PADUA 



In another Francesco, The Holy Women at the 

 Sepulchre, are two ducks quarrelling in a pond, and 

 a tortoise on the bank. This is the European pond- 

 tortoise, and its habits may have caused it to be painted 

 as a symbol here. At the commencement of the winter 

 it constructs an underground chamber, in which it 

 remains buried in slumber until spring. 



A fly is painted by Gregorio Schiavone on the step Gregorio 

 of the throne of the Madonna and Child with Saints c.*^i47o°"^ 

 (National Gallery), to the right of the cartellino in 

 which he describes himself as the pupil of Squarcione. 

 It will be remembered that Crivelli, whose flies have 

 already been noticed, was also a follower of Squarcione. 



Perhaps one of the early stories of Giotto may have 

 had common currency, and have suggested the painting 

 of the fly. Vasari tells it thus : " It is said that Giotto, 

 when he was still a boy and studying with Cimabue, 

 once painted a fly on the nose of a figure on which 

 Cimabue himself was employed, and this so naturally, 

 that, when the master returned to continue his work, he 

 believed it to be real, and lifted his hand more than 

 once to drive it away before he should go on with the 

 painting." ^ 



^ Lives, vol. i. p. 78. 



105 



