I

^.

Giotto

On coverThe Last Judgement, detail ofChrist seated in a mandorla.

Padua, Scrovegni Chapel.

Texts by Stefano ZuffiTranslation by Richard Sadleir

Photograph Credits

Sergio Anelli, Milan

Elemond Archives, Milan

Koto Saporetti, Milan

Scala, Florence

1995 by Electa, MilanElemond Editori Associati

All rights reserved

Printed for Electal)y Fantonigrafica - Elemond Editori Associati

Giotto

Electa / Art Books International

The Cycle of Paintingsin the Scrovegni Chapel

Scenes from the LifeofJoachim and Anne

1. Joachim expelled fromthe Temple

2. Joachim withdrawsamong the Shepherds

3. The Annunciation toSt Anne

4. Joachim's Sacrifice5. Joachim's Dream6. The Meeting of

Joachim and Anneat the Golden Gate

Scenesfrom the LifeofMary

7. The Birth of Mary8. The Presentation of

Mary in the Temple9. The Handing over

of the Rods10. The Prayer for the

Flowering of the Rods11. The Wedding of Mary

and Joseph12. Mary's Bridal

Procession

13. God the Fatherinstructs the ArchangelGabriel to make theAnnunciation to Mary- The Annunciation

Scenesfrom the Life andDeath of Christ

14. The Visitation15. The Nativity of Jesus16. The Adoration of the

Magi17. The Presentation of

Jesus in the Temple18. The Flight into Egypt19. The Slaughter of the

Innocents20. Christ among the

Doctors21. The Baptism of Christ22. The Wedding at Cana23. The Raising of Lazarus24. The Entry of Christ

into Jerusalem25. The Expulsion of the

Merchants from theTemple

26. The Betrayal by Judas27. The Last Supper28. The Washing

of the Feet29. The Seizure of Christ30. Christ before Caiaphas31. Christ Mocked32. The Ascent of Calvary33. The Crucifixion34. The Lament over the

Dead Christ35. "Noli me tangere"36. The Ascension37. Pentecost38. The two "Small

Choirs"39. The Last Judgment

The Virtues and Vicesa. Prudencec. Fortitudee. Temperanceg. Justicei. Faith

m. Charity0. Hopep. Despairn. Envy1. Faithlessnessh. Injusticef. Wrathd. Inconstancyb. Foolishness

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38 27 28 : 29 30

Giotto r I 1 ne greatest achievement of ItalianA culture at the start of the four-teenth century was the awareness ofthe active presence of the individual inhistory and the world. The new lan-guage was taking shape: the vernac-ular Italian used by Dante and Boccac-cio, and at the same time sculpture, inthe works of Arnolfo di Cambio andGiovanni Pisano, also achieved its fullexpressive range, from vibrant anima-tion to solemn calm.As his contemporaries said, Giottochanged the language of art "fromGreek to Latin." And yet his appren-ticeship was spent in a figurative train-ing still influenced by Byzantine art.This tradition stemmed from the Im-perial court in Byzantium and createda tradition which regulated all the im-ages used in a very specific code of rep-resentation. From his earliest knownworks, Giotto adopted a totally differ-ent approach, and in doing so achievedone of the great breakthroughs inWestern art. It is highly likely thatGiotto made a journey to Rome whenstill a young man, and that this stim-ulated him to develop his clear andpersonal interpretation of ancient art,seen as a model of restraint and har-mony, together with a subtle and acuteunderstanding of nature and humansentiments. The late thirteenth-centu-ry artists in Rome had already begunmoving in the same direction, but itwas only with Giotto that this move-ment triumphed soon to spreadthrough the influence of his works inAssisi, Rome, Rimini, Padua, Naplesand Milan. Within a few decades therewere schools of his followers in all partsof Italy: but it was Florence in partic-ular that embraced the teaching of herillustrious son. When Renaissancepainting began to flower early in the

fifteenth century, Giotto was always ac-

knowledged as its strong, enduringroot. Though it sounds like a paradox,the truth is that Giotto (like Dante) hasbeen thought of as a "modern" for overseven hundred years because he livedand acted as a man of his own age.

Legends and Reality of Giotto'sYouth, Down to the Revelation ofthe Assisi Frescoes (1267-1300)We know very little about Giotto'schildhood and early training, not evenwheter "Giotto" was his original nameor merely a diminutive of Biagio or Ag-nolo. The year of his birth is not rec-orded in any document but deducedfrom the fact that the painter died inJanuary 1337 at the age of seventy.However 1267 is a very likely date andfollows closely after that of Dante in1265.Born into a peasant family at Colle diVespignano, not far from Florence,Giotto was described by early commen-tators as an infant prodigy. The en-counter between the great master Ci-mabue and the shepherd boy scratch-ing a drawing of sheep on a stone atMugello, on the road to Bologna, is oneof the most widely quoted examples of"natural talent" in the whole history ofart. However implausible the ancientlegend, there was definitely a close re-lationship between Cimabue and Giot-to, so that it is quite possible that masterand pupil may have worked togetheron some paintings, such as the Madon-na of the prepositorship at Castelfio-rentino.Cimabue's style marked the final de-velopment of Byzantine art in Italy:the poses of the figures, their gesturesand lineaments, and his lack of interestin the representation of space all corre-spond to the rules dictated by Eastern

tradition. But Cimabue also possesseda lofty and dramatic vision of sacredhistory, a sense of the conflict betweengood and evil which he translated intoa new plastic energy in his paintings,with a powerful and expressive emo-tional impact.The apprenticeship to Cimabue wasfollowed by another equally importantexperience of Giotto's youth, ajourneyto Rome. Amidst the rubble of ancientRome emerged the splendid earlyChristian basilicas, many of them deco-rated with mosaics and frescoes in thecourse of the thirteenth century.There was also an important school ofRoman painting, led by artists such asPiero Cavallini, Jacopo Torrid and Fi-lippo Rusuti. These Roman paintersand mosaic-workers were recreatingthe monumentality of classical art: thepapal city was giving birth once moreto an imperial city, and one of the art-ists involved was the Tuscan sculptorand architect Arnolfo di Cambio.Critics agree on the decisive impor-tance of the sojourn in Rome, so that itis debated wheter Giotto came to Assisiin the train of Cimabue or as one of agroup of artists coming from Rome. Beas it may, the 1290s mark the beginningof his close relationship with the Fran-ciscan order, which commissionedmany of his later works.The great architectural complex of theConvent and Basilica of San Francescoin Assisi began to be built only twoyears after the death of the saint in1226: work went ahead rapidly, and itgrew into the most important monu-ment of Italian architecture and paint-ing in the thirteenth and fourteenthand fourteenth centuries. An under-ground crypt formed the lowest leveland contains the tomb of Saint Francis.Above the crypt stands the large, shal-

low Lower Church, its architecture stillRomanesque, completed shortly after1230. Above it rises the Upper Church(Plate 1), consecrated in 1253. Like thechurch below, it has a broad nave with-out side aisles but is much taller, whollyGothic in style. Great mullioned win-dows with stained glass make the inte-rior bright, in contrast with the gloomand silence of the Lower Church, andthe space is rhythmically divided intofour simple cross-vaulted bays. Thegreat walls were left bare, ready to bedecorated with frescoes. Work wentahead simultaneously inside the twochurches, but while the Lower Church,with its more highly articulated plan,provided a variety of chapels and othersurfaces that could be entrusted to dif-ferent artists, the great walls of the Up-per Church suggested the need for asingle coherent scheme of decoration.The Scenes from the Old and New Testa--ments are linked to passages from theLegenda Maior, the story of the life andmiracles of Saint Francis by Saint Bo-naventura, written in 1260-1263. Inthe years around 1277-1280 Cimabuemade an outstanding contribution tothe decoration of the left transept, in-cluding the vaulting, with frescoes thatincluded the dramatic scene of the Cru-cifixion. Later, in around 1285, thoughCimabue retained the supervision ofthe work, the execution of the frescoespassed to his collaborators. Work thusbegan on the decoration of the upperparts of the nave, especially the spacesbetween the windows, with the Scenesfrom the Old and New Testaments set oneabove the other on two levels. It is inthis phase that Giotto's hand first ap-pears in the work, in the fourth bay. Di-vided into regular squares measuringthree metres per side, these scenes areone of the most important sources for

The Presentation of Mary in the Temple.Padua, Scrovegni Chapel.

The Wedding at Cana. Padua, ScrovegniChapel.

