diff options
Diffstat (limited to '42952-0.txt')
| -rw-r--r-- | 42952-0.txt | 1400 |
1 files changed, 1400 insertions, 0 deletions
diff --git a/42952-0.txt b/42952-0.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..e20cbec --- /dev/null +++ b/42952-0.txt @@ -0,0 +1,1400 @@ +*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 42952 *** + + AUGUST, 1902 GIOTTO PRICE, 25 CENTS + + Masters in Art + A Series of Illustrated Monographs + Issued Monthly + + GIOTTO + PART 32 VOLUME 3 + + Bates and Guild Company + Publishers + 144 Congress Street + Boston + + + + + MASTERS IN ART + A SERIES OF ILLUSTRATED MONOGRAPHS: ISSUED MONTHLY + + PART 32 AUGUST, 1902 VOLUME 3 + + + Giotto + CONTENTS + + Plate I. Madonna Enthroned Academy: Florence + Plate II. Allegory of Poverty Lower Church of + St. Francis: Assisi + Plate III. Allegory of Chastity Lower Church of + St. Francis: Assisi + Plate IV. The Nativity Arena Chapel: Padua + Plate V. The Entombment Arena Chapel: Padua + Plate VI. The Resurrection Arena Chapel: Padua + Plate VII. The Death of St. Francis Bardi Chapel, Church + of S. Croce: Florence + Plate VIII. The Birth of St. John the Baptist Peruzzi Chapel, Church + of S. Croce: Florence + Plate IX. The Feast of Herod Peruzzi Chapel, Church + of S. Croce: Florence + Plate X. The Raising of Drusiana Peruzzi Chapel, Church + of S. Croce: Florence + Portrait of Giotto by Paolo Uccello: Louvre, Paris Page 20 + + The Life of Giotto Page 21 + Julia Cartwright + + The Art of Giotto Page 27 + Criticisms by Vasari, Van Dyke, Colvin, Ruskin, + Symonds, E. H. and E. W. Blashfield, Quilter + + The Works of Giotto: Descriptions of the Plates and Page 35 + a List of Paintings + Giotto Bibliography Page 39 + + + _Photo-engravings by Folsom & Sunergren: Boston. Press-work + by the Everett Press: Boston._ + + + PUBLISHERS' ANNOUNCEMENTS + +MASTERS IN ART is a series of concise handbooks, each uniform in style +with this one, devoted to all of the great painters and sculptors. + +THE PRICE, per copy, postage paid to any country in the postal union, is +twenty-five cents. + +REMITTANCES should be made by postal or express money-order, registered +letter, or, in amounts up to $1.00, in one or two cent stamps. On +personal checks drawn on banks outside of Boston or New York, 10 cents +should be added to cover collection charges. + +BOUND VOLUMES of nine complete years are offered at $4.00 for cloth, and +$4.75 for half-morocco, express charges prepaid. + +A FULL LIST OF SUBJECTS, with illustrations of the bound volumes, will +be sent on request. + + BATES & GUILD COMPANY, PUBLISHERS + 144 CONGRESS STREET, BOSTON, MASS. + + _Copyright, 1902, by Bates & Guild Company, Boston_ + + [Illustration: MASTERS IN ART PLATE I + + GIOTTO + MADONNA ENTHRONED + ACADEMY, FLORENCE + ] + + [Illustration: MASTERS IN ART PLATE II + + PHOTOGRAPH BY ALINARI + + GIOTTO + ALLEGORY OF POVERTY + LOWER CHURCH OF ST. FRANCIS, ASSISI + ] + + [Illustration: MASTERS IN ART PLATE III + + PHOTOGRAPH BY ALINARI + + GIOTTO + ALLEGORY OF CHASTITY + LOWER CHURCH OF ST. FRANCIS, ASSISI + ] + + [Illustration: MASTERS IN ART PLATE IV + + GIOTTO + THE NATIVITY + ARENA CHAPEL, PADUA + ] + + [Illustration: MASTERS IN ART PLATE V + + PHOTOGRAPH BY RAYA + + GIOTTO + THE ENTOMBMENT + ARENA CHAPEL, PADUA + ] + + [Illustration: MASTERS IN ART PLATE VI + + PHOTOGRAPH BY RAYA + + GIOTTO + THE RESURRECTION + ARENA CHAPEL, PADUA + ] + + [Illustration: MASTERS IN ART PLATE VII + + PHOTOGRAPH BY ANDERSON + + GIOTTO + THE DEATH OF ST. FRANCIS + BARDI CHAPEL, CHURCH OF S. CROCE, FLORENCE + ] + + [Illustration: MASTERS IN ART PLATE VIII + + PHOTOGRAPH BY ANDERSON + + GIOTTO + THE BIRTH OF ST. JOHN THE BAPTIST + PERUZZI CHAPEL, CHURCH OF S. CROCE, FLORENCE + ] + + [Illustration: MASTERS IN ART PLATE IX + + PHOTOGRAPH BY ANDERSON + + GIOTTO + THE FEAST OF HEROD + PERUZZI CHAPEL, CHURCH OF S. CROCE, FLORENCE + ] + + [Illustration: MASTERS IN ART PLATE X + + PHOTOGRAPH BY ANDERSON + + GIOTTO + THE RAISING OF DRUSIANA + PERUZZI CHAPEL, CHURCH OF S. CROCE, FLORENCE + ] + + [Illustration: PORTRAIT OF GIOTTO BY PAOLO UCCELLO LOUVRE, PARIS + + This portrait of Giotto was painted in the first half of the fifteenth + century by Paolo Uccello, a Florentine artist. It is a detail of a + picture containing five heads, representing, besides Giotto, Uccello + himself, Donatello, Brunelleschi, and Manetti. Vasari took the + engraving for his biography of Giotto from this likeness, which was + probably based upon some older portrait of the artist. He is here + represented in a red cloak and head covering; and it would seem that + Uccello's brush has somewhat flattered him, for we are told that he + was "singularly ill-favored" in outward appearance.] + + + + +Giotto di Bondone + +BORN 1266(?): DIED 1337 + +FLORENTINE SCHOOL + + +JULIA CARTWRIGHT 'THE PAINTERS OF FLORENCE' + +"In a village of Etruria," writes Ghiberti, the oldest historian of the +Florentine Renaissance, "Painting took her rise." In other words, Giotto +di Bondone[1] was born, between 1265 and 1270, at Colle, in the Commune +of Vespignano, a village of the Val Mugello fourteen miles from +Florence. There the boy, who had been called Angiolo, after his +grandfather, and went by the nickname of Angiolotto, or Giotto, kept his +father's flocks on the grassy slopes of the Apennines, and was found one +day by Cimabue, as he rode over the hills, drawing a sheep with a sharp +stone upon a rock. Full of surprise at the child's talent for drawing, +the great painter asked him if he would go back with him to Florence; to +which both the boy and his father, a poor peasant named Bondone, gladly +agreed. Thus, at ten years old, Giotto was taken straight from the +sheepfolds and apprenticed to the first painter in Florence. Such is the +story told by Ghiberti and confirmed by Leonardo da Vinci, who, writing +half a century before Vasari, remarks that Giotto took nature for his +guide, and began by drawing the sheep and goats which he herded on the +rocks. + +[Footnote 1: Pronounced Jot´toe dee Bon-doe´nay.] + +Another version of the story of Giotto's boyhood is that he was +apprenticed to a wool-merchant of Florence, but that instead of going to +work he spent his time in watching the artists in Cimabue's shop; upon +which his father applied to the master who consented to teach the boy +painting. The natural vivacity and intelligence of the young student +soon made him a favorite in Cimabue's workshop, while his extraordinary +aptitude for drawing became every day more apparent. The legends of his +marvelous skill, the stories of the fly that Cimabue vainly tried to +brush off his picture, of the round O which he drew before the pope's +envoy with one sweep of his pencil, are proofs of the wonder and +admiration which Giotto's attempts to follow nature more closely excited +among his contemporaries. This latter story is told by Vasari as +follows: "The pope sent one of his courtiers to Tuscany to ascertain +what kind of man Giotto might be, and what were his works; that pontiff +then proposing to have certain paintings executed in the Church of St. +Peter. The messenger spoke first with many artists in Siena; then, +having received designs from them, he proceeded to Florence, and +repaired one morning to the workshop where Giotto was occupied with his +labors. He declared the purpose of the pope, and finally requested to +have a drawing that he might send it to his holiness. Giotto, who was +very courteous, took a sheet of paper and a pencil dipped in a red +color, then, resting his elbow on his side to form a sort of compass, +with one turn of the hand he drew a circle, so perfect and exact that it +was a marvel to behold. This done, he turned smiling to the courtier, +saying, 'Here is your drawing.' 'Am I to have nothing more than this?' +inquired the latter, conceiving himself to be jested with. 'That is +enough and to spare,' returned Giotto. 