Giotto
Giotto di Bondone
Giotto di Bondone
There is a story
about Giotto that was told by another artist, Cimabue. Cimabue was walking
through the countryside to visit the Scrovegni Chapel in Padua. He saw a young boy drawing his sheep
flock with a stone in the sand. Cimabue said, “This boy will be a Prodigy,” and
then asked Giotto’s parents if Giotto could become his apprentice. That is the
beginning of Giotto's career as the inventor of realism and detail in painting.
Giotto, born 1267 – January 8, 1337 is an Italian painter and architect from Florence in the late Middle Ages. He is said to be the founder of the Italian
Renaissance. He brought his own sense of what he thought a painting should look
by rejecting the Italo-Byzantine form of stylized painting and brought a sense
of realism and naturalism to his work. The late-16th century biographer Giorgio Vasari describes Giotto as making a decisive break with
the prevalent Byzantine style and as initiating "the great art of
painting as we know it today, introducing the technique of drawing accurately
from life, which had been neglected for more than two hundred years. Not only was he noted for his realistic human
figures but he brought a new vision to perspective. His knowledge of painting
influenced those High Renaissance painters that came after him like
Michelangelo and Raphael. Giorgio Vasari, Lives
of the Artists, trans. George Bull, Penguin Classics, (1965)
Giotto is known for his clear, simple solutions to the
basic problems of the representation of space and of the volume, structure, and
solidity of 3-dimensional forms, and above all the human figure. He was also a
genius at getting to the heart of whatever episode from sacred history he was
representing, finding the compositional
means to express its innermost spiritual meaning and its psychological effects
in terms of simple areas of paint.
After leaving his home to go work as an apprentice for Cimabue he went on to become of the most famous painters of Tuscany. Cimabue was one of the first Italian painters to make a make from the Italo-Byzantine style but he still relied on some Byzantine models. While Giotto brought his sense of realism to a work, Cimabue clearly painted in a style that is clearly Medieval with stylized elongated figures. Giotto worked on Cimabue’s paintings while Cimabue was absent from the studio. Giotto had extraordinary skill and rendered his subjects with lifelike precision. While working on one of Cimabue’s paintings he painted a fly on one of the faces with such a realistic representation that Cimabue tried brushing it off.
You can see the differences in the two works below. The one on the left was done by Cimabue. It has the gold background typical for Byzantine works, elongated figures on a flat plane with little dimension to them. On the right is Giotto's work, Ognissanti Madaonna, where he has created a feeling of depth, the figures occupy a deeper space as compared to Cimabue's work. Even the Madonna's throne recedes in depth.
There is a lot of disagreement about Giotto’s
life. Many speculated on his place of birth, his appearance and there are
arguments about what he did and did not paint. One of these arguments surrounds
the Basilica of St Francis of Assisi.
Cimabue was commissioned to paint many of the large frescoes at this newly
built basilica and it is said that Giotto accompanied him. The attribution of the
fresco cycle of the Life of
St. Francis in the Upper
Church is a hotly debated topic among art historians.
After leaving his home to go work as an apprentice for Cimabue he went on to become of the most famous painters of Tuscany. Cimabue was one of the first Italian painters to make a make from the Italo-Byzantine style but he still relied on some Byzantine models. While Giotto brought his sense of realism to a work, Cimabue clearly painted in a style that is clearly Medieval with stylized elongated figures. Giotto worked on Cimabue’s paintings while Cimabue was absent from the studio. Giotto had extraordinary skill and rendered his subjects with lifelike precision. While working on one of Cimabue’s paintings he painted a fly on one of the faces with such a realistic representation that Cimabue tried brushing it off.
You can see the differences in the two works below. The one on the left was done by Cimabue. It has the gold background typical for Byzantine works, elongated figures on a flat plane with little dimension to them. On the right is Giotto's work, Ognissanti Madaonna, where he has created a feeling of depth, the figures occupy a deeper space as compared to Cimabue's work. Even the Madonna's throne recedes in depth.