8the study of Italian painting at the endof the thirteenth century. The person-ality of the youthful Giotto is at once

evident, especially in the two Scenes

from the Life ofIsaac (Plates 2,3) and thefragmentary Entombment, in the subtleattention paid to the interplay of ex-pressions and feelings, while the narra-tive is based on deliberate, regular,classical rhythms, and not the urgentlydramatic rhythms of Cimabue. WhileGiotto collaborated with other impor-tant artists in Scenes from the Old andNew Testaments, measuring himselfagainst them, in the lower series he wasworking on his own. The Scenesfrom theLife of Saint Francis (Plates 4-9) markthe appearance of a new idea in art.Composed during the later 1290s, theytell the study of the life of Saint Francisfrom adolescence down to the miraclesperformed after his death. Withoutany iconographic precedents (save forthe features of the saint), Giotto wasfree to handle the scenes as he chose.Only in some of the last scenes does acertain falling-off of the quality ap-pear, a sign of the intervention of pu-pils. The novelty of these frescoes liesin the depiction of a flesh-and-bloodSaint Francis (see the partial nude inthe scene of Saint Francis Renounces hisWorldly Goods, Plate 5), in the midst ofhis people (often represented as actingin unison, as in the Death ofthe Knight ofCelano, Plate 9), in concrete, recogniz-able places (the square of Assisi formsthe background to the Saint FrancisHonoured by a Simple Man ofAssisi, Plate4); and above all in architectural or nat-ural settings conceived in three-dimen-sional depth and closely related to thescene depicted. For example, the lineof the hills in the Saint Francis GivingHis Cloak to a Poor Man converges to-wards the saint's head, which thus be-

comes the vertex not just of the epi-sode but of the whole landscape. Or inthe Miracles of the Crucifix and the Con-firmation of the Rules, the architecturalsettings are spatial "sets," depictedwith an unprecedentedly three-di-mensional vision, anticipating laterstudies of perspective. The iconostasisseen from behind in the Christmas Cribat Greccio (Plates 6, 7) is a notable exam-ple of this.Without giving in to a purely biograph-ical account, yet following the icono-graphical programme closely, Giottoproduced a sequence of realistic imag-es, figures and settings. The harmonyof his scenes creates a moving and ex-citing narrative for the uninstructedfaithful, while at the same time thefrescoes are rich in interest and inno-vations for artists and men of culture.In 1300, when he had probably com-pleted the Scenes from the Life of SaintFrancis, Giotto returned to Rome andwas present at the Jubilee celebrationsheld by Pope Boniface VIII. In this pe-riod he painted a number of frescoesrecorded in documents now mostlylost: there still exists a fragment of Bo-niface VIII Proclaiming the Jubilee in thechurch of San Giovanni in Laterano.After Assisi and Rome, Giotto finallyreturned to Florence. Significant trac-es of his first period in Florence remainin the Madonna in San Giorgio dellaCosta, in some remnants of frescoes inthe church of the Badia (which alsopossessed a polyptych, now in the Uffi-zi), and above all in the great Crucifixon a panel in the sacristy of Santa Ma-ria Novella (Plate 11). This is the firstversion of a subject that Giotto repeat-ed a number of times, and it shows hisrejection of the elegant, rigid Byzan-tine style for a more direct anatomicalrepresentation.

9The Scrovegni Chapel and theCentral Years of Giotto's Maturity(1300-1320)Between 1304 and 1306 Giotto wasworking in Padua on the frescoes ofthe chapel erected by Enrico Scrovegnito expiate the sin of usury committedby his father. The structure is simple,essential, and the interior is perfectlyfunctional as a container for a complexfresco cycle: a single space, a nave with-out side-aisles, with narrow windowson one side only, the barrel-vaulting ofthe ceiling being painted as a starry skywith a number of divine figures (theMadonna and Child, the Christ Blessing,the Evangelists, the Four Church Fathers)within medallions. The iconographicscheme exalts the figure of the Madon-na as the mother of Christ, whoworked our Redemption, the means ofsalvation for mankind, who travel ontheir path between good and evil (rep-'resented in the fanciful grisaille alle-gorical figures decorating the base), to-wards the Last Judgement. This is thescene painted on the great end wall(Plate 13), organized around the ener-getic figure of Christ, surrounded bycompact ranks of angels dividing theblessed from the damned, who hurtledownwards amid the fearful tormentsof hell. The same wall contains the por-trait of Enrico Scrovegni dedicatingthe model of the chapel to the Madon-na. Along the sides and on the trium-phal arch, ranged on three levels, runthe Stories from the Lives ofJoachim andAnna (Plates 16-19) and the Scenesfromthe Life and Passion of Christ (Plates 20-23; 25-27), for a total of thirty-sixscenes. They are meant to be read inthe same order as the Scenes from theLife of Saint Francis (Plates 4-9). Paint-ed in a fairly brief period of time, thePaduan frescoes are the work in which

Giotto first shows his mature powers,apparent in their great stylistic coher-ence, continuous formal mastery andtheir solemn affirmation of the dignityof the human figure and its centralplace in the episodes recounted. Thechronological order of the scenes be-gins with the vicissitudes of the parentsof the Madonna. The scenes depictingthe father of Maria an exile in the des-ert (for example Joachim with the Shep-herds, Plate 15) are typical of the "psy-chological" arrangement of the ele-ments of nature and the landscape,with solitary figures, as harsh and rug-ged as the hills in the background. Thedeep sentiments that form a bond be-tweenJoachim and Anna appear in theMeeting at the Golden Gate (Plates 18, 19),one of the fullest examples of Giotto'sexpressive powers, here embodied inthe tender kiss exchanged by the twocentral figures. With the Nativity of theVirgin (placed in the same architecturalsetting as Annunciation to Saint Anne),also in the upper row of frescoes, wepass on to the left-hand wall. Of thevarious scenes into which the episodeof the Virgin's Wedding Feast is divided,that of the Watching of the Rods at the Al-tar is highly moving and shows greatenergy in its composition: the group ofpriests and the suiters for the Virgin'shand form imposing masses. The fig-ures of the Archangel Gabriel and theAnnunciation on the triumphal archlink the left-hand wall with the right-hand one: they are set within identicalarchitectural scenes, foreshortened,forming two full, sturdy masses, verydifferent from the more sinewy outlineof Giovanni Pisano's Madonna andChild placed on the altar. The child-hood of Christ, which begins with theVisitation in the triumphal arch, in themiddle row of frescoes, opens with a

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CTimmiThe Raising of Lazarus. Padua, ScrovegniChapel.

' :-,-'.,;--%;i

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The Entry of Christ into Jerusalem. Padua,Scrovegni Chapel.

number of episodes that are movinglyintimate: the Madonna has her hairbraided (a common hairstyle in the Ve-neto in the early fourteenth century).In the Nativity she is shown reclining, apose unusual in painting but here verynatural (Plate 20). In the Flight intoEgypt (Plate 21), Giotto once again usesnatural features of the landscape to in-tensify the psychological expressive-ness of the figures. The Madonna andChild appear compact, clinging to-gether, and set within the outline of arock in the background. An inversionof this effect is seen in the Baptism ofChrist, where the hillsides seem to openout symmetrically. This scene opensthe sequence devoted to the miraclesand Passion ofJesus, the Betrayal ofJu-das placed on the triumphal arch, linksthe two walls and indicates a shift to thelower series of frescoes. The featuresof the traitor are caricatured in thoseof the dark devil behind him.The Last Supper (one of the episodes,together with the scene of the Way toCalvary and the Ascension, in which thehand of a collaborator is most evident),and the Washing of the Feet are placedwithin an identical pavilion, shown inperspective, which gives the scene anair of solemnity and deliberation, verydifferent from the Kiss ofJudas (Plates22, 23), with the chaotic atmospheresurrounding the figure ofJudas, petri-fied by the serene, severe gaze ofChrist. The movement of the agitatedcrowd of figures derives from the dy-namic composition, underscored bythe waving of lanterns and pikes. Thecentral scenes on the wall (Crucifixion,Lamentation over the Dead Christ, Plates25, 26; Noli me tangere, Plate 27), formalmost a triptych. The grief of the an-gels around the Crucifixion in yet an-other demonstration of Giotto's sensi-

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tivity to human expression. The resur-rected Christ, appearing to Mary Mag-dalene, moves lightly, elegantly, whichhas led to comparisons with the carv-ings of Pallas Athene by Phidias. In thescene of mourning in the Lamentation,the figures are set in a sequence of dif-ferent visual planes that recede intothe background, starting with the in-novatory presence of the two figuresseen from behind. Saint John, stoop-ing over the body of Jesus, opens outhis arms at right angles to the plane ofthe painting, making another breachin the two-dimensional space.A Crucifix, painted on panel, was alsopainted for the Scrovegni Chapel andis now in the Civic Museum in Padua(Plate 29): some scholars hold that itwas painted by Ciotto during a secondsojourn in Padua in 1317, when he dec-orated the Palazzo della Ragione withfrescoes that are now lost.