'Send it with the rest, and you +will see if it will not be recognized.' The messenger, unable to obtain +anything more, went away very ill-satisfied and fearing that he had been +fooled. Nevertheless, having despatched the other drawings to the pope +with the names of those who had done them he sent that of Giotto also, +relating the mode in which he had made his circle, without moving his +arm and without compasses; from which the pope, and such of the +courtiers as were well versed in the subject, perceived how far Giotto +surpassed all the other painters of his time." + +No doubt the boldness and originality of his genius soon led Giotto to +abandon the purely conventional style of art then in use, and to seek +after a more natural and lifelike form of expression. And early in his +career he was probably influenced by the example of the sculptor +Giovanni Pisano, who was actively engaged on his great works in Tuscany +and Umbria at this time. The earliest examples of Giotto's style that +remain to us are some small panels at Munich; but a larger and +better-known work is the 'Madonna Enthroned,' in the Academy at +Florence, which, although archaic in type, has a vigor and reality that +are wholly wanting in Cimabue's Madonna in the same room. But it is to +Assisi that we must turn for a fuller record of Giotto's training and +development. + +Here, in the old Umbrian city where St. Francis had lived and died, was +the great double church which the alms of Christendom had raised above +his burial-place. Unfortunately the records of the Franciscan convent +are silent as to the painters of the frescos which cover its walls, and +neither Cimabue nor Giotto is once mentioned. But Ghiberti, Vasari, and +the later Franciscan historian, Rudolphus, all agree in saying that +Giotto came to Assisi with his master Cimabue and there painted the +lower course of frescos in the nave of the Upper Church.... + +In 1298 Giotto was invited to Rome by Cardinal Stefaneschi, the pope's +nephew and a generous patron of art. At his bidding Giotto designed the +famous mosaic of the 'Navicella,' or 'Ship of the Church,' which hangs +in the vestibule of St. Peter's. Little trace of the original work now +remains. More worthy of study is the altar-piece which he painted for +the cardinal, and which is still preserved in the sacristy of St. +Peter's. + +Pope Boniface, we are told by Vasari, was deeply impressed by Giotto's +merits, and loaded him with honors and rewards; but the frescos which he +was employed to paint in the old basilica of St. Peter's perished long +ago, and the only work of his now remaining in Rome besides the +'Navicella,' is the damaged fresco of Pope Boniface proclaiming the +Jubilee, on a pillar of the Lateran Church. This last painting proves +that Giotto was in Rome during the year 1300, when both his +fellow-citizens Dante and the historian Giovanni Villani were present in +the Eternal City. The poet was an intimate friend of the painter; and, +after his return to Florence, Giotto introduced Dante's portrait in an +altar-piece of 'Paradise' which he painted for the chapel of the Podestà +Palace. But since this chapel was burned down in 1332, and not rebuilt +until after Giotto's death, the fresco of Dante, which was discovered +some years ago on the walls of the present building, must have been +copied by one of his followers from the original painting. + +It was probably during an interval of his journey back to Florence, or +on some other visit to Assisi during the next few years, that Giotto +painted his frescos in the Lower Church of St. Francis in that city. +Chief among these are the four great allegories on the vaulted roof +above the high altar, illustrating the meaning of the three monastic +Virtues, Obedience, Chastity, and Poverty, whom, according to the +legend, the saint met walking on the road to Siena in the form of three +fair maidens, and whom he held up to his followers as the sum of +evangelical perfection. + +These allegories are not the only works which Giotto executed in the +Lower Church of Assisi. Ghiberti's statement that he painted almost the +whole of the Lower Church is confirmed by Rudolphus, who mentions the +series of frescos of the childhood of Christ and the 'Crucifixion' in +the right transept as being by his hand. In their present ruined +condition it is not easy to distinguish between the work of the master +and that of his assistants; but the whole series bears the stamp of +Giotto's invention. + +The next important works which he painted were the frescos in the Arena +Chapel at Padua, built in 1303, by Enrico Scrovegno, who two years later +invited Giotto to decorate the interior with frescos. When Dante visited +Padua, in 1306, he found his friend Giotto living there with his wife, +Madonna Ciutà, and his young family, and was honorably entertained by +the painter in his own house. The poet often watched Giotto at work, +with his children, who were "as ill-favored as himself," playing around, +and wondered how it was that the creations of his brain were so much +fairer than his own offspring. Giotto's small stature and insignificant +appearance seem to have been constantly the subject of his friends' +good-humored jests; and Petrarch and Boccaccio both speak of him as an +instance of rare genius concealed under a plain and ungainly exterior. +But this unattractive appearance was redeemed by a kindly and joyous +nature, a keen sense of humor, and unfailing cheerfulness, which made +him the gayest and most pleasant companion.... + +The fame which Giotto already enjoyed beyond the walls of Florence was +greatly increased by his works in Padua, and before he left there he +received and executed many commissions. From Padua, Vasari tells us, he +went on to the neighboring city of Verona, where he painted the portrait +of Dante's friend and protector, Can Grande della Scala, as well as +other works in the Franciscan church, and then proceeded to Ferrara and +Ravenna at the invitation of the Este and Polenta princes. All his works +in the cities of North Italy, however, have perished, and it is to +Florence that we must turn for the third and last remaining cycle of his +frescos. + +The great Franciscan church of Santa Croce had been erected in the last +years of the thirteenth century, and the proudest Florentine families +hastened to build chapels at their own expense as a mark of their +devotion to the popular saint. Four of these chapels were decorated with +frescos by Giotto's hand, but were all whitewashed in 1714, when Santa +Croce underwent a thorough restoration. The frescos which he painted in +the Guigni and Spinelli chapels have been entirely destroyed; but within +the last fifty years the whitewash has been successfully removed from +the walls of the Bardi and Peruzzi chapels, and the finest of Giotto's +works that remain to us have been brought to light. Here his unrivaled +powers as a great epic painter are revealed, and we realize his intimate +knowledge of human nature and his profound sympathy with every form of +life. + +The exact date of these frescos remains uncertain, but they were +probably painted soon after 1320. Recent research has as yet thrown +little light upon the chronology of Giotto's life, and all we can +discover is an occasional notice of the works which he executed, or of +the property which he owned in Florence. Vasari's statement, that he +succeeded to Cimabue's house and shop in the Via del Cocomero, Florence, +is borne out by the will of the Florentine citizen Rinuccio, who, dying +in 1312, describes "the excellent painter Giotto di Bondone" as a +parishioner of Santa Maria Novella, and bequeathes a sum of "five pounds +of small florins" to keep a lamp burning night and day before a crucifix +painted by the said master in the Dominican church. + +Of Giotto's eight children, the eldest, Francesco, became a painter, and +when his father was absent from Florence managed the small property +which Giotto had inherited at his old home of Vespignano. The painter's +family lived chiefly at this country home, of which Giotto himself was +very fond; and contemporary writers give us pleasant glimpses of the +great master's excursions to Val Mugello. Boccaccio tells us how one +day, as Giotto and the learned advocate Messer Forese, who, like +himself, was short and insignificant in appearance, were riding out to +Vespignano, they were caught in a shower of rain and forced to borrow +cloaks and hats from the peasants. "Well, Giotto," said the lawyer, as +they trotted back to Florence clad in these old clothes and bespattered +with mud from head to foot, "if a stranger were to meet you now would he +ever suppose that you were the first painter in Florence?" "Certainly he +would," was Giotto's prompt reply, "if beholding your worship he could +imagine for a moment that you had learned your A B C!" And the novelist +Sacchetti relates how the great master rode out to San Gallo one Sunday +afternoon with a party of friends, and how they fell in with a herd of +swine, one of which ran between Giotto's legs and threw him down. "After +all, the pigs are quite right," said the painter as he scrambled to his +feet and shook the dust from his clothes, "when I think how many +thousands of crowns I have earned with their bristles without ever +giving them even a bowl of soup!" + +A more serious instance of Giotto's power of satire is to be found in +his song against Voluntary Poverty, in which he not only denounces the +vice and hypocrisy often working beneath the cloak of monastic +perfection, but honestly expresses his own aversion to poverty as a +thing miscalled a virtue. The whole poem is of great interest, coming as +it does from the pen of the chosen painter of the Franciscan Order, and +as showing the independence of Giotto's character. + +The extraordinary industry of the man is seen by the long list of +panel-pictures as well as wall-paintings which are mentioned by early +writers. These have fared even worse than his frescos. The picture of +'The Commune' in the great hall of the Podestà Palace, which Vasari +describes as of very beautiful and ingenious invention, the small +tempera painting of the 'Death of the Virgin,' on which Michelangelo +loved to gaze, in the Church of Ognissanti, Florence, the 'Madonna' +which was sent to Petrarch at Avignon, and which he left as his most +precious possession