Giorgio Vasari

“ GIOVANNI DAL PONTE, PAINTER, OF FLORENCE.
[born 1307—died in 1365.]
Although the old proverb, that a spendthrift never lacks the means of spending, is by no means true and can be but little confided in,—on the contrary we are certain that he who will not live a regular life according to his degree, shall finally live in want and die miserably;—yet, it may sometimes be remarked that fortune seems rather to aid those who squander without restraint, than those who are careful and self-denying in all things ”

“ Born in 1307, and entered early as a disciple of Buffalmacco, the first works of Giovanni were executed in fresco, for the capitular church of Empoli. They were in the chapel of San Lorenzo, where he depicted certain stories from the life of the saint with so much success, that as a more satisfactory progress was anticipated from so creditable a commencement, he was invited to Arezzo in the year 1344, where he painted an assumption of the Virgin in one of the chapels of the church of San Francesco ”

“ He was the friend of Columbus, and held similar opinions with him, in regard to the discovery of a new world. ↑ Of all the works of this master, executed in Florence, none now remain; nor is it probable that many of those done for the environs of that city still survive. ↑ “It is a curious fancy, this of Vasari,” remark the Roman and Florentine editors, “of notifying the year about which maybe dated the works of each artist, and which is invariably the year of their death, or that preceding it; even of those who, dying very old, must needs have worked very many years before.” ”