The period between the ScrovegniChapel and the frescoes in the Bardiand Peruzzi chapels in Santa Croce (inFlorence), that is from about 1305 to1320, is the "classical" phase of Giotto'swork. During these years he still trav-elled widely, working in Rimini (wherehe produced the splendid Crucifix inthe Tempio Malatestiano, Plate 31, andRome, where he returned in 1310 toexecute the great mosaic with the"Navicella " of Saint Peter for the exte-rior of the Basilica Vaticana: nothingremains of this work save some heavilyrestored fragments. His reputationand status grew steadily: financiallyand socially he was secure. The paint-ings of this period are solemn, harmo-nious compositions, in which the fig-ures are arranged regularly, withoutexpressive excesses or unpleasing de-formities. To this period belong workson a large scale, such as the Ognissanti

Altarpiece in the Uffizi (Plate 30) andthe later Dormition of the Virgin in themuseum of Berlin.

The Florentine Frescoes and the LastPhase: From Giotto to his Followers(1320-1337)From 1320 on Giotto appears to havebeen particularly busy in Florence.Many of the works mentioned in thehistorical sources have been lost; oth-ers are scattered in different museumsall over the world. This is the case witha great polyptych, consisting of fivecusped panels and a predella withScenesfrom the Life and Passion of Christ,laboriously reconstructed, startingfrom a Saint Stephen in the Home Mu-seum in Florence and the Madonna withChild in the National Gallery of Art inWashington. Between 1320 and 1325Giotto worked assidously in the chap-els of the Florentine families that are tobe found in the apse of the greatchurch of Santa Croce. The recordstell us that he frescoed no fewer thanfour of the chapels; of these two re-main, both belonging to banking fam-ilies, on the right of the central apse.The Peruzzi Chapel contains Scenesfrom the Lives ofSaintJohn the Baptist andSaintJohn the Evangelist, on the two sidewalls facing each other. Giotto's inter-est in perspective is even clearer here.He makes allowance for the point ofview of the observer in this narrow, tallchapel. The architecture of the build-ings in the paintings is very complex (asin The Feast of Herod, with interiors ofdifferent sizes and depths; even in theoutdoor scenes (Resuscitation of Drusia-na) the articulation of the urban andarchitectural spaces is unusually var-ied. The fresco of the Vision of SaintJohn in Patmos (Plate 36) is extremelypowerful: it shows the saint sleeping

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and surrounded by the symbols of theApocalypse appearing to him in adream.The adjacent Bardi Chapel repeats thetheme, dear to Giotto, of the Scenesfrom the Life of Saint Francis (Plates 33-35), starting from the large fresco ofSaint Francis Receiving the Stigmata on

the entrance arch (Plate 35). Com-pared with the Assisi cycle, paintedthirty years earlier, Giotto displays afirmer, more serene handling that ex-tends more fully in space. Even thestrongest feelings appear to be re-strained by a sense of peace, which is al-so embodied in the broad, harmo-niously distributed structures of thecompositions. A good example is theFxamination of the Stigmata, with themoving grief of the friars, mourningfor the death of Saint Francis.In the Baroncelli Chapel, also in SantaCroce, there is the Polyptych of the Coro-nation of the Virgin, probably paintedsoon after the frescoes in the BardiChapel. Here there is extensive evi-dence of the work of pupils in themassed array of angels praising theVirgin and also in the massive figuresin the central section. The individualcollaborators who worked with Giottoin Assisi and Padua had by this timebeen replaced by a well-organizedworkshop, among whom certain rela-tives of Giotto and artists with a defi-nite personality of their own were be-ginning to emerge. In 1327, togetherwith Taddeo Gaddi and BernardoDaddi, Giotto enrolled in the Guild ofPhysicians and Druggists, then openedto artists. A confirmation of the contri-bution of his assistants to the BaroncelliAltarpiece is given, paradoxically, by thefact that this work bears Giotto's signa-ture, as if he were concerned to certifyhis supervision of the work.

Between 1328 and 1333, after a decadespent working in Florence, Giotto setout on his travels again. He returned toNaples several times; there Robert ofAnjou employed him on a number ofworks, all now lost. In about 1330 hewent to Bologna, where he coordinat-ed the execution of the Altarpiece in Bo-logna (now in the Pinacoteca Nazion-ale, Plate 37), which he also signed con-spicuously but was largely the work ofpupils. Even more important was theStefaneschi Altarpiece (Pinacoteca Vati-cana, Rome, Plates 38, 39), dedicatedto Saint Peter and commissioned by thecardinal Jacopo Caetani Stefaneschifor the high altar of the Basilica ofSaint Peter. The polyptych, with itspredella, was painted on both sides ofthe panel; on one side Christ in glory isflanked by depictions of the martyr-doms of Saint Peter and Saint Paul; onthe other, Saint Peter is seated on histhrone as the first pope amidst othersaints. The donor is shown in the act ofdonating the polyptych. Though itshows numerous signs of the work ofan assistant, much of the work is ofhigh quality, directly from Giotto'sown hand, while the figure of thekneeling donor shows his insight as aportraitist. The Bologna and Romepolyptyches are among the last worksby Giotto to come down to us. On 12April 1334, the artist was appointed themagister et gubernator of the Opera diSanta Reparata, i.e. overseer of theconstruction of Florence cathedral.Between 1335 and 1336 Giotto, accom-panied by his pupils, moved to thecourt of Azzone Visconti in Milan. Asat Naples, there is now no trace of hiswork in Milan, save in panels and fres-coes by his followers. Giotto then re-turned to Florence to supervise workon the bell tower. He died in his seven-

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ties on 8 January 1337, and was buriedin the cathedral with great public hon-ours.

The LegacyGiotto's frequent travels fostered thebirth of schools of followers all overItaly. The use of perspective and geo-metrical organization was to take rootmost strongly, however, in Florence,which took the place of Assisi as theavantgarde of artistic developmentduring the fourteenth century. In thesame places as Giotto had onceworked, starting from the church ofSanta Croce, masters such as Maso diBanco, Agnolo Gaddi, Bernardo Dad-di and the relatives of Giotto Stefanoand Giottino formed a compact group,inspired bv a solid sense of realism.As Millard Meiss has amplv demon-strated, the "Black Death" of 1348 ledto a far-reaching revision of attitudesin Tuscan culture and art. Painting re-turned to a vision of man's destiny asdepending on the will of God, whichGiotto's paintings had to some extentlimited. The novelle of Boccaccio andSacchetti recall the historical figure ofthe master, as ugh as he was shrewd;there emerges from their writings anostalgia for a kind of art that no onewas now capable of practising. The Li-bro delTArte written at the end of thefourteenth century bv Cennino Cenni-ni is a compendium of Giotto's tech-nique, minutely descriptive of everyphase of preparation and execution ofthe work of art.At the start of the fifteenth centuryGiotto's example became the essentialbasis for humanism. Masaccio washailed as "Giotto reborn" for his appli-cation of the rules of perspective to thepainting of both figures and architec-ture. At a time when the rich and or-

The Expulsion of the Merchantsfrom theTemple. Padua, Scrovegni Chapel.

The Last Supper. Padua, Scrovegni Chapel.