to his friend Francesco di Carrara, have all +perished. One panel, however, described by Vasari, is still in +existence--an altar-piece originally painted for a church in Pisa, and +now in the Louvre. + +In 1330 Giotto was invited to Naples by King Robert, who received him +with the highest honor, and issued a decree granting this chosen and +faithful servant all the privileges enjoyed by members of the royal +household. Ghiberti tells us that Giotto painted the hall of King +Robert's palace, and Petrarch alludes in one of his epistles to the +frescos with which he adorned the royal chapel of the Castello dell' +Uovo. "Do not fail," he writes, "to visit the royal chapel, where my +contemporary, Giotto, the greatest painter of his age, has left such +splendid monuments of his pencil and genius." All these works have been +destroyed, and another series of frescos, which he executed in the +Franciscan church of Santa Chiara, were whitewashed in the last century +by order of a Spanish governor, who complained that they made the church +too dark! + +King Robert appreciated the painter's company as much as his talent, and +enjoyed the frankness of his speech and ready jest. "Well, Giotto," he +said, as he watched the artist at work one summer day, "if I were you I +would leave off painting while the weather is so hot." "So would I were +I King Robert," was Giotto's prompt reply. Another time the king asked +him to introduce a symbol of his kingdom in a hall containing portraits +of illustrious men, upon which Giotto, without a word, painted a donkey +wearing a saddle embroidered with the royal crown and scepter, pawing +and sniffing at another saddle lying on the ground bearing the same +device. "Such are your subjects," explained the artist, with a sly +allusion to the fickle temper of the Neapolitans. "Every day they seek a +new master." + +In 1333 Giotto was still in Naples, and King Robert, it is said, +promised to make him the first man in the realm if he would remain at +his court; but early in the following year he was summoned back to +Florence by the Signory, and, on the twelfth of April, 1334, was +appointed Chief Architect of the State and Master of the Cathedral +Works. Since the death of its architect, Arnolfo, in 1310, the progress +of the cathedral had languished; but now the magistrates declared their +intention of erecting a bell-tower which in height and beauty should +surpass all that the Greeks and Romans had accomplished in the days of +their greatest pride. "For this purpose," the decree runs, "we have +chosen Giotto di Bondone, painter, our great and dear master, since +neither in the city nor in the whole world is there any other to be +found so well fitted for this and similar tasks." Giotto lost no time in +preparing designs for the beautiful Campanile which bears his name; and +on the eighth of July the foundations of the new tower were laid with +great solemnity. Villani describes the imposing processions that were +held and the immense multitudes which attended the ceremony, and adds +that the Superintendent of Works was Maestro Giotto, "our own citizen, +the most sovereign master of painting in his time, and the one who drew +figures and represented action in the most lifelike manner." Giotto +received a salary of one hundred golden florins from the state "for his +excellence and goodness," and was strictly enjoined not to leave +Florence again without the permission of the Signory. In 1335, however, +we hear of him in Milan, whither he had gone by order of the Signory at +the urgent request of their ally Azzo Visconti, Lord of Milan. Here, in +the old ducal palace, Giotto painted a series of frescos of which no +trace now remains, and then hurried back to Florence to resume his work +on the Campanile. + +Another invitation reached him from Pope Benedict XII., who offered him +a large salary if he would take up his residence at the papal court at +Avignon. But it was too late; and, as an old chronicler writes, "Heaven +willed that the royal city of Milan should gather the last fruits of +this noble plant." Soon after his return to Florence Giotto fell +suddenly ill, and died on the eighth of January, 1337. He was buried +with great honor in the cathedral. + +More than a hundred years later, when Florence had reached the height of +splendor and prosperity under the rule of the Medici, Lorenzo the +Magnificent placed a marble bust on Giotto's tomb, and employed Angelo +Poliziano to compose the Latin epitaph which gave proud utterance to the +veneration in which the great master was held alike by his +contemporaries and by posterity: + +"Lo, I am he by whom dead Painting was restored to life; to whose right +hand all was possible; by whom Art became one with Nature. None ever +painted more or better. Do you wonder at yon fair tower which holds the +sacred bells? Know that it was I who bade her rise towards the stars. +For I am Giotto--what need is there to tell of my work? Long as verse +lives, my name shall endure!" + + + + +The Art of Giotto + + +GIORGIO VASARI 'LIVES OF THE PAINTERS' + +The gratitude which the masters in painting owe to nature is due, in my +judgment, to the Florentine painter Giotto, seeing that he +alone--although born amidst incapable artists and at a time when all +good methods in art had long been entombed beneath the ruins of +war--yet, by the favor of Heaven, he, I say, alone succeeded in +resuscitating Art, and restoring her to a path that may be called the +true one. + + +JOHN C. VAN DYKE 'HISTORY OF PAINTING' + +It would seem that nothing but self-destruction could come to the +struggling, praying, throat-cutting population that terrorized Italy +during the medieval period. The people were ignorant, the rulers +treacherous, the passions strong; and yet out of the Dark Ages came +light. In the thirteenth century the light grew brighter. The spirit of +learning showed itself in the founding of schools and universities. +Dante, Petrarch, and Boccaccio, reflecting respectively religion, +classic learning, and the inclination toward nature, lived and gave +indication of the trend of thought. Finally the arts--architecture, +sculpture, painting--began to stir and take upon themselves new +appearances. + +In painting, though there were some portraits and allegorical scenes +produced during the Gothic period, the chief theme was Bible story. The +Church was the patron, and art was only the servant, as it had been from +the beginning. It had not entirely escaped from symbolism. It was still +the portrayal of things for what they meant rather than for what they +looked. There was no such thing then as art for art's sake. It was art +for religion's sake. + +The demand for painting increased, and its subjects multiplied with the +establishment at this time of the two powerful orders of Dominican and +Franciscan monks. The first exacted from the painters more learned and +instructive work; the second wished for the crucifixions, the +martyrdoms, the dramatic deaths wherewith to move people by emotional +appeal. In consequence painting produced many themes, but, as yet, only +after the Byzantine style. The painter was more of a workman than an +artist. The Church had more use for his fingers than for his creative +ability. It was his business to transcribe what had gone before. This he +did, but not without signs here and there of uneasiness and discontent +with the pattern. There was an inclination toward something truer to +nature, but as yet no great realization of it. The study of nature came +in very slowly. + +The advance of Italian art in the Gothic age was an advance through the +development of the imposed Byzantine pattern. When people began to stir +intellectually the artists found that the old Byzantine model did not +look like nature. They began not by rejecting it but by improving it, +giving it slight movements here and there, turning the head, throwing +out a hand, or shifting the folds of drapery. The Eastern type was +still seen in the long pathetic face, oblique eyes, green flesh-tints, +stiff robes, thin fingers, and absence of feet; but the painters now +began to modify and enliven it. More realistic Italian faces were +introduced; architectural and landscape backgrounds encroached upon the +Byzantine gold grounds; even portraiture was taken up. The painters were +taking notes of natural appearances. No one painter began this movement. +The whole artistic region of Italy was at that time ready for the +advance. + +Cimabue seems the most notable instance in early times of a +Byzantine-educated painter who improved upon the traditions. He has been +called the father of Italian painting; but Italian painting had no +father. Cimabue was simply a man of more originality and ability than +his contemporaries, and departed further from the art teachings of the +time without decidedly opposing them. He retained the Byzantine pattern, +but loosened the lines of drapery somewhat, turned the head to one side, +and infused the figure with a little appearance of life. + +Cimabue's pupil, Giotto, was a great improver on all his predecessors +because he was a man of extraordinary genius. He