a celebrated Roman painter of the 14th century, and one of the earliest masters of the modern Roman school, was born at Rome in the latter half of the 13th century, and lived at Rome during the interval that the popes resided at Avignon. Vassri's account of Cavallini is somewhat inconsistent with the period of his death as adopted by Manni and Lanai, 1341; for if, as Vaud says, be was eighty-five when he died. he must have been a much older painter than Giotto, and can scarcely, as he states, have been his pupiL Vasari indeed says that Cavalliui was living in 1361, but eo many of his dates have been found to be incorrect, that he cannot be strictly depended upon. Cavalliui was painter, architect, and worker in mosaic. He assisted Giotto in the mosaic or navicella of the porch of Se. Peter's; and there are still some of his owe mosaics in the Basilica of San Paolo and at Santa Maria in Tmatevere at Rome. lie executed also many paintings in the churches, but there are no romaine of them ; the last were destroyed by the fire which, in 1824, almost entirely consumed the old Basilica of San Paolo : the mosaics however, and a miracle-working wooden crucifix made by Cavallini, remained uninjured.
Cavallini painted also several frescoes at Florence, Orvieto, and at Assisi, some of which are still in a tolerable state of preservation. A crucifixion in the church of Assisi is the most remarkable and the best preserved. It contains a crowd of figures, some on horseback,
and dressed in a variety of costumes; in the sky, which is a deep bright blue, are several angels. It is a work of great labour, and though the design is very angular, the figures sometimes distorted, and the perspective incorrect, the figures have expression and character, and if we consider the examples which can have been his only guides, wo must . pronounce it a highly creditable and meritorious work. Vertu' believed that Cavallini designed the crosses which were erected to Queen Eleanor, and that he was the Petrus !darnel:me Civic of the inscription on the shrine of Edward the Confessor in West minster Abbey, and accordingly the architect of the shrine which was finished in 1270. Walpole adopts the supposition, and concludes that Cavallini returned to England with the abbot Ware, who was elected in 1260, and wont shortly afterwards to Rome to receive con secration from Urban IV. But this must be regarded as a mere conjecture.
The celebrated miracle-performing picture of the Annunciation,' or' La Nunziata,' in the church de' Servi at Florence, formerly attributed to Cavallini, is now with more certainty attributed to a Maestro Bartolomeo who lived at, Florence in 1236.
(Vasari, Vile de' Pittori, &c.; Lanai, Storia Pittorica, dc.; Walpole, Anecdotes of Painting, &c.)