]4

nate late-Gothic school was dominant,Giotto's strong, plain style returned tofavour with the linearity of Brunelles-

chi's architecture and the plastic ener-

gy of Donatello's sculptures. The reviv-al of Giotto, seen as the forerunner ofthe Florentine Renaissance, was rati-fied by a public decree to raise a monu-ment to him, with a sculpture by Bene-detto da Maiano and an inscription byPolitian. In the same period the youngMichelangelo was practising by copy-ing Giotto's frescoes, deriving fromthem his taste for figures that occupieda robust volume.From the Cinquecento on, despite thehigh praise bestowed by Vasari and allsubsequent art historians, Giotto's rep-utation and that of all the "primitives"tended to suffer an eclipse. The pain-ters from before the mid-fifteenth cen-tury were regarded as mere "curios-ities" by the learned, and many of theirworks were irremediably destroyed ordamaged. In the course of the nine-teenth century, Giotto was given in-creasing attention, and his works wererediscovered and sometimes restoredinjudiciously. Towards the end of thecentury the frescoes in Assisi were beingstudied in depth: the work of Rintelen(Giotto und die Giotto-Apokriphen, pub-lished in 1912) began the long polemicover attributions. While the critics weredivided, Giotto was also an importantmodel for painters: Cezanne and theCubists regarded him as an importantpoint of reference, and Carlo Carramade him the basis of the Italian schoolknown as the Novecento. The criticalresearch of the postwar period, withrestoration work and further discov-eries, hascovered awide rangeoftopics,with particular attention to Giotto's rep-resentation of space, the chronology ofhis works, and his early training.

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/. Upper Churcht Assist,interior. The bright interior,one of the prototypes ofItalian Gothic, was plannedwith a view to its decorationwith a complex series offrescoes. Work began on themin 1280, and they weredistributed in all the availablespaces. The iconographicscheme required a closesymbolical relationship betweenthe Scenes from the Newand Old Testaments (Plates2. 3), painted in the uppersections of the nave a nil alongthe transept, while the Scenesfrom the life of Saint

Francis (Plates 4-9) areranged along the plinth andmeant to be read as theexemplary fulfilment of theteaching of the Bible. Thedecoration began in thetransept and continued alongthe sides in the upper section.After the first scenes had beenpainted by unknown artists,Cimabue was made responsiblefor the work, aided bycollaborators and a group ofpainters from Home. (Hollogradually made his firstcontributions in the last decade

of the thirteenth century,

painting one of the vaults and

some of the Biblical scenes(which have deterioratedbadly) level with the windows.Later he became the leadingfigure in the work, and beganthe decoration of the lowerpart of the wall with theSeenes from the Life ofSaint Francis. By the time hewas thirty (Hotto was able todisplay his own highly personalstyle, not just in the articulation

of the separate scenes, but also

in the narrative coherence ofthe whole cycle. Many yearslater Giotto returned to Assisito supervise work on frescocycles in the Lower Church.

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2, 3. Isaac Rejects Esau,c. 1290, fresco.Upper Church, Assist.The attribution of this frescoto (Hollo is supported by manyi ritics. 1 1 belongs to theScenes from the Old and

New Testaments, frescoed inthe strip between the windows,initially under the supervisionof the Roman artists FilippoRusuti and Jacopo Torriti.Despite the precarious state

of conservation of this work,

the young Giotto here gives usa precocious sample of spatialcoherence and a sensitiverendering of the expressions

of the figures, throwing offthe rigid conventions

of Byzantine tradition.

'?"

F

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4. Saint Francis Honouredby a Simple Man of Assisi,1295-1300, fresco.Upper Church, Assisi.One of the moments in SaintFrancis' youth, with an urbansetting based on reality. A manis laying his mantle before

Saint Francis in the centralsquare of Assisi, with theclassical elevation of the Romantemple dedicated to Minervaand the Palazzo Comunale.Identification of the buildingsis facilitated by the fair stateof preservation of the fresco.

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5. Saint Francis Renounceshis Worldly Goods,1295-1300.I

rpper Chinch, Ass is i.Saint Francis' decisiverejection ofhisfather and hiswealth is underscored by

means of a sharp break in thecomposition. The saint,half-naked and clad in thecloak of the bishop of Foligno,looks up at a hand emergingfrom the sky, while the people

ofAssist cluster around his

father and restrain him.Two complicated buildings,naively foreshortened butdrawn with a highly developedfeelingfor volume, stressthe division of the action intotwo blocks.

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6, 7. The Christmas Crib atGreccio, 1295-1300, fresco.Upper Church, Assisi.The scene is clearly relatedto that of the Nativity in theScenes from the Old andNew Testaments (Plates 2,

3), frescoed in the uppersection of the nave andforming a "precedent"forepisodes from the life of SaintFrancis. Giotto's ability tomeasure space in depth herecreates a scene ofgreat

intensity, with the iconostasisseenfrom behind, hence withthe Crucifix shown in outline,as are the other objects thatproject toward the backgroundof the fresco, crowded with thefaithful.

21

22

8. Saint Francis Preachingbefore Pope Honorius III,1295-1300, fresco.I

rpper Church, Assist

.

Giotto's study ofspacegradually developsin awareness.

The three-dimensional "box"of the chamber in which the

debate takes place is stressedby the skilful arrangement

of the architecture and thehuman figures, who serveas a yardstick for thevolumes. Like all the scenesfrom this cycle, this hassuffered from heavyrestoration.

23

9. The Death of the KnightofCelano, 1295-1300,fresco. Upper Church, Assisi.The subject records (lieinstantaneous realization of aprophecy of Saint Francis, thatthe Knight of Celano wouldreceive eternal salvation butalso that his death would be

immediate. The opposition ofthe voids and solids in thecomposition links the figureswith the setting. The figure ofthe saint acts as a Hull between(he two spaces. In themourners around the bods;of the Cavaliere, Giottoexpresses a choral drama,

with a wide range of feelingsand expressions.

24

10. Saint FrancisReceiving theStigmata, c. 1300,panel, 314 X 162 cm.Louvre, Paris. Thiswell-pieserved workcomes from the churchof San Francesco inPisa, so confirming theclose link betweenGiotto and theFranciscan Orderthroughout his career.The use of thetraditional giltbackground limits theeffect of depth obtainedin the Assisi frescoesbut it endows thescenes especia lly thethree small images atthe bottom with adelicate poetry.

11. The Crucifix, c.1300, panel,578 x 406 cm.Sacristy of SantaMaria Novella,Florence.

This is the earliest ofGiotto's shaped panelpaintings of theCrucifix. Thedivergence of Giotto'sapproach from theByzantine scheme isalready notable. Thisappears in thenaturalness of the pose,the delicate lineaments,the simplicity of theloin cloth and thesuperimposition of thefeet, pierced by a singlenail.

25

26

12. Scrovegni Chapel,Padua, view of the interiortoward the rear wall.Commissioned by EnricoScrovegni in atonement of thesin of usury committed by hisfather, the chapel is simplyplanned, with tall single lightwindows running down oneside only. In the lower sectionruns a series of grisailleallegorical figures of the vices

and virtues. Along the wallsand the triumphal arch thatcloses the little choir of thechapel, there are three

superimposed orders of Scenesfrom the Life ofJoachimand Anna, and Scenes fromthe Lives of the Virgin andChrist. On the ceiling there

28

29

14. Inconstancy,1304-1306, fresco.Scravegni Chapel, Padua.This is one of the emblemsof the vices and virtues thatrun along the opposite sidesof the plinth. (Jiotto usesa grisaille techniqueto suggest bas-reliefs.

They comprise a very vividseries of symbolic figures,freed from the traditionalcanons of art and basedon visual imparl.

15. Joachim with theShepherds, 1304-1306,fresco. Scrovegni Chapel,Padua.The sequence of the scenesbeginsfrom the end of thechapel at the top of the left-handwall. Giotto uses the landscapeto intensify the psychological

effect of the situations of thecharacters. In this case the

rugged background stresses thesolitude of the sturdy masses

of the three figures.

30

16, 17. Joachim's Dream,1304-1306, fresco.Scrovegni Chapel, Padua.The identification of thehuman figure with a regulargeometricalform issignificantly confirmed here bythe "cubic" shape of thesleeping Joachim. The silenceof the scene is broken by theflock of sheep. Giotto herereturns to a naturalistic

subject reminiscent ofhislegendary meeting withCimabue as a boy.

32

18, 19. Meeting at theGolden Gate, 1304-1306,fresco. Scrovegni Chapel,Padua.Joachim is greeted on hisreturn by Annas affectionateembrace. This is one of themost celebrated scenes in thewhole cycle. Here Giotto takesadvantage of the dramaticsituation to represent humanexpressions that had beenabsent from art for almost athousand years: a smile, a kiss,personal emotion.

34

20. The Nativity,1304-1306, fresco.Scrovegni Chapel, Padua.This belongs to the stories

of the childhood of Christ,which, begin on the right-handside. Starting with the middlesecies, the love ojr the frescoes

grows more familiar.

The departures from theconventions of the past areincreasingly frequent, addingto the sense of spontaneityin the narrative. Note thereclining position of Mary,who places Jesus in themanger with an expressionof deep tenderness.