would have been great +in any time, and yet he was not great enough to throw off wholly the +Byzantine traditions. He tried to do it. He studied nature in a general +way, changed the type of face somewhat, and gave it expression and +nobility. To the figure he gave more motion, dramatic gesture, life. The +drapery was cast in broader, simpler masses with some regard for line, +and the form and movement of the body were somewhat emphasized through +it. In methods Giotto was more knowing, but not essentially different +from his contemporaries; his subjects were from the common stock of +religious story, but his imaginative force and invention were his own. +Bound by the conventionalities of his time, he could still create a work +of nobility and power. He came too early for the highest achievement. He +had genius, feeling, fancy--almost everything except accurate knowledge +of the laws of nature and of art. His art was the best of its time, but +it was still lacking, nor did that of his immediate followers go much +beyond it technically. + + +SYDNEY COLVIN 'ENCYCLOPÆDIA BRITANNICA' + +Giotto, relatively to his age one of the greatest and most complete of +artists, fills in the history of Italian painting a place analogous to +that which seems to have been filled in the history of Greek painting by +Polygnotus. That is to say, he lived at a time when the resources of his +art were still in their infancy, but considering the limits of those +resources his achievements were the highest possible. At the close of +the Middle Age he laid the foundations upon which all the progress of +the Renaissance was afterwards securely based. In the days of Giotto the +knowledge possessed by painters of the human frame and its structure +rested only upon general observation and not upon any minute, prolonged, +or scientific study; while to facts other than those of humanity their +observation had never been closely directed. Of linear perspective they +possessed few ideas, and these elementary and empirical, and scarcely +any ideas at all of aërial perspective or of the conduct of light and +shade. + +As far as painting could ever be carried under these conditions, so far +it was carried by Giotto. In its choice of subjects his art is entirely +subservient to the religious spirit of his age. Even in its mode of +conceiving and arranging those subjects, it is in part still trammeled +by the rules and consecrated traditions of the past. Thus it is as far +from being a perfectly free as from being a perfectly accomplished form +of art. Many of those truths of nature to which the painters of +succeeding generations learned to give accurate and complete expression, +Giotto was only able to express by way of imperfect symbol and +suggestion. But in spite of these limitations and shortcomings, and +although he had often to be content with expressing truths of space and +form conventionally or inadequately, and truths of structure and action +approximately, and truths of light and shadow not at all, yet among the +elements over which he had control he maintained so just a balance that +his work produces in the spectator less sense of imperfection than that +of many later and more accomplished masters. He is one of the least +one-sided of artists, and his art, it has been justly said, resumes and +concentrates all the attainments of his time not less truly than all the +attainments of the crowning age of Italian art are resumed and +concentrated in Raphael. + +In some particulars the painting of Giotto was never surpassed,--in the +judicious division of the field and massing and scattering of groups, in +the union of dignity in the types with appropriateness in the +occupations of the personages, in strength and directness of +intellectual grasp and dramatic motive, in the combination of perfect +gravity with perfect frankness in conception, and of a noble severity in +design with a great charm of harmony and purity in color. The earlier +Byzantine and Roman workers in mosaic had bequeathed to him the high +abstract qualities of their practice--their balance, their +impressiveness, their grand instinct of decoration; but while they had +compassed these qualities at an entire sacrifice of life and animation, +it is the glory of Giotto to have been the first among his countrymen to +breathe life into art, and to have quickened its stately rigidity with +the fire of natural incident and emotion. + +It was this conquest, this touch of the magician, this striking of the +sympathetic notes of life and reality, that chiefly gave Giotto his +immense reputation among his contemporaries, and made him the fit +exponent of the vivid, penetrating, and practical genius of emancipated +Florence. His is one of the few names in history which, having become +great while its bearer lived, has sustained no loss of greatness through +subsequent generations. + + +JOHN RUSKIN 'GIOTTO AND HIS WORKS IN PADUA' + +In the one principle of close imitation of nature lay Giotto's great +strength and the entire secret of the revolution he effected. It was not +by greater learning, nor by the discovery of new theories of art; not by +greater taste, nor by "ideal" principles of selection that he became the +head of the progressive schools of Italy. It was simply by being +interested in what was going on around him, by substituting the +gestures of living men for conventional attitudes, and portraits of +living men for conventional faces, and incidents of every-day life for +conventional circumstances, that he became great, and the master of the +great. + + +JOHN ADDINGTON SYMONDS 'RENAISSANCE IN ITALY' + +The tale told about Giotto's first essay in drawing might be chosen as a +parable: he was not found beneath a church roof tracing a mosaic, but on +the open mountain, trying to draw the portrait of the living thing +committed to his care. What, therefore, Giotto gave to art was, before +all things else, vitality. His Madonnas are no longer symbols of a +certain phase of pious awe, but pictures of maternal love. The Bride of +God suckles her divine infant with a smile, watches him playing with a +bird, or stretches out her arms to take him when he turns crying from +the hands of the circumcising priest. By choosing incidents like these +from real home life, Giotto, through his painting, humanized the +mysteries of faith, and brought them close to common feeling. Nor was +the change less in his method than his motives. Before his day painting +had been without composition, without charm of color, without suggestion +of movement or the play of living energy. He first knew how to +distribute figures in the given space with perfect balance, and how to +mass them together in animated groups agreeable to the eye. He caught +varied and transient shades of emotion, and expressed them by the +posture of the body and the play of feature. The hues of morning and of +evening served him. Of all painters he was most successful in preserving +the clearness and the light of pure, well-tempered colors. His power of +telling a story by gesture and action is unique in its peculiar +simplicity. There are no ornaments or accessories in his pictures. The +whole force of the artist has been concentrated on rendering the image +of the life conceived by him. Relying on his knowledge of human nature, +and seeking only to make his subject intelligible, no painter is more +unaffectedly pathetic, more unconsciously majestic. While under the +influence of his genius we are sincerely glad that the requisite science +for clever imitation of landscape and architectural backgrounds was not +forthcoming in his age. Art had to go through a toilsome period of +geometrical and anatomical pedantry before it could venture, in the +frescos of Michelangelo and Raphael, to return with greater wealth of +knowledge on a higher level to the divine simplicity of its childhood in +Giotto. + +In the drawing of the figure Giotto was surpassed by many meaner artists +of the fifteenth century. Nor had he that quality of genius which +selects a high type of beauty and is scrupulous to shun the commonplace. +The faces of even his most sacred personages are often almost vulgar. In +his choice of models for saints and apostles we already trace the +Florentine instinct for contemporary portraiture. Yet, though his +knowledge of anatomy was defective and his taste was realistic, Giotto +solved the great problem of figurative art far better than more learned +and fastidious painters. He never failed to make it manifest that what +he meant to represent was living. Even to the non-existent he gave the +semblance of reality. We cannot help believing in his angels leaning +waist-deep from the blue sky, wringing their hands in agony above the +Cross, pacing like deacons behind Christ when he washes the feet of his +disciples, or sitting watchful and serene upon the empty sepulcher. He +was, moreover, essentially a fresco-painter, working with rapid decision +on a large scale, aiming at broad effects, and willing to sacrifice +subtlety to clearness of expression. + +The health of Giotto's whole nature and his robust good sense are +every-where apparent