Full text: A guide of the city of Florence

18 
THE CATHEDRAI.. 
Three monumental paintings (if they may be so call¬ 
ed) possess much interest on account of the individuals 
whom they commemorate. Near the side entrance door, 
on the north wall, is the portrait of Dante, generally, 
but erroneously, attributed to Orgagna. The poet is re¬ 
presented in a long red robe, the countenance grave and 
beautiful, the head crowned with laurel: in features and 
costume it seems the pattern of the generally adopted idea 
of Dante, familiarised to us by Flaxman’s designs. On 
the right hand are Hell, Purgatory, and Paradise, in 
small groups; on the left is Florence, as enclosed within 
its turreted circle of walls. 
Above the lateral door to the left of the front, or, 
west entrance, is the monumental fresco painting of Sir 
John Hawkwood. The name of this celebrated knight is 
with some difficulty discerned in its Italian version, —such 
as Giovanni Aucobedda, Falcon del Bosco, Giovanni Aculo, 
or Aculus, the last being here adopted in the inscription 
to his memory. 
Sir John was the son of a tanner, one Gilbert Hawk- 
wood, and born at Sible-Hedingham, in the county of 
Essex. 
He was first bound,” says Fuller, “to a taylor in 
the city of London ; but soon turned his needle into a 
sword, and his thimble into a shield, being pressed in 
the service of King Edward III. for his French wars, 
who rewarded his valour with knighthood........ Great the 
gratitude of the State of Florence to this their general 
Hawkwood, who, in testimony of his surpassing valour 
and singular faithful service to their State, adorned him 
with the statue of a man of arms, and sumptuous monu¬ 
ment, wherein his ashes remain honoured at this present 
day. Well it is that monument doth remain: seeing his 
cěnotaph, or honorary tomb, which sometime stood in the
	        
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