35

21. Might into Egypt,1304-1306, fresco.Scrovegni Chapel, Padua.The landscape is again used tointensify the effect of the wholeand give a structure to thecomposition: the hillsidesfollow the rhythm of the net ion,isolating the figures.

36

22, 23. The Kiss ofJudas,1304-1306, fresco.Scrovegni Chapel, Padua.This scent' is one of the mostanimated and crowded, thoughit centres on the motionlessheads ofJudas and Christ.The gesture ofbetrayal can becompared with the embrace of

Joachim and Anna, on thesame wall. Giotto, who isnormally more restrained anddeliberate, here confers adramatic dynamism on thenocturnal scene of thebetrayal, heightened by thepikes, torches and lanternsleaving in the air.

k3-

r

r

n

i

.

38

39

24. Jonah Swallowed by theWhale, 1304-1306, fresco.Scrovegni Chapel, Padua.Along the left-hand walls ofthe chapel there are nowindows and Giotto used thespace available to insertbroad decorative hands, withsmall biblical scenes meantto }>refigure events in theCospels.The prophet swallowed by thewhale and emerging afterthree days in its beUy is paintedbetween the scenes of the( i uc ifixion and theLamentation (Plates 25, 26)

to foreshadow symbolicallyand iconographically the deathoj Christ and His resurrectionafter three days.

25, 26. The Lamentationover the Dead Christ,13041306, fresco. ScrovegniChapel, Padua.This scene epitomizes many ofGiotto's innovations at Padua:the use oj the landscape as animportant element in thecomposition and not as a mereneutral backdrop: his concernfor human feelings; thesophistication of the narrative

scheme, with figures seen frombehind and the variety ofdespairing gestures among theangels. The way the differentelements are arranged in depthhas reached a high degree ofdevelopment here: the twoMaiys are seen from behind,then there is the body of Christ,then the Madonna, with threedifferent planes ranged towardthe bach of the scene. SaintJohn, with his armsoutstretched at right anglesto the plane of the picturefurther dilates the pictorialspace.

40

41

42

27. Noli Me Tangere,

1304-1306, fresco.Scrovegni Chapel, Padua.Thje elegant "cross-step" takenby Christ as he moves awayfrom Mary Magdalene iscombined with the inert sleepof the soldiers by the emptysepulchre. The theme of "NoliMe Tangere" is thus unitedwith that of the Resurrection.

43

I

28

28. "Coretto" or VotiveChapel, 1304-1306, fresco.Scrovegni Chape/, Padua.On the triumphal arch ofthechapel, on the bottom level,Giotto has imitated two littlecross-vaulted chapels withGothic windows. This was thefirst example of '*pure"perspective, without figures,simply to create the illusion ofspaee opening out beyond thesurfare of the painting.

29. Crucifix, 1304-1306/1317?, panel. 223 x 164 cm.Musei Civici, Padua.The shaped pane/ of medium

dimensions and in a fair stateofpreservation comesfrom theScrovegni Chapel. It is notclear if it is of the same periodas tlie frescoes or was paintedin a second sojourn in Paduain 1317.

30. Enthroned Madonna(Ognissanti Altarpiece),1306-1310, panel

,

325 X 204 cm. Florence,I ff/'-/.

I/us composition, in a goodstate of conservation andrecently restored, belongs to theTuscan tradition of theMadonna with a gilt

background on a pentagonalpanel. The solid volumes ofGiotto's figures, deliberately

related to geometrical solids,stand out within a throne ofGothic architecture, slenderand elegan 1 . 7 n e ges tareof the two kneeling angels,supporting vases of flowers,is unusual.

44

45

46

47

31. Crucifix, c. 1310, pat/el,430 X 303 cm.Tempio Malatestiano, Rimini.Evidence of a period spent inlinn nil (in c. 1310) and alandmark in the developmentoj painting in the area, this isthe finest example of thisparticular genre. The careful,delicate study of anatomy isfavoured by a sensitive use oflight, which glances off theelongated limbs. Christ is

shown as already dead, andhis features do not showthe grimace typical of earliertradition. The plate is in goodcondition, though the smallfigures at the ends have beenremoved.

32. Saint Stephen,1320-1325, panel,84 x 5

/

cm.

Museo Home, /'/ore nee.This panel is in excellent

condition. It was originally

part of a polyptych, now

divided up between variousmuseums.

The central panel is of theMadonna, and is now in theNational Gallery ofArt inWashington. This SaintStephen is one of Giotto'sworks which shows most carefor the transparency of the

colours, laid on with raredelicacy.

48

33, 34. Saint FrancisRenounces his WorldlyGoods, fresco, c. 1325.Santa Grace, Bardi Chapel,Florence.

Giotto's most intense activity inFlorence was concentrated onthe church of Santa Croce.The records tell us that nofewer than four chapels weredecorated with frescoes by him.After the destruction ofsomeand the repainting of others

(partly because they wereregarded as "primitive"works in the eighteenth andnineteenth centuries) the cyclesin the two chapels of thebankers Peruzzi and Bardi, tothe right of the great chapel,alone survive. They werepainted after 1320. Coveredwith whitewash in the past,they are in poor condition butthey reveal the direction ofGiotto's development after he

left Padua. He enriched theexpressive and dynamicresources of his work, withoutlosing any of the dignity

of the volumes of the humanfigures and architecturalelements.

The Bardi Chape/, which wasdedicated to Saint Francis,enables us to compare thetreatment of certain sceneswith the cycle in Assist of thirty

years earlier.

f""'* 7

n

%

50

35. Saint Francis Receivingthe Stigmata, c. 1325, fresco.Santa Croce, Bardi Chapel,Florence.

Painted on the arch of theentrance to the Bardi Chapel,the fresco testifies to Giotto'sachievements in therepresentation of the humanbody. Compared with his work

in Padua, where the figureswere composed as regulargeometrical shapes, this SaintFrancis has a complex volume,achieved through thecombination of various solidfigures. As in the PeruzziChapel, Giotto allows forthe position of the viewer belowthe picture.

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36. Vision of Saint Johnin Patmos, c. 1325, fresco.Santa Croce, Peruzzi Chapel,Florence.

The Peruzzi Chapel isdedicated to Saint Joint theEvangelist and Saint John theBaptist. Thefrescoes havejaded somewhat. They possessgreat dramatic intensify. Thislunette shines Saint John withthe jagged on t/i ne of the islandof Patmos. during his vision /the Apocalypse, whose symbolsappear in the semicirclein the sky.

52

37. Altarpiece in Bologna,c. 1330, panels,91 X 340 cm. PinacotecaNazionale, Bologna.An important exampleof Giotto's late work and hisrelationship with his well-organized workshop. Thepolyptych is important in thedevelopment of the Bolognaschool ofpainting in thefourteenth century.The structure of thewhole is overshadowedby the prominence of theindividual, solid figures

of the saints and the Madonna.

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38, 39. StefaneschiAltarpiece, c. 1330, panel,220 x 245 cm. PinacotecaVaticana, Rome.hi toidcd Jor the high altar ofthe Basilica of San Pietro, thisis thf best preserved ofallGiotto's paintings executed forHome. The client whocommissioned it was thecardinal facopo CaetaniStefaneschi, who is portrayedon the altarpiece. which ispainted on both sides. Thecardinal's gesture is curious:he is holding a representationof the polyptych in which adiminutive image of thecardinal appears holding thepainting.

f i

55

Where to See Giotto Of all the painters who livedbefore the fifteenth centu-ry, Giotto is the one whoselife and artistic evolutioncan be traced with the great-est precision. The master'sseventy years of life are den-sely studded with anec-dotes, documents, recollec-tions, and citations. Aroundthirty panels, four impres-sive cycles of frescoes, andother works carried out incollaboration with his bottegaconstitute a corpus of un-usual size for a mediaevalartist. Nor should we forgetGiotto's activity as an archi-tect, to which the campanileof Florence Cathedralstands witness.Naturally, a number of im-portant questions of attribu-tion remain unresolved, es-pecially with regard to sig-nificant sections of the deco-ration of San Francesco inAssisi. There is also a longlist of paintings to which theold sources gave much em-phasis but that have subse-quently been lost. The mostpainful gaps regard wholecycles of frescoes that havecompletely vanished. Thechroniclers (though theirtestimony is not always re-liable) record works in Arez-zo, Avignon, Ferrara, Gae-ta, Lucca, Pisa, Ravenna,Venice, and Verona ofwhich no trace remains.There is more direct evi-dence (payments, contracts,and other documents) forthe frescoes and polyptych-es he left in four chapels be-longing to noble families inFlorence's Santa Croce (thefrescoes of the Bardi andPeruzzi Chapels and theBaroncelli Polyptych have sur-vived). Our knowledge ofhis activity in Rome is full ofblanks: the frescoes in theapse of the old basilica of

Saint Peter's in the Vaticanwere destroyed and eventhe mosaic of the Navicellahas been almost completelyreworked.During the years he spentin Naples, Giotto had fres-coed the chapel and the ba-ronial hall of the AngevinKeep, as well as a chapel inSanta Chiara. Finally, noth-ing is left of the Glory of Il-lustrious Men he frescoedfor Azzone Visconti in Mi-lan.

