Full text of "Giotto;"
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GIOTTO
BY
F. MASON PERKINS
LONDON
GEORGE BELL AND SONS
1902
CHISWICK PRESS : CHARLES WHITTINGHAM AND CO.
TOOKS COURT, CHANCERY LANE, LONDON.
Art
Library
PREFACE
THE present little volume can lay no claim to be other
than a general review of Giotto's life and works,
the limits of its pages having rendered impossible any
more detailed treatment of the subject To many, it
will doubtless appear of too critical a nature to afford
either pleasure or amusement ; others, again, will find it
lacking in the usual fund of pleasing anecdote which
forms so attractive an element in much of the literature
that has gathered about Giotto's name. To these
admirers of the master, I must counsel a return to the
pages of Vasari and his commentators. To those few,
however, who look for something more than a mere
literary pleasure in the study of an artist's life and work,
I can but hope that this little book may prove of some
slight use in awakening a deeper interest in the creations
of one of the first and greatest of Italian painters.
I must acknowledge my deep indebtedness to Mr.
Bernhard Berenson for much invaluable assistance during
the writing of this work.
F. M. P.
SIENA, 1900.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
CHAPTER PAGE
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS ix
BIBLIOGRAPHY xi
I. INTRODUCTORY i
II. THE FORERUNNERS OF GIOTTO 17
III. GIOTTO'S EARLY YEARS 22
IV. THE FIRST WORKS OF GIOTTO 32
V. ASSISI — THE LOWER CHURCH 53
VI. THE UPPER CHURCH 71
VII. THE ARENA CHAPEL 89
VIII. THE ALLEGORICAL SCENES AT PADUA no
IX. LATER WORKS 115
X. THE CAMPANILE AND FINAL WORKS 131
XI. THE GENIUS OF GIOTTO 138
XII. PANEL PICTURES 142
SHORT CATALOGUE OF THE WORKS OF GIOTTO .... 145
INDEX . 147
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
Frontispiece Christ Enthroned . . . . St. Peter's, Rome
1. The Martyrdom of St. Peter . . . St. Peter's, Rome 40
2. Madonna and Saints St. Peter's, Rome 42
3. The Visitation Lower Church, Assist 54
4. The Crucifixion Lower Church, Assist 58
5. Poverty Lower Church, Assist 62
6. Chastity Lower Church, Assist 64
7. Obedience Lower Church, Assist 64
8. The Glorification of St. Francis Lower CJmrch, Assist 66
9. A Miracle of St. Francis . . . Lower Church, Assist 68
10. A Miracle of St. Francis . . . Lower Church, Assist 68
11. A Miracle of St. Francis . . . Lower Church, Assist 70
12. St. Francis honoured by a citizen of Assisi
Upper Church, Assisi 76
13. The Renunciation of St. Francis Upper Church, Assisi 78
14. The Miracle of the Spring . . Upper Church, Assisi 80
15. Death of the Knight of Celano Upper Church, Assisi 82
16. The Raising of Lazarus . . . Lower Church, Assisi 86
17. Last Communion of the Magdalen
Lower Chttrch, Assisi 88
18. Joachim returning to his Sheepfolds
Arena Chapel, Padua 94
19. The Angel appears to Joachim Arena Chapel, Padua 96
20. The Nativity Arena Chapel, Padua 98
21. The Adoration of the Magi . . Arena Chapel, Padua 98
22. The Presentation in the Temple Arena Chapel, Padua 98
23. The Flight into Egypt . . . Arena Chapel, Padua 98
24. The Entry into Jerusalem . . Arena Chapel, Padua 100
25. The Washing of the Feet . . Arena Chapel, Padua 102
26. The Entombment Arena Chapel, Padua 104
27. The Resurrection Arena Chapel, Padua 106
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
PAGE
28. The Last Judgment .... Arena Chapel, Padua 108
29. Justice Arena Chapel, Padua no
30. Injustice Arena Chapel, Padua 112
31. The Funeral of St. Francis . . Sta. Croce, Florence 124
32. St. Francis receiving the Stigmata Sta. Croce, Florence 126
33. The Feast of Herod .... Sta. Croce, Florence 128
34. The Assumption of St. John . Sta. Croce, Florence 130
35. Drawing for the Campanile. . Opera del Duomo, Siena 132
36. Jabal - Campanile, Florence 134
37. Weaving Campanile, Florence 136
38. The Virgin Enthroned .... Academy, Florence 144
BIBLIOGRAPHY
BALDINUCCI. Opere.
BERENSON. Florentine Painters of the Renaissance. Second
edition. London and New York, 1900.
CHINI. " Storia del Mugello." Florence, 1876.
CROWE AND CAVALCASELLE. History of Painting in Italy.
London, 1866.
FRY, ROGER E. Art before Giotto. {Monthly Review), 1900.
LAYARD-KUGLER. Italian Schools of Painting. London, 1891.
LANZI. Storia Pittorica dell' Italia. Bassano, 1818.
LINDSAY. Christian Art. London, 1847.
REYMOND. La Sculpture Florentine. Florence, 1898.
RUSKIN. Giotto and His Works in Padua ; Mornings in
Florence, etc.
THODE. Giotto. Leipsic, 1899.
VASARI. Ed. Sansoni. Florence, 1879.
ZIMMERMANN. Giotto und die Kunst Italiens im Mittelalter.
Leipsic, 1899.
Ille ego sum, per quam pictura extinta reyixit,
Cui quam recta manus, tarn fuit et facilis.
Naturae deerat npstrae quod defuit arti :
Plus licuit nulli pingere, nee melius.
Miraris turrim egregiam sacro aere sonantem ?
Haec quoque de modulo crevit ad astra meo.
Demque sum lottus, quid opus fuit ilia referre?
Hoc nomen longi carminis instar erit.
ANGELO POLIZIANO.
GIOTTO
CHAPTER I
INTRODUCTORY
THERE are few characters of any real importance
in the history of Italian art, concerning whom we
possess less certain or genuine information than we do
in regard to Giotto di Bondone.
Notwithstanding the fame and celebrity that have
been universally accorded him as one of the greatest
and most striking personalities in the artistic annals of
the Christian world, we are left to found our ideas of his
private life and of his career as an artist, almost entirely
upon tradition, and such of his works as have been
spared us through the centuries that have elapsed since
he laid aside his brush.
As to authentic notices concerning his life and work,
we have been bequeathed the unsatisfactory legacy of a
few scattered documents, which afford no further en-
lightenment than to establish one or two relatively un-
important dates connected with certain periods of his
artistic activity — records mostly of an official or legal
nature, and which cast no light whatever upon the
personality of the man himself.
In attempting, therefore, to construct anything ap-
B
2 GIOTTO
preaching an ordered or probable account of his life,
we are forced to fall back almost entirely upon such
internal evidence as we may gather from his works, the
narratives of his earlier biographers being too mixed
with the qualities of error and imagination to be of any
real service to us.
Under such circumstances, it is easily apparent that
the most conscientious and well-meaning attempt in
this direction can lay claim to nothing beyond a certain
appearance of probability, so far must the elements of
conjecture and uncertainty enter into every endeavour
to put together a connected story of his life.
As to a review of his career as an artist, however, we
are less devoid of substantial material for study, and the
remains of his artistic activity, ruined and repainted as
in the majority of cases they are, at least enable us, by
means of a careful and unbiassed critical examination, to
trace to a certain extent the progress and development
of his extraordinary genius.
Much has been written regarding Giotto and his
works, both of late years and in earlier times, but even at
the present day the ideas of the majority of art students —
not to mention full-fledged critics and historians — con-
cerning him, both as a man and as a painter, are almost
directly, if at the same time unconsciously, dependent
upon the well-known biography of Giorgio Vasari, the
famous chronicler of the sixteenth century.
