CAVALLINI, Pietro (c. 1259-1344), born in Rome towards 1259, was an artist of the earliest epoch of the modern Roman School, and was taught painting and mosaic by Giotto while employed at Rome; and it is believed that he assisted his master in the mosaic of the Navicella, or ship of St Peter, in the porch of the church of that saint. Lanzi describes him as an adept in both arts, and mentions with approbation his grand fresco of a Crucifixion at Assisi, still in tolerable preservation; he was, moreover, versed in architecture and in sculpture. According to George Vertue, it is highly probable that Cavallini executed, in 1279, the mosaics and other ornaments of the tomb of Edward the Confessor in Westminster Abbey. He would thus be the “Petrus Civis Romanus” whose name is inscribed on the shrine; but his extreme youth at this date tends to discredit the supposition. The work, if really lιis, must have been executed in Rome, where he appears to have constantly resided. He died in 1344, at the age of eighty-five, in the odour of sanctity, having in his later years been a man of eminent piety. He is said to have carved for the Basilica of San Paolo fuori le Mura, close to Rome, a crucifix which spoke in 1370 to a female saint.