Works in ItalyThe distribution of Giotto'spaintings more or less fol-lows the route taken by theartist in his wanderings,even though little or noth-ing remains from some ofthe places where he worked.Naturally the greatest con-centration of Giotto's pic-tures is in Florence; Assisioffers the largest sample ofhis frescoes; the best-pre-served cycle is to be found inPadua.

FlorenceA tour of Giotto's works inFlorence, always in theshadow of the campanilebuilt to plans drawn up bythe master, might start withthe Franciscan basilica ofSanta Groce. In the row ofside chapels are to be foundtwo cycles from the matureperiod of Giotto's career:the Peruzzi Chapel (Scenesfrom the Life of Saint John theEvangelist) and the Bardi( lhapel (Scenes front the Life ofSaint Francis). In addition,there is the Baroncelli Polyp-tych, thronged with figuresand set in a Renaissance-frame, whose central paneldepicts the Coronation of theVirgin.The Dominican basilica ofSanta Maria Novella, at the

56

opposite end of the city'shistoric centre, can boast nofrescoes by Giotto but doescontain, in the sacristy, alarge Crucifix on a shapedpanel.Two more Crucifixes attri-buted to Giotto are in thechurches of Ognissanti andSan Felice di Piazza.A few traces of a cycle offrescoes survive in thechurch of the Badia: the Ba-dia Polyptych is now in theGalleria degli Uffizi, whereother works from Giotto'scircle can be found. Out-standing among these arethe juvenile Enthroned Ma-donna and above all thelarge pentagonal panel ofthe Ognissanti Maesta: one ofthe artist's best-known mas-terpieces, it is set in the mid-dle of the museum's firstroom, in accordance with acelebrated decision to pre-sent Vasari's view of the art-ist from a critical viewpoint,underlining the central rolethat Giotto played in the his-tory of Italian art.The Museo Home possess-es an extremely delicate fig-ure of Saint Stephen, a panelfrom a dismembered polyp-tych that was probably origi-nally in Santa Croce.The attribution of the Pol-yptych painted on both sidesand now in the Museo del-l'Opera of the Cathedral iscontroversial, while thefrescoes in the chapel of thePalazzo del Bargello, al-though probably begun byGiotto, have been repaintedseveral times.Not far from Florence, inthe Berenson Collection atVilla I Tatti in Settignano,there are two fine panels: aDeposition, part of a dismem-bered altarpiece, and a vig-orous, juvenile Saint Antho-ny.

Assist

The cycle of Scenes from theLife ofSaint Francis, frescoedon the lower part of thewalls of the upper basilica ofSan Francesco over thecourse of the last decade ofthe thirteenth century, isuniversally known.The question of other inter-ventions by Giotto preced-ing and following the Life ofSaint Francis is more deli-cate. The hand of Giotto, ata time when he had only justleft Cimabue's workshop,has been recognized insome of the Scenes from theOld and New Testaments inthe middle row of the wallsof the upper basilica. In thelower basilica, on the otherhand, the authorship of thefour vaulting cells above thehigh altar, frescoed withFranciscan Allegories, is muchmore controversial.Giotto, assisted by his work-shop, intervened in the fres-coes of the Chapel of theMagdalen. The Maesta inthe Pinacoteca Civica of As-sisi may be the work of Giot-to's assistants.

PaduaThe Scrovegni Chapel, withthe cycle painted for EnricoScrovegni and dedicated tothe redemption of Manthrough Christ, contains themost complete example ofthe technique used by Giot-to in his early maturity.The frescoes cover thewhole of the side walls, thevault, the inside of the fa-cade, and the triumphalarch. The ones in the chap-el's small chancel and apseare by another artist.The Scrovegni Chapel orig-inally housed a delicate Cru-cifix on a shaped panel,which can now be seen inthe adjacent Museo Civico.

RomeDespite the frequency ofGiotto's stays in Rome, verylittle signs of his activitythere remain. The most in-teresting work in the city isthe Stefaneschi Polyptych:painted on both sides andoriginally located on thehigh altar of the basilica ofSaint Peter's, it is now in theVatican Art Gallery. On onedoor of the basilica is setwhat remains of the mosaicdepicting the Navicella, orSaint Peter's Boat, originallymade to cartoons by Giottobut completely reworked.Two fragments of the origi-nal mosaic (Angels) survive,and are kept in the VaticanGrottoes and the church ofSan Pietro at Boville Ernica(Frosinone) respectively.The basilica of San Giovan-ni in Laterano still containspart of the fresco depictingBoniface VIII announcing theJubilee Year in 1300, but ittoo, unfortunately, has beenheavily repainted.

Emilia RomagnaTraces of Giotto's stay in Ri-mini survive in the form of alively fourteenth-centurylocal school of painting andan elegant Crucifix in theTempio Malatestiano.The Pinacoteca Nazionalein Bologna has an expressivePolyptych, a testimony toGiotto's visit to the city at anadvanced age.

Works Located AbroadThere are no more than fif-teen or so of Giotto's worksoutside Italy, with the actualnumber varying as a resultof changes in attribution. Itis difficult, in view of theirscarcity, to present a trueguide to their location. It ispossible, however, to pointto a certain concentration of

57

panels in Germany and theUnited States.

GermanyThe Staatliche Museen inBerlin houses two works ofconsiderable importance.The grand and solemn Dor-mitio Virginis, on a cuspidatepanel, comes from the Flo-rentine church of Ognissan-ti, where it was studied andappreciated by Michelange-lo. The small Crucifixion, onthe other hand, should beseen in connection with apanel depicting a similarsubject in the StrasbourgMuseum. Another Crucifix-ion, together with a Last Sup-per and the Descent of Christinto Limbo, forms a small butconsistent group of Giotto'sworks in the Alte Pinakoth-ek in Munich. The threesmall panels were originallypart of a single altarpiece.

United StatesThe activity of collectors hasbrought a number of Giot-to's pictures to Americanmuseums. Most of them areparts of polyptyches that

have been broken up. Thework of piecing togetherthese groups of paintings isa constant preoccupationamong scholars.The Metropolitan Museumin New York and the IsabellaStewart Gardner Museumin Boston possess two morepanels from the Franciscanaltarpiece depicting scenesfrom the life of Christ thathas already been mentionedin connection with works inSettignano and Munich:they are, respectively, theAdoration ofthe Magi and thePresentation of Jesus in theTemple. The seventh panelin the series, representingPentecost, is in the NationalGallery in London.The North Carolina Mu-seum in Raleigh houses thefive panels of the PeruzziPolyptych, in all likelihoodfrom the family's chapel inSanta Croce, although theymay not be entirely the workof Giotto. The beautiful Ma-donna and Child in the Na-tional Gallery in Washing-ton comes from another dis-membered polyptych, again

from the Franciscan churchin Florence. Other panelsfrom the same altarpieceare the aforementionedSaint Stephen in Florence'sMuseo Home and the twopanels depicting Saint Johnthe Evangelist and Saint Law-rence in the Musee Jacque-mart-Andre in Paris.Returning to the UnitedStates, it is also worth men-tioning the small cuspidatepanel representing the Eter-nal Father in the San DiegoMuseum, a fragment of theBa roncelli Polyptych

.

ParisThe Musee du Louvre con-tains the largest picture byGiotto outside Italy, the ju-venile altarpiece depictingSaint Francis Receiving theStigmata, complete with apredella and over threemetres tall. It originallycame from the church ofSan Martino in Pisa.The same museum in Parisalso has a Crucifix on board,a recent and still controver-sial addition to Giotto's cata-logue.