Vasari's monograph is, in more ways than one, an
exceedingly interesting creation, and especially char-
acteristic of certain phases of that writer's peculiar
talents. With the exception of his " Life of Cimabue,"
it would be difficult to find a more elaborate and, at the
INTRODUCTORY 3
same time, a more inconsistent piece of work through-
out the entire series of biographical sketches that go to
make up his famous book.
How much of the narrative in question is due to
Vasari's own imagination, and how much to the writings
of the different authors upon whom he drew for the
foundation of so many of his " Lives," it is difficult to
say. Perhaps the honours are equally divided in this
respect — certain it is that large demands were made
upon Vasari's fertile invention for the means of knitting
together the long account of Giotto's works, and of his
endless artistic wanderings, with which he fills so many
pages.
It is in his capacity as a critic, however, that our
faith is most shaken ; and, in his promiscuous attribu-
tions to Giotto of works having little or nothing in
common with that painter's own particular style, and
often differing greatly among themselves, we are forced
to wonder at his strange lack of critical sense in accept-
ing, unhesitatingly, the oft-times ignorant and untenable
attributions and opinions of his predecessors and con-
temporaries.
Nevertheless, despite its various chronological errors
and inexcusable critical mistakes, Vasari's biography is
worthy of our careful consideration as being the first
really comprehensive attempt at compiling a detailed
account of Giotto's life, together with a description of
his works. Although, as we have already said, it is at
times difficult to detect the historian's own imaginative
additions to the story of the great painter's career, as he
gathered it from the writings of the authors who preceded
him, we can upon the whole trust to him as more or less
4 GIOTTO
faithfully recording the traditions current in his day, at
least as far as the more important features of his narra-
tive are concerned ; and it is in this respect, rather than
as a critical commentary, that his work has for us its
greatest value.
Such writers and students as Baldinucci, Lanzi, Bot-
tari — and, at a later period, Milanesi and Crowe and
Cavalcaselle — did much to correct a great part of Vasari's
errors and mis-statements, as well as to clear up many
uncertain points in regard to Giotto's life ; but, with the
exception of the last-named authors, their work partook
rather more of an historical and archivistic, than of a
critical, nature.
Crowe and Cavalcaselle's life of the master, in the
first part of their monumental work on the painting of
Italy, despite various critical shortcomings, remains, as
a whole, the most authoritative that has yet been given
us, and one destined to hold a foremost place in the list
of works concerning Giotto and his school.
The various contributions to the subject on the part of
that greatest of all writers on art, John Ruskin, are too
well known to the majority of readers to require more
than a passing mention here. Nevertheless, great as
Ruskin is in his ethical and aesthetic consideration of
Giotto's work, he is lacking as a critic in the modern
technical sense of the word, and in this respect he has
taught us little in regard to the painting of that master.
To a later and more purely scientific school of critic-
ism, belongs Mr. Bernhard Berenson's invaluable little
book on the Florentine Painters of the Renaissance, and
to him is due the first really careful and discriminating
catalogue of Giotto's works as we know them to-day.
INTRODUCTORY 5
Perhaps no personality exists in the artistic annals of
Europe, a true appreciation of whose work and influ-
ences depends more deeply on a thorough knowledge
of his predecessors and contemporaries, than is the case
with Giotto himself. And yet, despite the comparatively
generous quantity of literature that exists at the present
day regarding him, no single volume has, to the best of
our knowledge, yet appeared upon the subject, that can
be said to combine the double purpose of a biographical
sketch and a critical guide-book, and certainly none in
which a notice of the master's life has been preceded
by any concise examination of the art that anticipated
his own.
It is not without a just claim to the title, that Giotto
has been proclaimed the first of modern painters ; but
we must not allow this laudatory qualification to blind
us to the fact that, however great his individual genius
may have been — and it is certain that the history of
art holds in its lists few names that rank as his in this
respect — it would be both erroneous and unjust to deny
that he was as much the culminating figure of a move-
ment long on foot in France and Italy, as he was an
absolutely original innovator. What he did for the art
of Painting, others had accomplished, years before his
time, for that of Sculpture ; and to pass over in silence
these pioneers of the artistic renaissance of the twelfth
and thirteenth centuries — men to whom the real founda-
tion of what is known as modern art was in so great a
measure due — would be to convey a false, or at best an
imperfect, impression of Giotto's real position as a re-
former.
In the preparation of this little volume, for a series
6 GIOTTO
intended to supply the public with a number of hand-
books of a critical as well as of an historical character,
it was originally our desire to preface our study of
Giotto with an essay upon the earlier mediaeval art of
Europe. Unfortunately, we have been able but partially
to carry out our wishes in this direction, and circum-
stances have obliged us to abandon our original design.
The limits of the present little work have rendered it
impossible for us to enter into anything resembling a
detailed or adequate delineation of the artistic pro-
gress and development of Italy during the centuries
previous to Giotto's birth ; nor has it been possible for
us to follow, in its varied phases, the unique struggle for
supremacy between the two great conflicting elements
of Latin and Byzantine art, into a record of which the
history of painting in that country, from the seventh
century onwards, must inevitably resolve itself.
The twelfth century, however, marks the beginning of
a new epoch in the moral and intellectual history of
Western Europe — an epoch the revolutionary character
of which is unmistakable. An account of the great
struggle for individual assertion, brought about by the
inevitable reaction against the conventionalities of the
later Middle Ages, would again occupy too many pages to
find a place here. It belongs rather more to the religious
and political, than to the artistic, history of Europe.
Nevertheless, the two are inseparably connected, and, as
has ever been the case, such a movement could not fail
to influence, almost at once, the outward spiritual ex-
pressions of the people it affected, as manifested in their
art and literature. So far as Italy herself was concerned,
this deep inner change may be said to have found its
INTRODUCTORY 7
most remarkable exponent in Francis of Assisi, than
whom we can bring to mind no more typical a personi-
fication of the new spirit of this extraordinary age.
The far-reaching influences of this great saint's life and
teachings were by no means limited to a merely religious
character, and their after-results became distinctly
visible, at a period but shortly removed from his death,
in the art and literature of what may truly be said to
constitute the commencement of the real Renaissance
in Italy. Niccolo and Giovanni Pisano in the field of
sculpture, Dante Alighieri in that of literature, Giotto
di Bondone in the world of painting, all were but cul-
minating figures in this same strong and irresistible move-
ment toward an inner change in the moral and intellectual
life of Western Europe — toward an emancipation of
individual thought and feeling, and a return to more
natural, simple, and life-giving models than those of
mere convention.
It is not to Painting, however, but to her elder sister,
Sculpture, that we must look for the first really im-
portant advance toward the practical realization of the
new ideals that were stirring in the minds of the artists
of Italy.
Already, in the beginning of the twelfth century, we
meet with symptoms of an inward change in the spirit
of the work turned out by the sculptors of Northern
Italy and Tuscany — mere signs, it is true, hidden be-
hind the veil of technical awkwardness and incapacity,
but nevertheless sufficiently obvious to denote the
growing change of ideals, and the ever-increasing rest-
lessness on the part of the craftsman, beneath the yoke
of conventionality which, both here and in the East, had
8 GIOTTO
so long borne down and suppressed the individual ex-
pression of his ideas.
The towns of Northern Italy are thickly strewn with
examples of this struggling art, at times barbaric in its
grotesque crudity, at others less so, but never once
reaching a sufficient technical perfection or excellence
to allow the artist fully to realize his inner dreams and
ideals.
