Giorgio Vasari

“ THE SIENESE PAINTER BERNA. [1]
[born....—died in 1381?]
If those who labour to attain excellence in art or science were not too frequently cut off by death in the best of their days, there is no doubt but that many exalted minds would have gained the summit towards which their aims tended, and whither the world, as well as themselves, would have rejoiced to see them arrive. But the brevity of man’s life, and the
many accidents to which all, from various causes, are liable, often deprive us too early of those who might be most distinguished. ”

“ From Cortona he went to Arezzo, in the year 1369, and precisely at the moment when the Tarlati, who had formerly been lords of Pietramala, had caused the convent and church of Sant’ Agostino to be erected by Moccio, a sculptor and architect of Siena. Many of the Aretine citizens had constructed chapels and burial-places for their families in the side aisles of the church; and in one of these chapels— that dedicated to San Jacopo, namely—Berna painted various frescoes from the life of the saint. ”

“ The men of that country have indeed been ever devoted to the belles lettres, and they herein rendered the appropriate reward of Berna’s conscientious labours, celebrating him with their pens who had done them honour by his pictures. Giovanni of Asciano, [10] a scholar of Berna, completed the work thus left unfinished. [11] The same artist executed certain paintings in the hospital of Siena, with others in the ancient palace of the Medici, from which he acquired some reputation. [12] The Sienese painter, Berna, laboured about the year 1381. ”