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Anthologyof Comments

Cimabue believed heheld sway/ In the field

of painting,/But now Giottois all the cry/ So that the oth-er's fame is eclipsed.(Dante, Purgatorio, CantoXI, c. 1310)

Giotto possessed an in-tellect of such excel-

lence that nothing of na-ture, the mother of allthings and responsible forthe continual turning of theheavens, did he fail to paintwith stylus and pencil andbrush similar to the origi-nal... so that often the thingshe painted led men's eyes tofall into error, believingthem real. For this reason,having restored art to thelight, which for many centu-ries has been buried underthe errors of those thatsought to delight the igno-rant rather than please theintellect of the wise, he cantruly be called one of theleading lights of the glory ofFlorence; and all the moreso, since with great humilityhe, a master of others in hisart, always refused to letothers call him maestro;which title, rejected by him,shone all the more brightlyin him, in proportion as itwas avidlv usurped by thosethat knew less than he or byhis pupils.(G. Boccaccio, Decamerone,VI Day, V Novella, c. 1350)

He translated the art ofpainting from Greek

into Latin and made it mod-ern; and he possessed themost accomplished art thatanyone has ever had.(C. Cennini, ULibrodeWArte,c. 1390)

Among the other ques-tions raised, one,

whose name was Orcagna,

the master builder of thenoble oratory of NostraDonna d'Orto San Michele(the church of Orsanmi-chele in Florence), asked:"Who was the greatest mas-ter of painting, apart fromGiotto, down to the presentday?" Some said Cimabue,others Stefano, others Ber-nardo (Daddi] and still oth-ers Buffalmacco, and somesaid one, some said another.Taddeo Gaddi. who was ofthe company, said: "Cer-tainly there have been veryfine painters, who paintedin such a way that humannature is unable to do bet-ter. But that art is graduallydisappearing day by day."(F. Sacchetti, Novelle,CXXXVI,c. 1395)

The art of painting be-gan to rise in Etruria, in

a place near Florence, Ves-pignano. A boy was born ofwonderful intellect, whohappened to be drawing asheep when Cimabue thepainter passed by that wayalong the road to Bologna,and saw the bov sitting onthe ground and drawing asheep on a stone. He was fil-led with admiration for thelad, who though young wasdrawing so well. Seeing thathe was naturally gifted as anartist, he asked the lad whathis name was. "My name isGiotto and my fathers isBondone and he lives in thishouse near at hand," theboy said. Cimabue wentwith Giotto to his father (hemade a very fine appear-ance), and asked the fatherto entrust him with the boy.The father was ver\ poor.

I le allowed the boy to gowith Cimabue, and so Giottobecame his pupil.(L. Ghiberti, Commentarii,II, c. 1450)

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He went to Assisi, a cityof Umbria, being sum-

moned there by Fra Giovan-ni di Muro della Marca,then the general of thefriars of Saint Francis.There, in the upper church,he painted frescoes underthe strip traversing the win-dows on the two sides of thechurch, with thirty-two sto-ries of the life and works ofSaint Francis, sixteen on ei-ther side, so perfectly paint-ed that he won great fame.And truly there can be seenin this work a great varietynot just in the gestures andattitudes of the differentfigures, but also in the com-position of all the stories. Itis also wonderful to see thediversity of the garments ofthose times and certain im-itations and observations ofthe natural world.(G. Vasari, Le Vite del piu ec-cellenti pittori, scultori et archi-tettori, 1568)

He was also a sculptorand his models were

preserved down to the ageof Lorenzo Ghiberti. Nordid he lack good esamples.There were ancient marblesin Florence, which can nowbe seen at the cathedral(without mentioning whathe later saw in Rome), andtheir merit, already ac-knowledged by Niccola andGiovanni Pisani, couldhardly have been ignoredby Giotto, whom nature hadendowed with a sensibilityfor the true and the beau-tiful.

When one looks at certain ofhis male heads, certainsquared forms, so remotefrom the slender forms ofhis contemporaries, or hisfeeling for rare, natural,majestic draperies, and cer-tain poses of his figures,

which have an air of deco-rum and restraint, then it isvery hard to believe that hedid not learn a great dealfrom ancient marbles.(L. Lanzi, Storia pilloried del-rItalia, 1795-1796)

Giotto changed themethod of preparing

colours hitherto in use andchanged the concept and di-rection of pictorial repre-sentation.He kept to the present andto reality; and his figuresand effects were used torepresent the life aroundhim.Together with these tend-encies, there was also thefortunate circumstance thatnot only did costume be-come freer and life gayer inGiotto's time, but the cult ofnew saints also came aboutthen, saints that had flour-ished in times not long be-fore the painter's own life-time. In the content of hispaintings, the naturalnessof the bodily figures them-selves was thus implicit, aswell as the presentation ofdefinite characters, actions,situations, attitudes andmovements. Because of thistendency, there was a grad-ual (though relative) loss ofthat grandiose, sacred aus-terity that was the founda-tion of the previous schoolof art. Worldly attitudestook root and spread, and inkeeping with the spirit ofthe time, Giotto, too, accept-ed burlesque alongside pa-thos. (G.F. Hegel, Vorlesungiiber Aesthetik, 1829)

With the achievementsof Giotto and Duccio

began the eclipse of themediaeval figurative vision.For the depiction of aclosed, interior space con-

ceived as a concave body sig-nifies more than a simpleconsolidation of objects; itentails an authentic revolu-tion in the formal valuationof the painted surface: it isno longer the wall or panelon which the forms of indi-vidual things or figures arelaid, but it has once more be-come the transparent planethrough which we may be-lieve we are looking at anopen space, though circum-scribed in all directions: a"figurative plane" in the ful-lest sense of the word.(E. Panofsky, La prospettivacome "forma simbolica" 1927)

Under the burden of myyears I traverse the

field from which emergethe walls of the ancient are-na, like the bones of a skele-ton picked clean; but when Icross the threshold of theScrovegni Chapel, time sud-denly winds backward and Iam a child again, in my play-room. Toys to right and leftof me. A double row of toys,in the midst of which theman, now a child again, pas-ses solemn and lightly, inthe always-young light ofearthly immortality. Giot-to's painting is the motherof toys. This is his supremequality, his secret quality.The composition followsthe instructions for "LittleArchitects." These pure,vivid colours are like thosethat shone on the balls andninepins and dice of mychildhood. And there I cansee my rocking horse. Artalways rekindels the lightsof the lost paradise, whichthe gloomy hands of non-artists return always to ex-tinguish. But Giotto revivesnot just the image of thatlost paradise, but also thegames that took place in that

61

light that was soft to thetouch, in that life thatseemed to be enclosed inpearl, the games we playedto pass the timeless time.Here, as in the art of ancientGreece, nothing is strongerthan the strength of men,everything is made to be dis-mantled and then assem-bled differently, everythingis portable. Nothing has yetbeen darkened by the shad-ow of sin. No cloud has yetformed in that clear sky. Sil-ver nails secure this un-

changing serenity, this in-tense boundless turquoise.(A. Savinio, Ascolto il tuocuo re, citta, 1944)

No scientific treatise candescribe human events

of the earth and the heartwith such great immediacyand effectiveness as doespainting, through the use ofform, which is incarnationand purification, throughstyle, which is the enduringshape of passions sufferedand dominated. This washow Giotto saw and felt thevalue of the human figurefirst: he possessed a feelingfor large, impossing compo-sition, a sense of the weightand volume of things, andto his language submits theexquisite colour that enliv-ens unpredictably changingsurface, which a wholly Tus-can sense of form has drawnand caught with precision.A quality that until the com-ing of Michelangelo re-mained intact even whenconfronted by the allure-ments of Leonardo's softercolours. He understoodspace, atmosphere, differ-ent planes, he was the firstperson to have a feeling forthe external world, mean-ing landscapes, mountains,trees and rocks, whose aus-

terity and heroism, like hishuman figures, bear the sin-gular and unifying touch ofa cosmic vision.(G. Delogu, Antologia dellapittura italiana, 1947)

If one stands at the centreof the paving of the Scro-

vegni Chapel, in the spotbest suited to take in at a sin-gle glance the wall in whichthe apse is set, it at once be-comes plain... that the twotrompe-Voeil apertures havethe effect of "opening up"the wall, with the aim of af-fecting the architecture ofthe votive chapel. The con-vincing illusion thus createdis underscored by the twoGothic vaults running to-wards a single centre whichlies on the axis of thechurch, that is in the real,existential depth of theapse. The internal lightstarts from the centre andspreads through the twobays, even onto the columnsand jambs of the aperturesof the windows not with "ab-stract" ultramarine but apale azure colour, whichcombines with the real blueoutside the windows in theapse: so real is the illusionthat one feels an impulse towait and see the swallowsswooping down from thenearby eaves of the churchof the Eremitani.(R. Longhi, "Giotto spazio-so," in Paragone, 31, 1952)