To Niccolo Pisano belongs, undoubtedly, the credit
of the first effective step in this great mutation. His
sudden appearance upon the artistic horizon of Italy
may well seem to the generality of readers a matter for
no small wonderment ; but a more careful consideration
of the contemporary history of the period will lead
them to look upon it as far less casual and unprepared
an event than is generally supposed. The causes which
tended to make it possible were manifold, and Niccolo
was but the natural product of an age ripe for the practi-
cal embodiment of its new ideas. What he did for the
artistic future of his country, was done, perhaps, in total
unconsciousness on his part of the importance of the
step, and of its wide-reaching after-results ; but his
struggle against the conventionalities of his day was
none the less sincere and heart-felt on this account, nor
his final victory less complete. And yet, however great
a figure in the artistic annals of his country, Niccolo
must certainly appear to the careful student of his work,
far more as one gifted with unusual powers of apprecia-
tive selection, than as a really extraordinary or original
innovator. His genius was not such as to allow of his
solving the problem at once and alone, or of passing
with a single step from the observance of time-worn
INTRODUCTORY 9
models to the imitation of Nature herself. The revolu-
tion which he effected was due rather to an appeal to
her through intermediary means, and took the form of
a direct return to better and purer models than those
which had been for so long held up to the emulation of
the Latin and Byzantine schools. It is precisely here
that so many of his biographers, in their anxiety to
attribute to him the entire glory of the reformation of
Italian art, have exaggerated his real merits as an
inventor, and misunderstood the true nature of his
reforms.
We are accustomed to hear the now famous pulpit of
the Baptistery at Pisa — Niccolo's earliest known work —
quoted almost invariably, as being not only the greatest
and most representative creation of the master's genius,
but as the first important product of what has been
termed the " Modern. Age " of Italian art. This state-
ment, repeated by so many writers on the subject of
Niccolo and his school, is a distortion of the actual
truth.
If we examine carefully the style and manner of the
Pisan pulpit, we cannot fail to become convinced that
the reforms and innovations which Niccolo here intro-
duced into his work were almost entirely of a technical
nature, and hardly destined to leave any really per-
manent inward impressions upon the art that followed
later. The artist has here, it is true, passed at a single
step from the technical deficiencies of his contemporaries
to a far higher plane of excellence in this direction, but
we seek in vain for any really essential improvement
upon the inner spiritual conceptions of the Byzantine
and Latin artists of the time.
io GIOTTO
In clothing his subjects and characters with the out-
ward forms of the Graeco-Roman art of classic times,
Niccolo was but unconsciously returning to the example
of the early Christian artists of Rome. The entire Pisan
pulpit, as far as its sculptural decorations are concerned,
is no more than a faithful study of Roman bas-reliefs,
and there is nothing in its inner contents to characterize
it in any way as a work of Christian art, beyond the
mere subjects themselves. This absolute return to the
neo-classic models of ancient Roman times was, as it
were, an unwitting experiment on Nkcolo's part, and as
such was not without a distinctly beneficial influence
upon the sculpture of the day. The master himself,
however, seems to have been among the first to recognize
the limits of its success, and to acknowledge the unsuit-
ability of the newly resurrected forms to a satisfactory
representation of his own Christian ideals. A glance at
the great pulpit in the Cathedral of Siena — his second
work of importance, executed but a few years after the
one at Pisa — will suffice to prove the truth of this
supposition.
Although still adhering, in part, to some of the out-
ward forms of his earlier classic models, we find an
absolute inward change in the style of the work at
Siena — a change due to the presence of an entirely new
spirit in the master's manner. Side by side with types
recalling, almost directly, the conventional ones of the
Roman reliefs, we find others that appear to us quite
new — the counterparts of which we may seek for in vain
in the rest of the Italian art of the period. These fresh
forms seem based upon a more or less direct study of
natural models ; there is in them none of the conven-
II
tionality of the art of the time ; and in movement and
expression, drapery and form, they seem possessed of
an individuality and naturalism, that strike us at once
as unprecedented in the entire range of the Byzantine
and Latin art of the previous centuries.
As we examine this work — so unlike anything that
had preceded it in the art of Italy, and so different in
spirit from the earlier work of Niccolo himself — we are
inclined to seek the source of the new naturalistic in-
fluences that had evidently had so great a share in the
sudden change. That the transformation was entirely
due to Niccolo's personal creative genius, is hardly to be
credited for an instant — that the influence came from
Italy, or the East, is equally out of the question. There
remains, therefore, but one solution to the problem, and
we must turn to the North for an answer to our ques-
tions— and it is precisely from this direction that these
new influences arose.
A really satisfactory study of the Gothic sculpture of
France, and of its influences upon the art of the South,
remains to be made and written. There are few epochs in
the history of the world's art which afford us a greater or
a more surprising example of the visible outward ex-
pression of a nation's thought and spiritual development,
than does this marvellous efflorescence of sculpture in
the North of Europe during the twelfth and thirteenth
centuries. One of the earliest, and at the same time one
of the most characteristic, manifestations of that same
widespread intellectual and moral awakening which
we have already spoken of as having made itself felt in
Italy, the sudden appearance of this great school of
French sculptors stamps it as unique in comparison with
12 GIOTTO
the slower and more gradual development of the Southern
schools.
Of far greater importance, however, than this rapidity
of rise and growth, was the creative originality of its
artists. The types and forms which we meet at Paris,
Chartres, Amiens, Strassburg, and a dozen other cathedral
towns of France and South-Western Germany, appear to
us as belonging to an absolutely new school of art, and
due no longer, as was the case in Italy and the Orient,
to the study and re-casting of conventional and worn-out
models, but to an almost direct reversion to that greatest
of all teachers, Nature herself. We feel instinctively the
presence of a new and life-giving element in the freedom
and individuality of thought which shows itself in these
new creations of the Northern workmen. For the first
time in centuries, we meet with a style that is at once
both natural and free ; and the humanizing spirit which
runs through the work of these nameless French sculptors,
brings their art at once into a far more intimate relation
with ourselves than was the case with any that had gone
before it. We are conscious of new feelings of sympathy
and attraction, such as the older art of Rome and Byzan-
tium had been powerless to awaken in us. Its freshness
and simplicity strike us as a healthy and welcome change
from the eternally repeated forms of the South and of
the East, and, to our modern taste and judgment, this
new style appeals at once as a far more human and
natural embodiment of our own ideals of Christian art
than any in the entire previous history of sculpture or of
painting.
Nor was it merely in its inner spiritual qualities that
this new Gothic sculpture showed so distinct a departure
INTRODUCTORY 13
from the work of Italy and the Orient ; for we find in it
a technical perfection of form and workmanship that
must appear as little less than marvellous in comparison
with the relative degeneracy of the Italo-Byzantine
schools.
That an art possessing such qualities of freshness and
originality should have withheld its invigorating influence
for so long a time from the near-lying sister country of
Italy, is as surprising as it is unaccountable. Niccolo
Pisano seems to have been the first Italian artist of im-
portance to feel its effects. How, and at what exact
period of his life, he first came in contact with the
creations of the Northern workmen, it is difficult to say.
His early recognition of the unsuitability of the pseudo-
classic style adopted by him in the Pisan pulpit, to the
expression of his innate Christian ideals, may have led
him to look about for other and more adaptable models.
In the work of the Gothic sculptors he would certainly
have found what was at least the partial realization of his
dreams ; and although diversity of nature and education
might have prevented his adoption of the new forms in
their entirety and at once, their influence could not have
failed to stamp itself upon his work to such an extent as
to effect a thorough, though gradual, change in his style
and manner. However this may have been, the great
pulpit of Siena is a standing proof of the sudden altera-
tion of his art, and may well be looked upon as the
turning-point of his own career, as well as of the artistic
history of his country.