in his solid, concrete, human work of art. There is +no trace of mysticism, no ecstatic piety, nothing morbid or hysterical +in his imagination. Imbuing whatever he handled with the force and +freshness of actual existence, he approached the deep things of the +Christian faith and the legend of St. Francis in the spirit of a man +bent simply on realizing the objects of his belief as facts. His +allegories of 'Poverty,' 'Chastity,' and 'Obedience,' at Assisi, are as +beautiful and powerfully felt as they are carefully constructed. Yet +they conceal no abstruse spiritual meaning, but are plainly painted "for +the poor laity of love to read." The artist-poet who colored the +virginal form of Poverty, with the briars beneath her feet and the roses +blooming round her forehead, proved by his well-known _canzone_ that he +was free from monastic Quixotism and took a practical view of the value +of worldly wealth. His homely humor saved him from the exaltation and +the childishness that formed the weakness of the Franciscan revival. +Giotto in truth possessed a share of that power which belonged to the +Greek sculptors. He embodied myths in physical forms adequate to their +intellectual meaning. + + +E. H. AND E. W. BLASHFIELD 'ITALIAN CITIES' + +When we ask, where did Giotto get the wonderful power of expression that +he shows in his work? we reply, a little from masters and a great deal +from himself; but if we are asked, how did he learn to make a wall +effective by color and patterns? we must answer that he worked upon +traditional lines, that some of his immediate forerunners were nearly as +effective as he, and that some of his remote forerunners were more +effective. + +When we say enthusiastically of Giotto, "There was a decorator for you! +There was a muralist far more purely _decorative_ than some later and +even greater men!" we are thinking, not of the superiority of his +drawing and composition, but of the simple flatness of his masses, free +from any elaborate modeling, the lightness and purity of his color, the +excellence of his silhouette and his pattern. But the essentially +decorative qualities did not belong especially to Giotto; they belonged +to the history and development of mural painting, to the Greeks, the +Romans, the Byzantines, who had learned--centuries before St. Francis, +centuries even before the Master whom Francis served, came into the +world--had learned, we say, that dimly lighted interiors require flat, +pure colors with little modeling. + +Now nearly all the interiors of the ancient world were dimly lighted; +the medieval Italian churches with their narrow lancet windows of low +toned jewel-like glass were as dark as any of the antique buildings, so +that the use of flat masses of pure color, the planning of an agreeable +disposition of spots and of a handsome silhouette to these spots, +became the canons of medieval painting. These early artists had mastered +thoroughly the great controlling principle of decoration, the principle +of the harmony of the painting with the surrounding architecture. +Because the fourteenth century had not gone beyond this fortunate +simplicity to the complexity of the fifteenth, and because it had +attained to a science of draughtsmanship unknown to the thirteenth +century and earlier times, we call the fourteenth century the golden age +of the mural painter. The layman not infrequently supposes that this +condition of things obtained because Giotto deliberately eschewed +elaborate modeling, and said to mural painting, "Thus far and no farther +shalt thou go!" In eight cases out of ten this misconception comes +because the layman has been reading Ruskin; in the other two cases, +because he has been reading Rio or Lord Lindsay. In reality, Giotto said +nothing of the sort; he was a great artist, he saw and felt with +simplicity and dignity; doubtless he would, under any circumstances, +have modeled with restraint, but if he had known how to do so he would +have put more modeling in his figures than he did. + +Fifty years ago John Ruskin made Giotto the fashion. The connoisseurs of +the seventeenth century, the men whose fathers had perhaps seen Raphael, +had surely seen the Urbinate's great rival, made small account of the +earlier painters; to them the _Giotteschi_ were barbarous, rubbish. With +Ruskin, however, the great son of Bondone took his place upon a throne. +He sat there rightfully by virtue of the greatest talent which was given +to any painter between Masaccio and the last great Greek or Roman artist +of imperial days; but his ministrant swung the censer before him with +such misplaced enthusiasm that the face of the great Tuscan was clouded +for half a century, until modern criticism dared to say nay to the poet +of the 'Stones of Venice' and the 'Modern Painters.' Ruskin never +admired anything that was unworthy, though he often fiercely contemned +the worthy. He saw and praised Giotto's simplicity of treatment, but how +strangely he praised, how utterly he misunderstood the artist's aim and +insisted upon bringing back to the marksman game that was no spoil of +his! Ruskin mistook timidity for reverence, and ascribed to the painter +as a deliberate choice that which was in reality forced upon him by +inexperience. + +The reasoning which Ruskin, Rio, and others of their school followed is +peculiar. We will take as an example a fresco in which heavily draped +figures stand before a city gate upon greensward. In the said greensward +every little blade and leaf is made out; there is no effect; you and I +with our modern ideas would not like it at all. The critic, on the +contrary, is enraptured. He cries, "Only see, Giotto has painted every +leaf; he felt that everything that God made should be lovingly and +carefully studied!" The draperies, on the contrary, are rather broadly +and simply handled, and the author implies that it is because the artist +knew that the stuffs, which were only artificial, not natural, were +unworthy the careful study he had given the leaves. Such criticism as +this utterly misled a portion of the English reading world for at least +thirty years. The right treatment by the painter was wrongly praised by +the writer. Giotto was lauded especially for leaving out that which he +was incapable of putting in; his figures are but little modeled, and +this slight modeling happens to be admirably suited to the kind of +decoration which he was doing, but it was slight because he did not know +how to carry it further. When he painted a Madonna on a panel to be seen +and examined at close quarters that which was a virtue in his decoration +became a fault in his easel-picture. Take the grass and draperies just +mentioned; Giotto had not yet learned to paint drapery realistically, +but he had the sentiment of noble composition, and he arranged his folds +simply and grandly and painted them as well as he knew how, pushing them +as far as he could. When he came to the grass, he found it much easier +to draw a lot of little hard blades and leaves than to generalize them +into an effect. He did not know how to generalize complicated detail. +The drapery was one piece, and he could arrange it in a few folds, but +the blades of grass were all there, and he thought he must draw every +one. Ruskin, and Rio, and Lord Lindsay, all regard this incapacity as a +special virtue based upon a spiritual interpretation of the relative +importance of things in nature and art. They account as truth in Giotto +what was really the reverse of truth. In looking at such a scene as that +represented in the fresco no human being could see every blade of grass +separately defined. A general effect of mass would be truth, and Giotto +would have grasped it if he could have done so, but he was not yet a +master of generalization. + +A whole class of writers upon Christian art is like the prior in +Browning's poem, who says to Fra Lippo Lippi:-- + + "Your business is to paint the souls of men. + "Give us no more of body than shows soul;" + +but these writers, while appreciating the effect of certain qualities in +Giotto and his followers, wholly misunderstood their intention. He did +not leave his figures half modeled for the praise of God or for the sake +of expressing soul. We might just as well say that it was for the sake +of spiritual aspiration that his foreshortened feet stood on the points +of their toes, or that his snub profiles were intended to suggest +meekness.... + +It is an important fact in painting, especially in decorative painting, +that in measure as an artist refines his work he may with advantage +suppress one detail after another of its modeling. But this knowing what +to leave out is one of the most subtle, one of the last kinds of +knowledge that come to the painter. This system of elimination argues +upon his part the possession of a high degree of technical +accomplishment. When he can draw and paint every detail of his subject, +then, and not till then, he can suppress judiciously. Great painters +have thus instinctively commenced by making minutely detailed studies. +Now, Giotto never made one such in his life; he did not know how. He was +a