggested a subject that was not religious, and would have shrunk from representing a centaur, as quite unworthy of the high art of painting !
Last of all, Cennino gives us his own name, the name of his birthplace, and tells us how Agnolo taught him