Between 1260 and 1290Cimabue, who worked

in Rome and Florence, wasundoubtedly an Italianandeven European painter ofoutstanding greatness andpoetical energy; and he wasalso the painter possessed ofthe highest and most com-plex culture in the great me-dieval tradition. In him we

find a moral force, an evoca-tive and expressive power,that can still be felt pressingagainst the mediaeval formsand transforming them un-til they became somethingnew, but always within limitsthat he seems to have suf-fered from dramatically,seeking to overcome them,yet that still hemmed him in.And in this clash thatstrength swelled and was ex-alted, displaying itself in di-lated, superhuman forms.Giotto inherited the poeticmessage of Cimabue, but atonce added the awarenessthat mankind now had oth-er means to express theirtruth, in all its fullness andvariety and not merely inthat vertical ascent or im-measurably profound senseof drama. With Giotto a newcycle opened in serenity. Ci-mabue was heroic passiondilating and overwhelminghumanity. Giotto was har-mony and measure dom-inating and containing thepassions, the greatness ofman.

(G. Gnudi, under the entry"Giotto," in the EnciclopediaUniversale dell 'A rte

,VI,

1958)

In the commentary on theCommedia by an anony-

mous Florentine we find itsaid that the painter, havingbecome a master builder inhis old age, "composed anddesigned the marble belltower of Santa Reparata inFlorence: a noteworthy belltower and very costly. Hecommitted two errors: thefirst that it had no founda-tions, the second that it wastoo narrow. These thingsstruck his heart with suchsorrow that he fell ill anddied." The "errors" weremerely the gossip of back-

62

biters, for the bell towershowed elearly that thefoundations were strongand the marble shaft was, infaet, of the right propor-tions. But the pupil of Ar-nolfo, the artist who hadpainted so many bold, elab-orate works of architecture,may actually have died, onJanuary 8 1337, when thebell tower was only a fewyards high, nursing thedoubt that he had erred inhis only real work of Archi-tecture.

(P. Bargellini, Belvedere.VArte Gotica, 1961)

The Scrovegni Chapelwas built in the place of

a more modest and ancientstructure, before which a sa-cred play was representedevery year on the theme ofthe Annunciation and theother Stories of Maria.There was nothing morenatural than that Giotto, soobservant of whatever wenton about him, should havewatched the sacred play ofPadua while preparing topaint those same scenes onthe walls of the chapel thenbeing built..., and recalledthe emotions and the narra-tive clarity in the arrange-ment of the various phasesof the performance, togeth-er with the evocative valueof certain architecturalbackdrops. So that he left onthe chapel walls a more en-during spectacle, which wasthe official recognition, theseal and lasting record ofthe sacred play... It is impos-sible to ignore the possibilitythat alongside Giotto the ar-chitect there also existswhat, in modern terms,might be described as aGiotto the "set-designer"-Giotto as the supreme di-rector of gestures and feel-

ings adapted to the actors inan episode, stage-managinghis creations, those simpleyet very modern actors thaihe set out in his magical "liv-ing picture," asking of eachone of them, and hence ofhimself, the greatest intensi-ty of expression with thegreatest economy of means.(M. Bucci, Giotto, I960)

On the threshold of theyear 2000, which may

well loom up with greaterterrors than the first millen-nium, this exploration ofthe ethical and poetical uni-ty of the whole Middle Ag-esand with the highly tan-gible example of Giotto,from the lyrical Giotto ofAssisi to the tragic artist ofPaduais a profound lesson,and may even be a summonsto salvation. Our age, andeven more the millenniumabout to be born out of thecurrent throes of the planet,seems to promise to be moremediaeval than classical orRenaissance... Even themodern age... has alreadycreated more than one"summa," perhaps dese-crated but restorative. Butuntil the recent past we werebarely capable of a merelyunambiguous and unilater-al "summa," which aimed atisolated values but perhapstomorrow like Giotto we willbe willing to create a "sum-ma" that is once more uni-fied yet many-sided.(G. Vigorelli, "Giotto e ['in-vito aH'unita," in Uoperacompleta di Giotto, edited byE. Bacceschi, 1967)

In presenting the faithfulwith the life of Saint

Erancis (in the Assisi fres-coes), Giotto is now tender,now solemn, now dramatic,now serene, now familiar,

now lyrical, now mystical,now popular, now apostol-ical, now a chronicler. He al-ternates observation of thecontemporary world withthe admonishment of theeternal, the miraculous withthe everyday. Intended ashagiography, this fresco cy-cle seems to have been in-spired by a natural heroism,a familiar sense of the su-pernatural, unattainable yetaccessible (isn't all great po-etry like this?). The saint isthe hero of the human: nota model, but an example,and in the infinite distancethat separates us from sanc-tity we yet share in his life.In this sense the stories ofSaint Erancis in Assisi areone of the least clerical mon-uments of all religious art.(G. Pampaloni, Giotto ad As-sist, 1981)

What is more modern inall Western art in

around 1290-1295 thanthese stories of Saint Fran-cis? And notjust in the reap-propriation of the visibleworld in terms of spaces andvolumes: this feature of hiswork, which after almost athousand years meant oncemore seeing a value in theworld of phenomena thatman can verify through hisown experience (as opposedto the so-called realism ofthe Middle Ages, which con-ceived the physical world asa symbol of the "true" real-ity, that of the next world),was part of a much wider re-consideration of the worldand man in more naturaland earthly terms. All thoseconventional graphic defor-mations of Byzantine origindisappeared from the hu-man figure, whereas Cima-bue and the young Ducciohad only softened them...

63

The human anatomy grewnormal again, acquiring adegree of truth neverachieved before. A quitegood example is the partialnude in Saint Francis Re-nounces his Worldly Goods,which despite its chrysa-lid-like awkwardness thatwas typical of nudes allthrough the fourteenth cen-turyreveals a remarkabledegree of truthfulness inthe depiction of the shoul-der blades and ribs whichmust have amazed his con-temporaries. The profilesof his faces re-acquire thatpositive value that had beendenied for almost a thou-sand years, or at least theneutrality and normalitytypical of everyday experi-ence. For the first time fig-in ts were again shown smil-ing in a painting.(L. Bellosi, La pecora di Giot-to, 1985)

The first to be amazed byGiotto's great talents

not just as an artist, but alsoas an entrepreneur and aman who made his own for-tune, were his contempo-raries. Giotto's legendspread rapidly because hisartistic career developed ata wholly unprecedentedspeed, with exceptionalpowers of innovation andalso thanks to the fact thatthe new and modern fea-tures of his work were sooutstanding. And it is alsoclear that Giotto's worksmade the old methods fol-lowed by his predecessorslook old-fashioned, both be-cause of the way he orga-nized his workshop and alsobecause of the great refine-ment of his aestheticachievement.(S. Bandera Bistoletti, Giot-to. Catalogo complete, 1989)

Essential Bibliograph v

M. Bacci, Giotto, Florence1966.

Uopera complete di Giotto, ed-ited by E. Baccheschi, Milan1967.

F. Bologna, Novita su Giotto.Giotto al tempo delta cappellaPeruzzi, Turin 1969.

Giotto e il suo tempo, papersfrom the conference for theeighth centenary of Giotto'sbirth (Rome 1967), Rome1971.

G. Previtali, Giotto e la suabottega, 2nd ed., Milan 1974.

Da Giotto al Mantegna, exhi-bition catalogue edited by L.Grossato, Palazzo della Ra-gione, Padua 1974.

L. Bellosi, Giotto, Florence1981.

C. Brandi, Giotto, Milan1983.

L. Bellosi, La pecora di Giotto,Turin 1985.

G. Bonsanti, Giotto, Padua1985.

S. Bandera Bistoletti, Giotto.Gatalogo completo, Florence1989."

"The painter has a lively grasp of the

reality of things and events, butinstinctively subjects this reality to aprocess of simplification and synthesis,thereby steeping the story in a rarefied

atmosphere that imbues it with

transcendental significance"

(R. Salvini)

ISBN 1-874044-09-0

781874"044093