Maesta. 1280-1285, Uffizi Gallery, Florence
From Wikipedia:
“From Rome, Cimabue went to Assisi to paint several large frescoes at the
newly-built Basilica of St Francis of Assisi, and it is possible,
but not certain, that Giotto went with him. The attribution of the fresco cycle
of the Life of St. Francis in the Upper Church has been one of
the most hotly disputed in art history. The documents of the Franciscan Friars
that relate to artistic commissions during this period were destroyed by
Napoleon's troops, who stabled horses in the Upper Church of the Basilica, and
scholars have been divided over whether or not Giotto was responsible for the Francis Cycle. In the absence of documentary evidence
to the contrary, it has been convenient to ascribe every fresco in the Upper
Church that was not obviously by Cimabue to Giotto, whose prestige has
overshadowed that of almost every contemporary. Some of the earliest remaining
biographical sources, such as Ghiberti and Riccobaldo Ferrarese, suggest that
the fresco cycle of the life of St Francis in the Upper Church was his earliest
autonomous work. However, since the idea was put forward by the German art
historian, Friedrich Rintelen in 1912, many scholars have expressed
doubt that Giotto was in fact the author of the Upper Church frescoes. Without
documentation, arguments on the attribution have relied upon connoisseurship, a
notoriously unreliable "science."However, technical examinations and
comparisons of the workshop painting processes at Assisi and Padua in 2002 have
provided strong evidence that Giotto did not paint the St. Francis Cycle. There are many differences between the Francis Cycle and the Arena Chapel frescoes that are
difficult to account for by the stylistic development of an individual artist.
It seems quite possible that several hands painted the Assisi frescoes, and
that the artists were probably from Rome. If this is the case, then Giotto's
frescoes at Padua owe much to the naturalism of these painters.”
More information about this at Cimabue and Giotto Giorgio Vasari's Lives of the
Artists
Around 1305 Giotto completed what is considered to be the masterpiece of
Early Renaissance, Scrovegni Chapel also known as the Arena Chapel in Padua, This cycle’s theme is Salvation with
emphasis on the life of the Virgin and the life of Christ. This cycle was
commissioned by Enrico degli Scrovegni. The chapel is
dedicated to the Annunciation. The theme is Salvation, and there is an emphasis on the Virgin Mary, as the chapel is dedicated to
the Annunciation and to the Virgin of Charity. As is common in the decoration
of the medieval period in Italy, the west wall is dominated by the Last Judgement. On either side of
the chancel are complementary paintings of the Angel Gabriel and the Virgin Mary, depicting the Annunciation. This
scene is incorporated into the cycles of The Life of the Blessed Virgin
Mary and The Life of Christ. The source for The
Life of the Virgin is the Golden Legend of Jacopo da Voragine while The Life of Christ draws upon
the Meditations on the Life of Christ by the Pseudo-Bonaventura. Anne Derbes and Mark Sandona, The
Usurer's Heart: Giotto, Enrico
Scrovegni, and the Arena Chapel in Padua, University
Park, 2008; Laura Jacobus,Giotto and the Arena Chapel: Art, Architecture and
Experience, London, 2008;
Andrew Ladis, Giotto's O: Narrative, Figuration, and Pictorial Ingenuity in
the Arena Chapel, University
Park, 2009
The cycle is divided into 37 scenes,
arranged around the lateral walls in 3 tiers, starting in the upper register
with the story of Joachim and Anna, the parents of the Virgin and continuing
with the story of Mary. The life of Jesus occupies two registers. The Last Judgment fills the entire
pictorial space of the counter-façade.
Detail: Last Judgment
Giotto paid a great deal of attention
to detail and his figures draw on classical sculpture. Unlike Cimabue Giotto
reject styling figures and rejected the elongation of the figure as byzantine
models often did. His figures are solid, have three-dimensional qualities and
gestures that are taken from observation. The clothing is not formalized but
have dimension and weight. With these frescoes, Giotto gained a reputation for
setting a new realistic standard in painting.