What time may have done for Niccolo in the assimi-
lation of the new Gothic spirit of naturalism and artistic
freedom of thought, as well as in the development of
14 GIOTTO
his own individual powers, we cannot definitely ascer-
tain, for the reason that the work of his later years is too
vaguely commingled with that of his son Giovanni, and of
various other assistants, to give us any really exact idea
of his own share in it. The great public fountain at
Perugia, the last existing work upon which we know the
master to have been engaged, bears the names of both
father and son. Whatever may have been Niccolo's own
direct share in it, this work shows us the complete real-
ization of that new style, the germs of which are so
visible at Siena. The conventional stiffness of the Pisan
pulpit and the hybrid qualities of the one at Siena, have
here entirely disappeared, and we find ourselves in pos-
session of forms as free and natural as those of Giotto
himself; forms which bespeak the final and absolute
emancipation of the artist from the classic and Byzan-
tine traditions that had for so long governed the art of
Italy.
In his son Giovanni, and in another of his pupils, the
Florentine, Arnolfo, Niccolo left behind him two suc-
cessors who were destined worthily to carry on and
perfect the work which he had himself begun. Through
Giovanni, more especially, the fame of the Pisan school
rose to a renown that eclipsed even that of Niccolo, and
it is in the works of this younger sculptor that those
traits of humanity and individual expression, which had
already begun so strongly to characterize the work of
Niccolo's later years, reach a point of previously un-
equalled development.
Giovanni's great natural gifts, his deep dramatic sense,
and his careful study of natural models, stood him in good
stead for the furtherance of the new ideals of his school.
INTRODUCTORY 15
Of a temperament markedly different from his father's,
he replaced the calm sedateness of Niccolo's style with
a restless energy of expression that became a leading
characteristic of his work ; and he seems nowhere more at
home than in the depicting of subjects calling for
animated dramatic treatment. The passionate action of
his figures is exaggerated at times into a positive
violence, verging upon a fault. With this overflow of
vitality, however, was united a sanity of conception, a
simplicity of style, and an appreciation of natural and
human sentiment, that brought his work into a greater
affinity with the spirit of the Gothic schools of the North
than had ever been the case with that of Niccolo.
Nevertheless, this approach to the feeling of the Northern
sculptors was not arrived at through any loss of in-
dividuality on Giovanni's own part, but, on the contrary,
we find a constantly increasing quality of originality in
his work, which stamps it as deserving of the respect due
to an independent school of art, reaching its climax, at
a late period, in the still more perfect creations of
his successor, Andrea da Pontedera — better known as
Andrea Pisano — regarding whose personality and work
we will have more to say in another place.
Notwithstanding the innovations which they had in-
troduced, the influence of Niccolo and his earlier fol-
lowers upon the painting of their time was, strange to
say, for years an absolutely imperceptible one. Even in
their native Tuscany, the pictorial arts continued to lead
an entirely separate existence from that of their sister,
sculpture ; and their sudden revival during the latter
half of the thirteenth century, the entire credit of which
has traditionally been laid at the feet of that mysterious
16 GIOTTO
personage, Cimabue, was due in no way to the influence
of the Pisan school of sculptors, but entirely to the resur-
rection of better Latin and Byzantine models than had
hitherto been in use.
CHAPTER II
THE FORERUNNERS OF GIOTTO
IN the history of her painting, Tuscany does not greatly
differ from certain other provinces of Central and
Northern Italy. In comparison with Rome, she cannot
be said to have possessed anything deserving the title
of a native school of painters until at a relatively late
period. Such primitive efforts as were turned out by her
craftsmen during the earlier Middle Ages, were hardly to
be distinguished by the appellation of works of art ; and
the first paintings of any real importance which we find
in this part of the country appear to differ in no essential
way from the generality of work produced in the other
parts of Central Italy — the usual compound of Latin
and Byzantine forms, with a sufficient tinge of native
crudity, to lend, at times, an air of local originality to
the whole. Such painters as Margaritone of Arezzo and
Giunta Pisano have given us in their works an excellent
idea of the state of painting in Tuscany at the time of
Niccolo's appearance upon the scene, and the absolute
imperviousness of the workmen of their school to all
new outward and natural influences, clearly shows the
set and mechanical conventionality of their craft.
The marked improvement which we have alluded to
above, as having been effected through the Florentine
artists during the last decades of the thirteenth century,
C
i8 GIOTTO
did much to advance the state of painting in these parts
toward something resembling the artistic standards of
Rome. Nevertheless, this progressive movement has been
exaggerated by various historians into something far be-
yond its real importance. Among other things due to
their writings, the public has been taught for years to look
upon the mural decorations of the upper church of San
Francesco, at Assisi, as the unquestionable products of
these same Florentine or Tuscan artists. As to ourselves,
we are unable to discover any palpable grounds beyond
those of mere tradition in support of this generally ac-
cepted theory, and we must look in vain for any really
conclusive critical reasons for its maintenance.
With the exception of the frescoed church of San
Pietro in Grado, near Pisa, — the decorations of which
building belong to a period preceding by many years
those at Assisi — the mosaics of the baptistery at Florence,
and one or two less extensive works in Lucca and in
Pisa, we do not find, throughout all Tuscany, a single
important existing example of mural decoration that
can, for a moment, suffer a comparison with the great
works of the Roman school ; and certainly none that
would in any way support the prevalent opinion which
gives to Cimabue and his assistants the entire credit
of a series of works that rank as the most powerful
and perfect that Christian art had produced up to the
time.
Apart from the great series of frescoes relating to the
life of the saint to whom the church is dedicated, and
attributed by common consent to Giotto — works which
do not in any way bear upon our present examination of
the older decorations of the edifice — the walls and ceil-
THE FORERUNNERS OF GIOTTO 19
ings of San Francesco are entirely covered with scenes
from the Old and New Testaments, with figures of
angels and saints, and with various minor decorative
ornaments. Painted for the greater part, in all prob-
ability, between 1 2 50 and 1290, at a time when the Roman
schools were enjoying an exceptional period of prosperity,
these frescoes possess far more in common with the
paintings and mosaics of that capital city than with
anything that the artists of Florence and Tuscany have
to show us during the same period. Although the
Byzantine element is preponderant in the majority of
them, others of these paintings show marked character-
istics of the more purely Latin school, and there is a
sufficient visible diversity of style to prove to us that a
goodly number of different artists were engaged, during
a lengthy period, upon the adornment of the building.
We meet with no works, in the entire range of the
earlier mediaeval painting of Italy, that can be said to sur-
pass, or even to equal, in dramatic force and expression,
the greater part of these frescoes at Assisi ; and yet,
superior as they are in these respects, they mark no
essential departure from the usual style and manner of
the Italo-Byzantine school. The same binding conven-
tions that had fettered the free expression of the artists'
ideas and individuality through so many long centuries,
are still in full force here, and although we may be led
to perceive, in many of these works, a certain apparent
appreciation and study of nature and natural models
which strike us as exceptional, it is, at its best, but a
passing and unsatisfied attempt on the part of the painter
to realize those new, though vaguely defined, ideals that
were day by day unconsciously developing themselves
20 GIOTTO
within him, and which had already borne such fruit in
the work of Niccolo of Pisa.
Enough has already been written concerning these
paintings to prove the futility of any attempt to classify,
or even to discover, their real authors ; and we shall not
here add to the confusion of ideas already existing in
regard to them. We may do far better, for the present,
by leaving this question of derivation and authorship to a
future satisfactory solution on the part of some one of the
many critics who are constantly occupying themselves
with it, and by remaining content with the knowledge that,
even as they now exist — mutilated and repainted, and in
part entirely washed away — these frescoes still represent
to us the greatest existing examples of pre-Giottesque art
in Italy. With them the Italo-Byzantine school of the
West may be said to have reached the limits of its possi-
bilities, and the artists of the time seem themselves to
have partially, though unconsciously, recognized this fact.
