He, however, modelled the bas-reliefs for the base of the building,
and sculptured two of them with his own hand. It was afterwards
completed, with the exception of the spire, according to his design;
but he only saw its foundations laid, and its first marble story rise.
He died at Florence, on the 8th of January, 1337, full of honour;
happy, perhaps, in departing at the zenith of his strength, when his
eye had not become dim, nor his natural force abated. He was buried in
the cathedral, at the angle nearest his campanile; and thus the tower,
which is the chief grace of his native city, may be regarded as his
own sepulchral monument.

[Footnote 9: Lord Lindsay's evidence on this point (_Christian Art_,
vol. ii. p. 174) seems quite conclusive. It is impossible to overrate
the value of the work of Giotto in the Bargello, both for its own
intrinsic beauty, and as being executed in this year, which is not
only that in which the Divina Commedia opens, but, as I think, the
culminating period in the history of the art of the middle ages.]

[Footnote 10: _Christian Art_, vol. ii. p. 242.]

I may refer the reader to the close of Lord Lindsay's letter on
Giotto,[11] from which I have drawn most of the particulars above
stated, for a very beautiful sketch of his character and his art. Of
the real rank of that art, in the abstract, I do not feel myself
capable of judging accurately, having not seen his finest works (at
Assisi and Naples), nor carefully studied even those at Florence. But
I may be permitted to point out one or two peculiar characteristics in
it which have always struck me forcibly.

[Footnote 11: _Christian Art_, p. 260.]