Along with attaining fame as a painter, Giotto was also commissioned as an architect. In 1334 he was as given a major architectural commission as the architect of the new campanile (bell tower) of the Florence Cathedral. This bell tower is a free-standing structure that is part of other buildings that make up Florence Cathedral on the Piazza del Duomo in Florence, This masterpiece of Gothic Architecture was designed entirely by Giotto and is encrusted with polychrome marble and sculptural decoration.
Giotto’s life and work is argued among
scholars with many is disagreeing on his birthdate, birthplace, his
apprenticeship, the order in which he created his works, and whether or not he
painted the famous frescoes at Assisi, (see above) and his burial place. Two things about his life that are agreed upon: his Scrovegni Chapel frescoes and his design for the campinale of the
Florence Cathedral.
Giotto died in January 1337.
According to Vasari,Giotto was buried in Santa Maria del Fiore, the Cathedral
of Florence, on the left of the entrance and with the spot marked by a white
marble plaque. According to other sources, he was buried in the Church of Santa
Reparata. These apparently contradictory reports are explained by
the fact that the remains of Santa Reparata lie directly beneath the Cathedral
and the church continued in use while the construction of the cathedral was
proceeding in the early 14th century.
During
an excavation in the 1970s bones were discovered beneath the paving of Santa
Reparata at a spot close to the location given by Vasari, but unmarked on
either level. Forensic examination of the bones by anthropologist Francesco
Mallegni and a team of experts in 2000 brought to light some facts that seemed
to confirm that they were those of a painter, particularly the range of
chemicals, including arsenic and lead, both commonly
found in paint, that the bones had absorbed.
The
bones were those of a very short man, of little over four feet tall, who may
have suffered from a form of congenital dwarfism. This supports a tradition at
the Church of Santa Croce that a dwarf who appears in one of the frescoes is a
self-portrait of Giotto. On the other hand, a man wearing a white hat who
appears in the Last Judgement at Padua is also said to be a portrait
of Giotto. The appearance of this man conflicts with the image in Santa Croce.
Vasari,
drawing on a description by Boccaccio, who was a friend of Giotto, says of
him that "there was no uglier man in the city of Florence" and
indicates that his children were also plain in appearance. There is a story
that Dante visited Giotto while he was painting the Scrovegni Chapel and,
seeing the artist's children underfoot asked how a man who painted such
beautiful pictures could create such plain children, to which Giotto, who
according to Vasari was always a wit, replied "I made them in the dark."
Forensic
reconstruction of the skeleton at Santa Reperata showed a short man with a very
large head, a large hooked nose and one eye more prominent than the other. The
bones of the neck indicated that the man spent a lot of time with his head
tilted backwards. The front teeth were worn in a way consistent with frequently
holding a brush between the teeth. The man was about 70 at the time of death.
While
the Italian researchers were convinced that the body belonged to Giotto and it
was reburied with honor near the grave of Brunelleschi,
others have been highly skeptical. (Wikipedia article).
Tempera and gilded gesso on poplar panel, 41 5/8 x 98 1/2 in. (105.7 x 250.2 cm).
North Carolina Museum of Art, Raleigh, Gift of the Samuel H. Kress Foundation, GL.60.17.7Click on image for more information
More information on Giotto here at the Athenaeum
Click on images below for more information about the exhibit at the J. Paul Getty Museum
Left: The Virgin and Child with Saints and Allegorical Figures, about 1315–20, Giotto di Bondone (Italian, about 1267–1337). Tempera and gold leaf on panel. Private Collection. Courtesy of Wildenstein & Co., Inc., New York. Right: The Crucifixion, about 1315-20, Giotto di Bondone. Tempera and gold leaf on panel. Musée des Beaux-Arts de Strasbourg, photo M. Bertola
Some books at the Central Library's Art Division about Giotto
Click on image to connect with the library catalog
Click on image to connect with the library catalog
No comments:
Post a Comment