The realistic tendencies and attempts at a more natur-
alistic style, which we have already noticed in these paint-
ings at Assisi, were by no means without their counter-
parts, in a less degree, at Rome and in other parts of the
peninsula. The growing dissatisfaction with the old-
established forms, and their absolute unsuitability as a
medium of expression for the constantly increasing
naturalistic inclinations of the age, was made manifest
in the numerous unsuccessful efforts on the part of
various painters throughout the country, to infuse a more
realistic and life-giving element into the conventional
art of the time. Latin and Byzantine painting had be-
come too steeped in the spirit of formality and repetition,
however, to allow of its successful transformation into a
THE FORERUNNERS OF GIOTTO 21
naturalistic art, and the technical style of the ancient
schools was in itself sufficiently opposed to the introduc-
tion of any such realistic innovations, as to render their
satisfactory development an impossibility. Nevertheless,
the artists of Italy continued unceasing in their efforts
to adapt the time-worn forms to the expression of their
new ideals, loth to abandon the ancient traditions, and
yet unable to endow them with the life and animation
that their inward artistic aspirations longed so to express.
Had they but looked beyond themselves, they might
have seen the way lying open to the fulfilment of their
desires, in the example of the Gothic sculptors of the
North, and of Niccolo of Pisa ; but they were too deeply
sunk in the hereditary spirit of convention common to
their schools, to feel the force of these distant influences.
The time was ripe for a vital and imperative change, and
yet no spirit had arisen, sufficiently gifted with the
qualities of perception and originality, to head the move-
ment toward the necessary transformation, or even to
bring the painters of the period to a clearer understand-
ing of their own half-conscious ideals.
How long the painting of Italy might have remained
in this restless and critical state, had it not been for the
sudden appearance of one of the greatest minds that
have ever been connected with the history of art, it is
difficult to say or think. In Giotto it found the long-
awaited liberator ; and the wonderful transformation
which he effected was as sudden and complete as it had
been long deferred. What Giotto was as a man and as
an artist, and in what lay the nature of the great changes
which he brought about, it will be our effort to show in
the following pages.
CHAPTER III
GIOTTO'S EARLY YEARS
IOTTO DI BONDONE was born at Colle, a little
village belonging to the Commune of Vespignano
in the beautiful valley of the Mugello, not many miles
to the north of Florence.
No authenticated evidence has been handed down to
us regarding the exact date of his birth, a fact which
has given rise to various discussions and conjectures on
the part of art-historians, for the past two centuries, as
to the most probable year in which that important event
took place.
Vasari, upon some unknown authority, places the date
at 1276. Certain outward evidence of later periods in
the artist's life, however — as, for instance, the fact of his
having been intrusted at Rome, as early as 1298, or even
before that time, with works of such importance as the
famous mosaic of the " Navicella " and the high-altar
piece of St. Peter's — leads us to doubt the accuracy of
that writer's statement.
We are hardly inclined to believe that even one of
Giotto's exceptional genius could have risen, at the early
age of twenty-one, to such fame and pre-eminence in his
art, as to have insured his being chosen in preference to
all the artists of Italy to fulfil such important com-
missions as those we have just mentioned. Probabilities
EARLY YEARS 23
are certainly against the supposition that a mere youth,
however talented, should suddenly have been elevated
to a position above the heads of the foremost painters
and mosaic-workers of the day, many of whom, greatly
his seniors in age, had long before acquired a firmly
established reputation throughout all Italy as the great-
est living masters of their respective arts.
We have the further testimony of no less an authority
than Antonio Pucci, in support of the opinion that
Giotto was born at an earlier period than is generally
believed to have been the case. This writer tells us in
his " Centiloquio " — which work is but a rhymed para-
phrase of Giovanni Villani's " Chronicle" — that the great
painter died on the eighth of January, 1336 (according to
the old Florentine method of reckoning), at seventy
years of age. The statement of Pucci, who, together
with Villani, was a contemporary, and undoubtedly a
personal acquaintance, if not a friend, of Giotto, certainly
lays claim to a greater degree of credibility than the
assertion of a writer living some two centuries later, and
we may reasonably place the actual year of Giotto's
birth somewhere between 1265 and 1270.
Of his boyhood and early life we know virtually
nothing, beyond the fact that he was by no means born
in the poor and humble circumstances represented to us
by so many of his biographers. That his father was
something more than a poverty-stricken day-labourer is
proved to us by a document of the year 1320,' in
which Giotto is mentioned as being the son of a certain
Francesco Bondone of Vespignano, to all appearances,
1 Quoted by Leopoldo del Migliore in that writer's MS. notes
on Vasari, now preserved in the Biblioteca Nazionale at Florence.
24 GIOTTO
judging from the contents of the document in question,
a well-to-do landed proprietor, who is spoken of as vir
praclarus, a title never given either to labourers or
peasants, both of whom are invariably designated in all
official documents of the time as laboratores terrarum.
Even tradition seems to have kept a comparative silence
regarding the painter's early childhood, and it is only at
a period long after his death that we come upon certain
legends in which his name is associated with that of
Cimabue, in the relationship of pupil and master.
It is through Dante Alighieri that we first hear of the
painter Cimabue in the now famous lines :
Credette Cimabue nella pintura
Tener lo campo, ed ora ha Giotto il grido,
Si che la fama di colui oscura.
This is, perhaps, praise enough, just and sufficient, but
it is chiefly to the writings of Vasari and others, at a
much later period, that Cimabue — or Cenni di Pepo, as
he was properly called — owes his present fame.
Ghiberti mentions him simply as a follower of the
" Greek " manner of painting. Filippo Villani and, later
on, Cristoforo Landini, were among the first to speak of
him as the " regenerator of the art of painting," and the
founder of a new school, at a period sufficiently remote
from his own lifetime to lend an air of inventive origin-
ality to their remarks. To Francesco Albertini we are
indebted for the first imaginative catalogue of his works,
together with those of his would-be pupil Giotto.
To all of these writers, and to the anonymous compiler
of a series of biographical sketches of great and famous
artists — from Cimabue to Michelangelo, still preserved
EARLY YEARS 25
in MS. form at Florence1 — Vasari is under strict obliga-
tions for the main statements in his eulogistic " Life of
Cimabue."
Vasari's narrative is an astonishing combination of
half-truths, historical misrepresentations, and lack of
critical judgment In his enumeration of Cimabue's
supposed works, he seems to be entirely devoid of any
set criterion whatever in regard to the paintings of this
earlier period of Italian art, and, following in the footsteps
of Albertini, sets down to the glory of Cimabue, as the
creator of a new school, a promiscuous series of works
having, in the majority of cases, naught in common
beyond a general air of antiquity and Byzantinism. The
one prevalent idea in Vasari's mind — as was the case
with so many of his compatriots — seems to have been to
give to Florence, at any cost, the entire honour and glory
of the reformation of mediaeval painting, and, as far as
outward results have been concerned, he seems to have
attained the fulfilment of his desires, for Cimabue has
been passed down to us in the full light of his making.
Summarily, it may safely be said that Vasari's bio-
graphy of this painter is, on the whole, the most untrust-
worthy and incorrect of all his " Lives " ; and we cannot
do better than lay it aside as a compilation in the
main dependent upon the invention of its author and a
few other sixteenth-century writers, whose imaginative
faculties were often stronger than their love of facts, and
whose critical judgment, literally speaking, was worth
nothing. As in the case of his " Life of Giotto," this
biography of Vasari can have, therefore, little value for
the student, beyond affording him a general view of the
1 Biblioteca
26 GIOTTO
various traditions which were afloat in that author's day
regarding the misty personality of Cimabue.