beginner possessing magnificent natural gifts, still a beginner, a +breaker of new paths. He drew and painted the human body exactly as well +as he knew how to, leaving out elaborate modeling simply because he was +unable to accomplish it. One lifetime would not have sufficed this +pioneer of art for the achievement of all that he did and for the +compassing of a skilful technique as well.... + +If we pass on to those qualities of a painter which were particular to +Giotto, not merely as a muralist but as an individual man, we find that +like other masters of his time he cannot yet subtly differentiate +expression, but that, unlike others, his expression is more intense, +more forceful, more varied. His heads have long narrow eyes, short snub +noses, firm mouths, square jaws, and powerful chins; he divides them, +not individually, but typically, into adolescent, adult, and aged heads. +His feet are unsteady; his hands not yet understood; his draperies are +for their time wonderful--simply, even grandly arranged, and if they do +not express the body, at least they suggest it and echo its movements. + +His animals, too small and often faulty enough, are sometimes excellent; +and, like every other medieval artist, if he wanted to put in a sheep or +a horse or a camel, he put it in without any misgivings as to knowledge +of the subject. Neither did this architect entertain any scruples +regarding architecture when he chose to paint it, and, like his fellows, +he set Greek temple of Assisi, Romanesque convent, and Gothic church, +all upon the same jackstraw-like legs,--that is to say, columns which +made toys of all buildings, big or little. First and last and best, we +see him as a miracle of compositional and dramatic capacity, and with +this last quality he took his world by storm. + +Men before him had tried to tell stories, but had told them +hesitatingly, even uncouthly; Giotto spoke clearly and to the point. +This shepherd boy, whose mountain pastures could be seen from her +Campanile, taught grammar to the halting art of Florence. He taught the +muse of the fourteenth century to wear the buskin, so that his +followers, however confused their composition might be, were at least +clear in the telling of their story. Indeed he was such a dramaturgist +that men for a full hundred years forgot, in the fascination of the +story told, to ask that the puppets should be any more shapely, that +they should look one whit more like men and women. + + +HARRY QUILTER 'GIOTTO' + +The main characteristics of Giotto's style are, first, a lighter, purer +tone of color than had been in use before the time of Cimabue, and a +greater variety and purity of tint than had been attained by that +master; second, the introduction into his compositions of a certain +amount of natural detail which had been before totally neglected, and +the substitution of the portraits of actual men and women for the +imaginary beings that had formerly filled up the backgrounds of the +Byzantine pictures; third, the power of illustrating the real meaning of +his subject, not merely suggesting it as had formerly been the case; and +fourth, his unrivaled dramatic power. + +This dramatic power shows itself in almost every work that Giotto has +left us, and even survives in the achievements of his pupils. His +pictures are not scenes alone, they are _situations_. Besides their +appropriateness of gesture and oneness of feeling, they possess the +great characteristic of dramatic art in making the scene live before +you, subduing its various incidents into one strain of meaning, yet +keeping each incident complete and individual, as well as making it help +the main purpose. A minor point in which the same quality shows is in +the amount of emotion which this painter is capable of expressing by a +single gesture--an amount so great that it occasionally runs some danger +of lapsing into caricature, as is especially plain in such pictures as +'The Entombment' in the Arena Chapel. But in all his scenes Giotto has +succeeded, not only in choosing the most appropriate figures for +illustrating his meaning, but in seizing the very moment which is most +significant. + +But, after all, the main characteristic of Giotto's style is so +intangible that it can only be felt, not described. This characteristic +is the simple faith in which each of these compositions abounds; the +feeling conveyed to the spectator that thus, and not otherwise, did the +occurrence take place, and that the painter has not altered it a jot or +tittle for his own purpose. + + + + +The Works of Giotto + +DESCRIPTIONS OF THE PLATES + + +'MADONNA ENTHRONED' PLATE I + +This panel-picture, an early work, was painted for the Church of +Ognissanti, Florence, and is now in the Academy of that city. +Notwithstanding the fact that Giotto has adhered to the conventional +composition of the Byzantine masters, there is a freshness and more +lifelike appearance in this work than is observable in those of his +predecessors; and in the more natural attitudes of the figures--notably +in the kneeling angels--as well as in the greater freedom in the +treatment of the draperies, we see the advance that he has already made +in the development of art. + +The Madonna, clad in a white robe and long bluish mantle, and holding +the Child, whose tunic is of a pale rose color, upon her knee, is seated +upon a throne placed against a gold background. The angels kneeling in +front with vases of lilies in their hands are robed in white; those just +above them, bearing a crown and box of ointment, are in green. Saints +and angels are grouped on either side. + +The color of the picture has darkened and lost much of its original +freshness, and shows little of the purity of tint seen in many of +Giotto's frescos. + + +'ALLEGORY OF POVERTY' PLATE II + +Among Giotto's most famous works are the four frescos which cover the +arched compartments of the vaulting of the Lower Church of St. Francis +at Assisi. One represents the saint enthroned in glory; the others are +allegorical depictions of the three vows of the Franciscan +Order,--Poverty, Chastity, and Obedience. The finest of the series is +that reproduced in this plate, in which Giotto has represented the +mystic marriage of St. Francis with Poverty. Hope and Love are the +bridesmaids, angels are the witnesses, and Christ himself blesses the +union. The bride's garments are patched, ragged and torn by brambles, +children throw stones at her and mock her, and a dog barks at her; but +the roses and lilies of paradise bloom about her, and St. Francis looks +with love upon his chosen bride. To the left a young man gives his cloak +to a beggar; on the opposite side a miser grasps his money-bag, and a +richly clad youth scornfully rejects the invitation of the angel at his +side to follow in the train of holy Poverty. Above, two angels, one +bearing a garment and a bag of gold, the other a miniature +palace--symbolical of worldly goods given up in charity--are received by +the hands of the Almighty. + + +'ALLEGORY OF CHASTITY' PLATE III + +This fresco, in the Lower Church of St. Francis at Assisi, is one of the +series to which that reproduced in the previous Plate also belongs. It +represents the different stages of perfection in the religious life. On +the left St. Francis receives three aspirants to the Franciscan Order; +on the right three monks are driving evil spirits into the abyss below; +and in the central group angels pour purifying water upon the head of a +youth standing naked in a baptismal font. Two figures leaning over the +wall behind present him with the banner of purity and shield of +fortitude, and two angels standing near bear the convert's garments. The +mail-clad warriors, holding lash and shield, are emblematic of the +warfare and self-mortification of those who follow St. Francis. In the +tower of the crenelated fortress in the background is seated Chastity, +veiled and in prayer, to whom two angels bring an open book and the palm +of holiness. + + +'NATIVITY,' 'ENTOMBMENT,' AND 'RESURRECTION' PLATES IV, V, AND VI + +The Arena Chapel, Padua, was built in the year 1303 by Enrico Scrovegno, +a wealthy citizen of that place, upon the site of a Roman amphitheater +or arena. The outside of this little building is devoid of all +architectural embellishment, but any exterior bareness is more than +counterbalanced by the interior, the decoration of which was, in 1305 or +1306, intrusted to Giotto, at that time the acknowledged master of +painting in Italy. With the exception of the frescos in the choir, which +were added by his followers in later years, all the paintings in the +chapel--thirty-eight in number--are by his hand, and present a scheme of +decoration that is unsurpassed even in the churches of Italy. "Though +they lack the subtleties of later technical development," write Vasari's +recent editors, "these frescos of the Arena Chapel, in their +composition, their simplicity, their effectiveness as pure decoration, +and in their dramatic force, are some of the finest things in the whole +history of art, ancient or modern." + +Arranged in three tiers on the side walls of the