We have little reason to doubt that Dante's words of
praise were, to a certain extent, justified, or that Cimabue
was, at a certain period of his life, really in the possession
of a celebrity beyond that enjoyed by the majority of
his contemporaries. At the same time, the poet's lines
do not by any means exclude the existence of other well-
known artists during this period of Italian art-history,
and modern criticism has given us good reason to believe,
furthermore, that his words were more especially applied
to the painting of Tuscany than to that of other parts of
the peninsula. Again, even Dante Alighieri was himself
at times not entirely free from a certain CJiauvinisme,
and his quotation of Cimabue, as having " held the field
of painting " before Giotto's time, may have been in a
measure prompted by a certain very natural, and perhaps
excusable, local patriotism.
What Dante's gifts as an art-critic may have been, we
do not exactly know, but it seems almost certain that
he must, at the time, have been acquainted with the
creations of the great school of painters and mosaic-
workers at Rome — works which show a far higher
standard of artistic excellence than any of the various
paintings that can, with any reasonable probability, be
attributed to Cimabue or his contemporaries of the
Florentine school.
As to the frescoes in the Upper Church at Assisi, we
have already expressed our opinion in another place.
The real authorship of these works, which would cer-
tainly establish Cimabue as the greatest painter before
Giotto's day, could their attribution to him be but
EARLY YEARS 27
proven, unfortunately remains too doubtful a question
to admit of any very probable or satisfactory solution.
Still another work, and one that has perhaps contributed
more than any other toward the building up of Cimabue's
extraordinary fame — the great Madonna of the Rucellai
Chapel, in the church of Sta. Maria Novella at Florence
— is now admitted, by more than one serious critic, to
be a direct production of the school of Duccio of Siena,1
and not a Florentine work at all.
Such other works as remain in the list of paintings tra-
ditionally attributed to Cimabue, although in one or two
cases decidedly superior to the average Tuscan painting
of the time, are scarcely of a nature to confirm the
usual exaggerated opinions of his greatness as an inno-
vator ; and in the present lack of all decisive proof con-
cerning his life and works he must become to us an
almost mythical character — one to be considered as a
type representative of that artistic progress and advance
which we know to have taken place in Florentine art
during the latter half of the thirteenth century, rather
than as any strictly defined personality. Tradition may
have been right in considering him the regenerating
spirit of painting in Tuscany, and in attributing to him
such works as the Madonna in the Academy at Florence ;
but such examples are insufficient in themselves to make
good his claim to the position of the greatest painter
1 That Duccio himself was commissioned to paint a picture of
the Virgin for the above-mentioned church, in the year 1285, is a
fact worthy of remark, proved by recently discovered documental
evidence. Whether the Rucellai altar-piece be the work furnished
in fulfilment of this commission, it is impossible to state ; the im-
press of Duccio's school is, however, sufficiently evident in this
painting to be unmistakable.
28 GIOTTO
of his day. Until, therefore, some fortunate critic can
come forward with more satisfactory arguments than
those which have heretofore been offered us in defence
of Cimabue's asserted greatness and superiority over the
other artists of his time, or until some documents are
brought to light proving to us his rights to the authorship
of the frescoes at Assisi, we cannot share the popular
opinion regarding this most vaguely defined of painters,
and he must remain to us an unsolved problem in the
art-history of his century.
Time seems to have dealt exceptionally severely with
such of Giotto's youthful works as might have furnished
us a means of judging more correctly of his early edu-
cation, and of the gradual formation of his style. With
the possible exception of two or three small panel
paintings, which have of late years been attributed by
Mr. Bernhard Berenson to this early stage of the master's
professional activity, we cannot boast of possessing a
single work of this particular period in Italian art that
can be said to show any characteristics in common with
Giotto's style as we are wont to know it. Nevertheless,
no artist, however gifted, could possibly have arrived at
the comparative perfection evinced by the master in his
earlier creations at Rome and at Assisi without having
passed through a long stage of preparatory study and
development, and we are not inclined to believe that
Giotto stepped at once into the possession of such a
style without having left behind him some material
evidence of his early studies. Such evidence, had it been
preserved, would have been sufficient to have made clear
to us the truth concerning his early artistic education,
as well as the real merits of his masters and the different
EARLY YEARS 29
influences brought to bear upon him as a youth. Un-
fortunately, almost every trace of his earliest activity as
a painter has been lost, and, despite the persistent at-
tempts of various modern critics — mostly of the German
school — to persuade us to see the entire course of Giotto's
early education mapped out before us in the older frescoes
of the Upper Church at Assisi, we must reluctantly dis-
miss all present hope of becoming acquainted with the
real facts regarding his earlier development.
Probabilities certainly tend, however, toward the ac-
ceptance of the usual tradition that Giotto was, at one
time in his life, a pupil of Cimabue, or of some one of
that painter's Florentine contemporaries. How long he
may have continued under the influence of these Tuscan
masters, and to what extent he may have been indebted
to them in the formation of his later manner, it is — in
the absence of all certain knowledge concerning the
painters in question and this particular period of his
own life — futile to conjecture. It is hardly probable that
one gifted with his restless spirit of progress and ad-
vance should have remained long satisfied with the com-
paratively narrow artistic education that Florence was
able to afford, and there is every likelihood of his having
visited both Rome and Assisi at an early period of his
career, either in the company of Cimabue or some other
such artist. A journey to Assisi — where the great
church of S. Francesco, but recently completed, was
already acquiring a widespread fame as a treasure-house
of art — would almost of necessity have led in time to a
visit to the not far distant papal capital, still, in Giotto's
day, the artistic centre of the Occident — the Jerusalem
of every serious artistic pilgrimage.
30 GIOTTO
The art of Rome, however, — as had been the case with
the apparently far less important art of Florence —
was, even at its grandest and best, too hampered and
conventional to teach Giotto more than it had taught
his predecessors. The young painter's exceptional
genius must soon have exhausted the possibilities of
both schools, and arrived, at an early period, at the limit
of their capacity for further development. A mind such
as his could not have remained long blinded to the
differences that lay between this conventional and limited
art and the new and unfettered one of Giovanni Pisano
and his followers ; nor could it have failed to recognize
and appreciate the causes that went to make up this
great diversity. The advance made by the Pisan stone-
cutters must have appealed to Giotto as applicable to
his own case. Instinctively he must have felt that
the realization of his artistic ideals lay beyond the
pale of the pictorial traditions of the time, and was to
be arrived at only through a radical departure from the
conventions of his predecessors and contemporaries, and
a bold entry upon a new and untrodden path in the
field of painting. To one of his peculiar temperament
thought was equivalent to action, and his genius carried
him at once beyond the barrier that had served to stay
the progress of so many lesser men in the same struggle
for freedom of expression. With naught else but Nature
as his prototype, he was enabled to create, almost at once,
such forms as were perfectly suited to the expression of
his ideas, and he suddenly stands before us, in the
earliest works that can with any security be attributed
to his hand, as a master already possessed of an entirely
free and independent style, having nothing in common
EARLY YEARS 31
with the productions of his contemporaries beyond a
few relatively insignificant technical details.
To how great an extent the example of the sculptors
of Pisa and of the North may have affected Giotto in
this decisive change, it is impossible to say. Certain it
is, however, that to Giovanni, if to no other of his school,
Giotto owed no small debt in the formation of his style.
The effect of Giovanni's work upon the painter's artistic
development was an undeniable and a potent one, and,
as far as he may be said to have had any real teacher
beyond Nature herself, Giovanni Pisano was certainly
the artist whose creations exercised the greatest influence
upon the moulding of his manner.
CHAPTER IV
THE FIRST WORKS OF GIOTTO
BOTH Ghiberti and Vasari tell us that Giotto's first
independent works were painted for the church of
the Badia in Florence, and the latter writer dwells at
length upon the powerful expressiveness of an Annuncia-
tion of the Virgin (evidently a fresco) in the "chapel of
the high-altar" of that church. He also mentions a
panel-picture on the high-altar itself, which was still to
be seen in its original place in Vasari's own day, it being
kept there " more on account of a certain reverence for
the work of so great a man as Giotto, than for any other
reason."
These two paintings have, however, long since dis-
appeared, and with them all traces of whatever other
works Giotto may have executed in this city of his
adoption during these earlier years of his career. It is
not to Florence, therefore, but to Rome, that we must
look for the first existing proofs of his activity as an
independent master ; and we fortunately possess some
slight yet precious documentary evidence regarding at
least two of the various works which he is said to have
carried out in this latter city during the pontificate of
Boniface VIII.
According to existing notices preserved in the archives
of the Vatican, we learn that Giotto received important
THE FIRST WORKS 33
commissions, during the last years of the thirteenth cen-
tury, from Cardinal Giacomo Gaetani de' Stefaneschi,
nephew of Pope Boniface, and a prelate of no small
influence in the clerical world of his day. The notices
in question were first made public by Baldinucci, who
came upon them in a work entitled " II Martirologio,"
which quotes in turn the older authority of the " Necro-
logium," preserved in the same collection of archives.
This " Necrologium " is an ancient record containing
obituary notices of various prelates connected with the
Vatican, who, in the course of their lives, had shown
themselves to be special benefactors of the Church.
Among them is a laudatory one concerning Cardinal
Stefaneschi, who was to all appearances a warm lover
and generous patron of the Fine Arts, and whose various
artistic donations to the Church are here set forth at
length. Together with other works which he caused to
be executed for the embellishment of the basilica of St.
Peter, two are distinctly mentioned as being by the hand
of Giotto — a wooden ciborium or altar-piece, for the high-
altar of the church, and a mosaic representing Christ
saving St. Peter from the waves. According to this same
notice, Giotto was paid 800 golden florins for the ciborium^
and no less than 2,200 for the mosaic. The " Necro-
logium " does not state the exact date of either of these
works, but the " Martirologio " says definitely that the
mosaic was commissioned and executed in the year
1298. Upon what exact authority this statement is
made, we do not know, but we may accept it as being,
in all probability, correct.
Both the works spoken of above still exist at the
present day, although in such varying states of pre-
P
34 GIOTTO
servation as to render but one of them recognizable as
the handiwork of the great Tuscan master. The mosaic
of the " Navicella " — as it has been known since the
days of Giotto — may be seen over the outer entrance to
the portico or atrium of St. Peter's, but in so absolutely
modernized a condition that nothing can be said to
remain of the original beyond a general idea of its com-
position. The altar-piece, on the contrary, has fared
less roughly, and though darkened by time and the
smoke of countless ceremonies, and damaged by ex-
cessive " cleanings," it has fortunately escaped the far
more ruinous effects of restoration and repaint. In it
we possess the earliest authentic work left to us of the
master's genius — one affording us ample means for a
perfect acquaintance with his earlier individual manner,
and allowing us a secure basis for the critical compari-
son and chronological arrangement of his later works.
Originally painted for the high-altar of San Pietro, it
remained for many years in this honourable position,
until the destruction of the older church finally neces-
sitated its removal ; and it now hangs dismembered upon
the walls of the Sagrestia dei Canonici — an almost for-
gotten relic of the past, as far as the generality of the
public is concerned.
In form, the triptych was not unlike the " Gothic "
altar-pieces of a later period, consisting of three principal
panels, painted on both sides, connected and surmounted
by the usual Gothic ornaments ; and a predella of six
smaller panels, three on either side. With the exception
of two of the latter, which have disappeared, all these
component parts of the original work have been pre-
served to the present day, and the reconstruction of the.
THE FIRST WORKS 35
ciborium, as it stood in Giotto's own time, would be an
easy matter.
On one side of the central panel is painted the en-
throned figure of Christ, surrounded by a double choir
of angels. At the base of the throne kneels the donor
Stefaneschi. On the reverse of the same panel sits St.
Peter, holding in his hand his keys of office, and attended
by two angels. In the foreground, to the left, St. George
recommends the donor, who, clad in the dress of a deacon,
holds out a model of the altar-piece itself. Opposite
kneels a saint in bishop's garb, holding in his outstretched
hands what appears to be a missal ; behind him stands
another in pontifical robes, also carrying a book — very
possibly the cardinal's namesakes, James and Gaetano.
The two side panels contain representations of the
crucifixion of St. Peter and the decapitation of St. Paul.
On their reverse are large full-length figures of SS.
Andrew and John, James the Elder and Paul.
In the apex of these panels are medallions of God the
Father and of various prophets and angels ; and along
the lateral borders of the principal scenes, small figures
of different saints.
In one of the four panels which remain of the predelle
the Virgin is seated on a throne, holding the Divine Infant
in her arms, attended by two angels, St. Peter and St.
James. Each of the two accompanying pieces contains
five full-length figures of Apostles. The fourth and last
is occupied by half-lengths of SS. Peter, Stephen, and
Bartholomew.
A single glance at this great altar-piece suffices to
show us how far Giotto had already progressed, at this
comparatively early period of his career, toward a full
36 GIOTTO
realization of his artistic ideals ; and we feel a sudden
consciousness of standing in the presence of a work that
marks a new era in the history of painting, so entirely
and absolutely is it at variance with all that the Middle
Ages had hitherto been able to offer. In it we recognize
the creation of a painter who has succeeded in entirely
emancipating himself from the pictorial traditions of his
contemporaries — one who has replaced the formal con-
ventionality of the Italo-Byzantine schools with a style
that is entirely new, having naught in common with the
painting of the time. We might indeed imagine a period
of centuries to have intervened between the two, so great
and so pronounced are the differences that separate them.
In character and expression, in colour and design, Giotto's
work differs essentially from all that has gone before it ;
and the cold and stilted forms of the Latin and Byzan-
tine painters seem to have undergone, at his hands, a
strange and unaccountable transformation into shapes
that appear at once to live and to move. What was
merely representative and symbolic in the painting of
the mediaeval schools, has suddenly given place to the
expression of a living reality — what was emblematic and
figurative in the one, has become actual and palpable in
the other. Giotto's Christ is no longer the conventional
representation of a mere idea, but the living embodiment
of a fact — his angels no mere reproductions of precon-
ceived traditions, but rational conceptions of a glorified
humanity. His Virgin is no longer the preternatural being
that she had gradually become in Latin and Byzantine
art, but the human Mother of her divinely human Son —
his saints, no longer the formal apparitions of an earlier
time, but living beings like ourselves. He has humanized
THE FIRST WORKS 37
the conventional conceptions of the older schools of
painting, and imparted to his various figures such life-
giving qualities of substance and expression as were only
to be arrived at by a direct selection and imitation of
natural and human forms. What was, to a great extent,
mere pattern or design in so much of the work of the
Latin and Byzantine artists, has become suddenly imbued
by him with a sculptor's sense of modelling and form —
and it is this sense of the plastic in his figures that con-
stitutes the predominant characteristic of Giotto's art,
as compared with that of his predecessors and contem-
poraries.
We might easily fill many pages with a lengthy dis-
sertation upon these qualities of Form> and their relation
to the painting of Giotto and of those who came before
his time, but to do so would be mainly to repeat what
has already been so well and clearly said by Mr. Berenson
in his admirable little book on the Florentine Painters of
the Renaissance. To quote Mr. Berenson's own words,
" painting is an art which aims at giving an abiding im-
pression of artistic reality with only two dimensions.