chapel, Giotto's +frescos illustrate the apocryphal history of Joachim and Anna, the life +of the Virgin, scenes from the life of Christ, and below, allegorical +figures of the Virtues and Vices. On the entrance wall is a 'Last +Judgment,' and opposite, a 'Christ in Glory.' The vaulted ceiling, +colored blue and studded with gold stars, is adorned with medallions of +Christ and the Virgin, saints and prophets. "Wherever the eye turns," +writes Mr. Quilter, "it meets a bewilderment of color pure and radiant +and yet restful to the eye, tints which resemble in their perfect +harmony of brightness the iridescence of a shell. The whole interior, +owing perhaps to its perfect simplicity of form and absence of all other +decoration than the frescos, presents less the aspect of a building +decorated with paintings than that of some gigantic opal in the midst of +which the spectator stands." + +'THE NATIVITY,' reproduced in Plate IV, is the first of the second tier +of frescos. It is painted almost wholly in a quiet harmony of blue and +gray. Ruskin has called attention to the natural manner in which the +Virgin turns upon her couch to assist in laying down the Child brought +to her by an attendant, and to the figure of St. Joseph seated below in +meditation. On the right are the shepherds, their flocks beside them, +listening to the angels who, "all exulting, and as it were confused with +joy, flutter and circle in the air like birds." On the left the ox and +ass stretch their heads towards the Virgin's couch. + +'THE ENTOMBMENT,' Plate V, is impressive in its passionate intensity. +The women seated on the ground supporting the dead Christ are +overwhelmed with grief, other mourners are grouped around; and in the +figure of St. John with his arms extended Giotto has preserved the +antique gesture of sorrow. Angels wheel and circle through the air in a +frenzied agony of grief. In the background a barren hill and the +leafless branches of a tree are relieved against a darkening sky. + +'THE RESURRECTION,' Plate VI, shows us the soldiers in deep sleep beside +the red porphyry tomb on which two majestic, white-robed angels are +seated. Mary Magdalene, in a long crimson cloak, kneels with +outstretched arms at the feet of the risen Christ, who by his expressive +gesture warns her, "Noli me tangere!" + +This fresco and that of 'The Resurrection' are among the most impressive +in the chapel, and are comparatively little injured by time and +dampness. + + +'THE DEATH OF ST. FRANCIS' PLATE VII + +The last in the series of eight frescos painted by Giotto in the Bardi +Chapel of the Church of Santa Croce, Florence, this picture, which is by +many considered his masterpiece, shows us the closing scene in the life +of St. Francis of Assisi. Julia Cartwright writes of it: "The great +saint is lying dead on his funeral bier, surrounded by weeping friars +who bend over their beloved master and cover his hands and feet with +kisses. At the head of the bier a priest reads the funeral rite; three +brothers stand at the foot bearing a cross and banner, and the +incredulous Girolamo puts his finger into the stigmatized side, while +his companions gaze on the sacred wounds with varying expressions of awe +and wonder; and one, the smallest and humblest of the group, suddenly +lifts his eyes and sees the soul of St. Francis borne on angel wings to +heaven. Even the hard outlines and coarse handling of the restorer's +brush have not destroyed the beauty and pathos of this scene. In later +ages more accomplished artist often repeated the composition, but none +ever attained to the simple dignity and pathetic beauty of Giotto's +design." + + +'THE BIRTH OF ST. JOHN THE BAPTIST' PLATE VIII + +The Peruzzi Chapel in the Church of Santa Croce, Florence, was decorated +by Giotto with scenes from the lives of St. John the Baptist and St. +John the Evangelist. "The frescos in this chapel have suffered greatly +from repainting," writes Mr. F. Mason Perkins, "but the monumental style +in which they were originally conceived is still unmistakably apparent; +and they are certainly to be considered as products of the most mature +period of Giotto's activity, in all probability later in date by some +years at least than those in the Bardi Chapel. The fresco here +reproduced represents the birth and the naming of St. John the Baptist. +In one room St. Elizabeth is seen reclining on her couch and waited upon +by her attendants; in an adjoining chamber Zacharias is seated writing +upon a tablet the name by which the new-born child is to be called." + + +'THE FEAST OF HEROD' PLATE IX + +This fresco in the Peruzzi Chapel in the Church of Santa Croce, +Florence, is one of the most celebrated of Giotto's works. Herod and his +guests are represented at table under a portico suggestive in its +classic decorations of the later Renaissance. Salome, a lyre in her +hand, has been dancing to the music of a violin played by a youth in a +striped tunic--a figure which has been the subject of enthusiastic +praise from Mr. Ruskin and other writers. The girl pauses in her dance +as a soldier in a Roman helmet brings the head of John the Baptist into +the hall and presents it to Herod. Through an open door Salome is seen +again, kneeling before her mother and bearing the charger upon which +rests the head of St. John. In the distance, at the other side of the +picture, we see the barred window of the tower where the Baptist has +been imprisoned. + +"Although little more than its outlines are left," writes Kugler, "this +work unites with all Giotto's grander qualities of arrangement, +grouping, and action, a closer imitation of nature than he had before +attained. Seldom, even in later times, have fitter action and features +been rendered that those which characterize the viol-player as he plies +his art and watches the dancing Salome." + + +'THE RAISING OF DRUSIANA' PLATE X + +The story of the incident which Giotto has here portrayed has been told +as follows: "When St. John had sojourned in the island of Patmos a year +and a day he returned to his church at Ephesus; and as he approached the +city, being received with great joy by inhabitants, lo! a funeral +procession came forth from the gates; and of those who followed weeping +he inquired, 'Who is dead?' They said, 'Drusiana.' Now when he heard +that name he was sad, for Drusiana had excelled in all good works, and +he had formerly dwelt in her house; and he ordered them to set down the +bier, and having prayed earnestly, God was pleased to restore Drusiana +to life. She arose up and the apostle went home with her and dwelt in +her house." + +"This fresco in the Peruzzi Chapel in the Church of Santa Croce, +Florence, shows Giotto in all his strength and greatness," write Crowe +and Cavalcaselle. "Life and animation are in the kneeling women at the +Evangelist's feet, but particularly in the one kneeling in profile, +whose face, while it is obvious that she cannot see the performance of +the miracle on Drusiana, expresses the faith which knows no doubt. See +how true are the figure and form of the cripple; how fine the movement +of Drusiana; how interesting the group on the right in the variety of +its movements; how beautiful the play of lines in the buildings which +form the distance; how they advance and recede in order to second the +lines of the composition and make the figures stand out." + + +A LIST OF THE PRINCIPAL PAINTINGS BY GIOTTO, WITH THEIR PRESENT +LOCATIONS + +Transcriber's Note: Subsection headings surrounded by '=' characters; +for example, =Paris, Louvre= + +ENGLAND. =Alnwick Castle, Duke of Northumberland's Collection=: Panel +with Sposalizio, St. Francis receiving the Stigmata, etc.--FRANCE. +=Paris, Louvre=: St. Francis receiving the Stigmata--GERMANY. =Munich +Gallery=: Small Panels of Crucifixion, Last Supper, etc.--ITALY. +=Assisi, Church of St. Francis, upper church=: Frescos from the Life of +St. Francis; =Lower Church=: Allegorical Frescos of Chastity, Obedience, +and Poverty, and St. Francis in Glory (see Plates II and III); Frescos +from the Lives of Christ and the Virgin, and Miracles of St. +Francis--=Bologna, Academy=: Saints and Angels--=Florence, Academy=: +Madonna Enthroned (Plate I)--=Florence, Church of Santa Croce, Bardi +Chapel=: Frescos from the Life of St. Francis (see Plate VII); =Peruzzi +Chapel=: Frescos from the Lives of St. John the Baptist and St. John the +Evangelist (see Plates VIII, IX, and X)--=Padua, Arena Chapel=: Frescos +from the Lives of Christ and the Virgin (see Plates IV, V, and VI); Last +Judgment; Christ in Glory; Allegorical Figures of the Virtues and Vices; +=sacristy=: Crucifix--=Padua, Church of Sant' Antonio=: Frescos of +Saints--=Rome, Church of San Giovanni Laterano=: Pope Boniface VIII. +proclaiming the Jubilee--UNITED STATES. =Boston, Mrs. J. L. Gardner's +Collection=: Presentation in the Temple. + + + + +Giotto Bibliography + + +A LIST OF THE PRINCIPAL BOOKS AND MAGAZINE ARTICLES DEALING WITH GIOTTO + +ALEXANDRE, A. Histoire populaire de la peinture: école italienne. +(Paris, 1894)--BALDINUCCI, F. Notizie dei professori del disegno da +Cimabue in quà. (Florence, 1681)--BERENSON, B. Florentine Painters of +the Renaissance. (New York, 1896)--BLASHFIELD, E. H. and E. W. Italian +Cities. (New York, 1900)--BRETON, E. Ambrogio Bondone dit le Giotto. +(St. Germain-en-Laye, 1851)--BURCKHARDT, J. Der Cicerone, edited by W. +Bode. (Leipsic, 1898)--CALLCOTT, LADY. Description of the Chapel of the +Annunziata dell' Arena in Padua. (London, 1835)--CARTWRIGHT, J. The +Painters of Florence. (London, 1901)--CENNINI, C. Treatise on Painting: +Trans. by Mrs. Merrifield. (London, 1844)--COLVIN, S. 'Giotto' in +'Encyclopædia Britannica.' (Edinburgh, 1883)--CROWE, J. A., AND +CAVALCASELLE, G. B. History of Painting in Italy. (London, +1866)--DOBBERT, E. 'Giotto' in 'Dohme's Kunst und Künstler,' etc. +(Leipsic, 1878)--FEA, C. Descrizione della cappella di S. Francesco +d'Assisi. (Rome, 1820)--FÖRSTER, E. Beiträge zur neuern Kunstgeschichte. +(Leipsic, 1835)--FRANTZ, E. Geschichte der christlichen Malerei. +(Freiburg im Breisgau, 1887-94)--GHIBERTI, L. Commentario sulle arti. +(Extracts from manuscript copy are quoted by Milanesi, Cicognara, +Perkins, and Frey)--GORDON, L. D. The Story of Assisi. (London, +1900)--HOPPIN, J. M. Great Epochs in Art History. (Boston, +1901)--JAMESON, A. Memoirs of Italian Painters. (Boston, +1896)--JANITSCHEK, H. Die Kunstlehre Dante's und Giotto's Kunst. +(Leipsic, 1892)--KUGLER, F. T. Italian Schools of Painting. Revised by +A. H. Layard. (London, 1900)--KUHN, P. A. Allgemeine Kunst-Geschichte. +(Einsiedeln, 1891 et seq.)--LEE, V. Euphorion. (London, 1884)--LINDSAY, +LORD. Sketches of the History of Christian Art. (London, 1885)--LÜBKE, +W. History of Art. (New York, 1878)--MANTZ, P. Chefs-d'oeuvre de la +peinture italienne. (Paris, 1870)--MÜNTZ, E. Histoire de l' Art pendant +la Renaissance: Les Primitifs. (Paris, 1889)--OLIPHANT, MRS. The Makers +of Florence. (London, 1888)--PERKINS, F. M. Giotto. (London, +1901)--QUILTER, H. Giotto. (London, 1880)--RIO, A. F. De l' Art +chrétien. (Paris, 1861-7)--RUMOHR, C. F. V. Italienische Forschungen. +(Berlin, 1827)--RUSKIN, J. Giotto and his Works in Padua. (London, +1854)--RUSKIN, J. Fors Clavigera. (Orpington, 1883)--RUSKIN, J. Mornings +in Florence. (Orpington, 1875)--RUSKIN, J. Modern Painters. (London, +1846-60)--SACCHETTI, F. Delle Novelle. (Florence, 1724)--SCHNAASE, C. +Geschichte der bildenden Künste. (Düsseldorf, 1843-4)--SELVATICO, P. E. +Sulla cappellina degli Scrovegni nell' Arena di Padova. (Padua, +1836)--STILLMAN, W. J. Old Italian Masters. (New York, 1892)--SYMONDS, +J. A. Renaissance in Italy. (London, 1875)--TAINE, H. Voyage en Italie. +(Paris, 1866)--THODE, H. Franz von Assisi. (Berlin, 1885)--THODE, H. +Giotto. (Leipsic, 1899)--TIKKANEN, J. J. Der Malerische Styl Giotto's. +(Helsingfors, 1884)--VASARI, G. Lives of the Painters. (New York, +1897)--WOLTMANN, A., AND WOERMANN, K. History of Painting: Trans. by +Clara Bell. (New York, 1895)--ZIMMERMANN, M. G. Giotto und die Kunst +Italiens in Mittelalter. (Leipsic, 1899). + + +MAGAZINE ARTICLES + +ARCHIVIO STORICO DELL'ARTE, 1892: 'Die Kunstlehre Dante's und Giotto's +Kunst' di Janitschek (C. de Fabriczy)--CENTURY MAGAZINE, 1889: Giotto +(W. J. Stillman)--JAHRBUCH DER PREUSSISCHEN KUNSTSAMMLUNGEN, 1885 and +1886: Studien zu Giotto (K. Frey)--MONTHLY REVIEW, 1900: Art before +Giotto (R. E. Fry). 1900: Giotto (R. E. Fry). 1901: Giotto (R. E. +Fry)--NUOVA ANTOLOGIA, 1867: Giotto (C. Laderchi). 1875: Aneddoto dell' +O e la supposta gita di Giotto ad Avignone (G. B. Cavalcaselle). 1880: +La chiesa di Giotto nell' Arena di Padova (C. Boito). 1881: San +Francesco, Dante e Giotto (G. Mestica). 1900: Dante e Giotto (A. +Venturi)--PENN MONTHLY, 1881: Cimabue and Giotto (W. de B. +Fryer)--PORTFOLIO, 1882: Assisi (J. Cartwright)--REPERTORIUM FÜR +KUNSTWISSENSCHAFT, 1897: Die Heimath Giotto's (R. Davidsohn). 1899: Die +Fresken im Querschiff der Unterkirche San Francesco (P. +Schubring)--REVUE DE L'ART CHRÉTIEN, 1873: Evolutions de l'Art chrétien +(G. d. Saint-Laurent). 1885: Giotto. Naturalisme et mysticisme (E. +Cartier). 1885: Le Poème de Giotto. (E. Cartier)--ZEITSCHRIFT FÜR +BILDENDE KUNST, 1898 and 1899: Die malerische Dekoration der S. +Francesco-kirche in Assisi (A. Aubert). + + + + +Three Beautiful Books + +By PHILIP L. HALE + + +Three valuable handbooks on great portraits and Madonnas of the world. +Printed in beautiful type, on heavy antique paper with broad margins, +and daintily bound in buckram of special weave, with title-design +stamped in gold. Each book contains about 80 pages 8 × 11 inches in +size, including twenty exquisite full-page reproductions of famous +paintings, some of which have rarely been reproduced. + +The author, Mr. Philip L. Hale, a son of the late Edward Everett Hale, +is himself a painter and art critic of reputation. The text is unique, +comprising a critical analysis and comparison of the work of the master +painters, not from the too common view-point of a critic who walks the +galleries, but from that of a painter, who with brushes in hand is even +now working on the same problems those he writes about have worked on. +It has all the charm and spontaneity of an informal studio chat; and +gives a new and fresh appreciation of art. + +Price, Each, Boxed and Postage Prepaid, $1.50 + + +The Madonna + +A critical analysis of the way the master painters pictured the Madonna, +illustrated with full-page reproductions of the following masterpieces: + +Sistine Madonna, Madonna of the Chair, Madonna of the House of Alba, +Raphael; Virgin of the Rocks, St. Anne, the Virgin, and Christ-child, Da +Vinci; Assumption of the Virgin, Madonna of the Pesaro Family, Madonna +with the Cherries, Titian; Virgin adoring the Christ-child, Correggio; +Madonna of the Sack, Del Sarto; Immaculate Conception, Murillo; Virgin +and Child, Crivelli; Nativity, Correggio; Meyer Madonna, Holbein; +Madonna of Castelfranco, Giorgione; Madonna of the Two Trees, Bellini; +Vow of Louis XIII., Ingres; Coronation of the Virgin, Botticelli; +Madonna and Child with Two Angels, Fra Filippo Lippi; Madonna and Three +Dominican Saints, Tiepolo. + + +Great Portraits: Women + +An essay on the painting of women's portraits, illustrated by twenty +full-page plates reproducing the following great portraits: + +Mona Lisa, Da Vinci; Countess Potocka, Artist Unknown; Mrs. Sheridan, +Mrs. Siddons, Gainsborough; Nelly O'Brien, Reynolds; Unknown Princess, +Da Vinci; Bust of Unknown Lady, in Louvre; Parson's Daughter, Romney; +Sarah Bernhardt, Bastien-Lepage; His Mother, Whistler; Madame +Destouches, Ingres; Madame Molé-Raymond, Lebrun; Miss Farren, Lawrence; +Shrimp Girl, Hogarth; Madame Récamier, David; Violante, Palma Vecchio; +Doña Isabel Corbo de Porcel, Goya; Princess Christina, Holbein; His +Daughter Lavinia, Titian; Queen Henrietta, Van Dyck. + + +Great Portraits: Children + +A treatment of the subject of children's portraits similar to that of +women's portraits, with twenty full-page plates of these beautiful +canvases: + +Portrait of Countess Mollien, Greuse; Louis, Dauphin of France, La Tour; +Madame Louise of France, Nattier; Rubens's Sons, Rubens; The Blue Boy, +Gainsborough; Don Garcia with a Bird, Bronzino; Queen of Sicily, Goya; +Boy with a Sword, Manet; Strawberry Girl, Reynolds; St. John the +Baptist, Donatello; William II. of Nassau, Van Dyck; Holbein's Wife and +Children, Holbein; Madame Vigée Lebrun and Daughter, Lebrun; The Broken +Pitcher, Greuse; Portrait of Miss Alexander, Whistler; King of Rome, +Lawrence; Infanta Margarita, Maids of Honor, Don Baltasar Carlos on +Horseback, Velasquez; Child with Blond Hair, Fragonard. + + +BATES & GUILD COMPANY + +144 Congress St., Boston, Mass. + + + + +KLASSIKER DER KUNST + +The German Series of Art Monographs + + +Each volume contains practically the complete work of the painter to +whom it is devoted, with a biographical sketch (in German). We recommend +these books, on account of their completeness in the way of +illustrations, as supplementary to MASTERS IN ART. + +Prices given are net, and on mail orders postage must be added. The list +to date follows. New volumes are constantly being published, and prices +of these will be sent on request. + + I Raphael (275 pictures) $2.00, postage extra, 28 cents + II Rembrandt, Paintings (643 pictures) 3.50 " " 50 " + III Titian (274 pictures) 1.75 " " 28 " + IV Dürer (473 pictures) 2.50 " " 38 " + V Rubens (551 pictures) 3.00 " " 44 " + VI Velasquez (172 pictures) 1.75 " " 25 " + VII Michelangelo (169 pictures) 1.50 " " 26 " + VIII Rembrandt, Etchings (402 pictures) 2.00 " " 32 " + IX Schwind (1,265 pictures) 3.75 " " 56 " + X Correggio (196 pictures) 1.75 " " 25 " + XI Donatello (277 pictures) 2.00 " " 28 " + XII Uhde (285 pictures) 2.50 " " 34 " + XIII Van Dyck (537 pictures) 3.75 " " 48 " + XIV Memlinc (197 pictures) 1.75 " " 28 " + XV Thoma (874 pictures) 3.75 " " 52 " + XVI Mantegna (270 pictures) 2.00 " " 28 " + XVII Rethel (280 pictures) 2.25 " " 28 " + + +BATES & GUILD COMPANY + +144 CONGRESS STREET, BOSTON + + + + + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Masters in Art, Part 32, v. 3, August, +1902: Giotto, by Anonymous + +*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 42952 *** |