The painter must therefore do consciously what we all
do unconsciously — construct his third dimension. And
he can accomplish his task only as we accomplish ours
by giving tactile values to retinal impressions. His first
business therefore is to rouse the tactile sense. ... It
follows that the essential in the art of painting — as dis-
tinguished from the art of colouring — is somehow to
stimulate our consciousness of tactile values, so that the
picture shall have at least as much power as the object
represented, to appeal to our tactile imagination. It was
of this power to stimulate the tactile consciousness — of
38 GIOTTO
the essential, as I have ventured to call it, in the art of
painting — that Giotto was supreme master." Let us,
therefore, keep well in mind, during all future examina-
tions of Giotto's works, the paramount importance of
this great idea of Form — for we shall find it constantly
apparent in every painting that ever left his hands.
Remembering these previous remarks, we may turn to
a more careful examination of the different panels of the
altarpiece, commencing with the central subject of the
enthroned Christ. There is nothing in the general
arrangement of this work that can be said to mark any
really essential departure from similar compositions of
the Italo-Byzantine school, and Giotto seems merely to
have enlarged upon a motive that was already well
known even before his day. With this general resem-
blance in distribution, however, all similarities between
Giotto's creation and those of his predecessors cease ;
and if we turn our attention to the figures themselves,
we note the presence of an absolutely new spirit both in
their conception and execution. The grandly impressive
figure of the Redeemer borders almost on severity in its
majestic dignity of pose, but there is a calm benevolence
in the expression of the face and in the quiet gesture of
the hand upraised in benediction. The proportions of
the body are just and noble, firmly modelled and care-
fully defined beneath the drapery which falls in broad
and heavy folds about the limbs, in such open contrast
to the minute and oft-times unmeaning lines of the
Byzantine artists. Already we recognize, in this splendid
figure of Christ, the naturalistic qualities that give life
to all of Giotto's creations ; and yet, while investing it
with all those human traits and features that bring it at
THE FIRST WORKS 3$
once into such close sympathy with ourselves, the painter
has never once lost sight of the solemn dignity proper to
his divine subject. In the angels, again, we find the
same development of form and broadness of drapery, as,
in silent and expectant adoration, they stand or kneel on
either side of their Master's throne. Astonishingly true
to life is the worshipping figure of the donor : a miracle
— considering the period in which it was produced — of
the portrait-painter's art. In it we have one of the
earliest efforts at naturalistic portraiture in the history
of modern painting ; and to Giotto belongs, undoubtedly,
the honour of reviving this long-dead branch of art, and
of bringing it to a state of comparative perfection that
was scarcely to be looked for, even in a genius as ver-
satile as his. What he was capable of in this respect,
we will have ample occasion to realize in our review of
his later works.
If Giotto has given us a fine example of the life-
giving qualities of his work in the above composition, he
may be said to have excelled it in the enthroned figure
of St. Peter on the reverse of the same panel, as well as
in the four full-length saints in the two lateral wings.
Here his sense of the plastic rises to a height but seldom
surpassed, even in his later works, and, in their life-like
properties of form and expression, these figures must
remain among his finest creations. Nowhere could Mr.
Berenson's theory of " tactile values " be more correctly
applied than in connection with these realistic master-
pieces. In the firmness with which St. Peter sits upon
his throne — in the wonderfully natural motion of the up-
lifted hand — in the concentrated expression of the features
— in the keen feeling for form, so perfectly expressed be-
4-0 GIOTTO
neath the broad and simple drapery — we have a masterly
example of Giotto's powers, and one which even Masaccio,
at a later period, could not easily have surpassed.
In the two representations of the Martyrdoms of St.
Peter and of St. Paul, we have compositions less limited
in extent and with subjects more suited to the dramatic
tendencies of Giotto's genius. To both, the painter has
succeeded in imparting that same passionate life and
energy of action so characteristic of his later work in
other parts. A glance at the accompanying reproduction
of the Crucifixion of St. Peter (PI. i) will show the per-
fection to which Giotto had arrived at this early stage of
his activity, in what was destined to be, apart from form
and expression, the greatest characteristic of his art — his
sense of composition and design. In the central fore-
ground the figure of the martyred saint hangs head
downwards on the cross. In the conformations of the
nude body, there is apparent no slight knowledge of
anatomical proportion, and the sense of suspended weight
in the hanging figure is most skilfully expressed. Below,
on either side of the cross, are grouped the other par-
ticipants in the tragedy, closely resembling, in their
general arrangement, the later Giottesque crucifixions of
the Saviour. Both in regard to action and expression,
each and all of these various figures are worthy of the
most careful and attentive examination.1
1 In the composition of this work, Giotto seems undoubtedly to
have had in mind the fresco representing the same subject, in the
right transept of the upper church of St. Francis at Assisi, with
which painting he must have had a previous acquaintance. The
background, with its two curious pyramids — one of them un-
doubtedly inspired by the famous monument of Caius Cestius — is
identical in both cases ; and what has generally been considered a
Anderson photo}
[St. Peters, Rome
THE MARTYRDOM OF ST. PETER
Plate i
THE FIRST WORKS 41
Less formal in its arrangement, and even more im-
pressive in effect, is the accompanying representation of
the martyrdom of St. Paul. To the left, shrouded in a
white mantle, lies the headless body of the saint, mourned
over by three of his followers in attitudes of the deepest
grief. Behind stands a group of armoured foot-soldiers,
resting on their spears. In the foreground, the exe-
cutioner— a somewhat Byzantine figure — sheathes his
bloody sword, and to the right a second company of
soldiers on horse and foot are grouped, in a masterly
manner, around another pyramid. The dipping outline
of a hill, set off by a few scattered trees, cuts clear
against the golden sky in the background ; and on the
height to the left, the figure of a woman stands out in
strange relief, her arms uplifted to receive a garment
which the saint — whose spirit is being carried up by
angels in a similar manner to that of St. Peter in the
foregoing picture — casts down to her. An octagonal
building with a conical roof crowns the summit on
the opposite side, setting off the composition most
effectively.
Nowhere, in all the art that had gone before, do we
come upon paintings such as these, in which we can see
the thoughts and feelings of the different actors so
clearly mirrored in their movements and expression. In
them Giotto has given us a perfect example of that deep
psychological insight into human nature which is so
remarkable a feature in all his work. What, in the art
reminiscence of Giotto's study of the classical antiquities of the
Eternal City, appears almost certainly to have been directly copied
from this older work, attributed, with equal lack of critical founda-
tion, to Cimabue and to Giunta Pisano.
42 GIOTTO
of his predecessors, had so often become a rriefe excess
of violent passion and grimace, has here been replaced
by a calmer, but a deeper, spirit of individual feeling
and expression — none the less passionate, and infinitely
more true.
In the Virgin and Christ-Child of the predella (PL 2),
Giotto was afforded another opportunity for the assertion
of his own naturalistic ideas as to the treatment of this
most favourite of subjects. Although still preserving, to
some degree, the hieratic dignity common to the usual
Byzantine representations of the Madonna, Giotto has
sought to express in her what was to him an equally
sacred quality — the human dignity of motherhood ; and
it is upon this more natural side of his conception that
he has laid the greater stress. There is a tenderness of
feeling and expression in her face and figure that is
quite new to the painting of the time. In the little
Infant Saviour, the painter has gone still further in his
set fidelity to Nature ; his Christ-Child is no longer the
supernatural and symbolic creation of earlier mediaeval
art — a child in form, a mature being in expression — an
infantile embodiment of Divine Power and Justice — but
a living and human babe, engaged in no further visible
outward occupation than that of sucking its thumb. No
less natural, in sentiment and feeling, are the two stately
angels that guard the throne with their heavenly pre-
sence— their eyes bent lovingly upon their infant Master,
as they slowly swing their censers from side to side. To
right and left, in two long rows, stand the Twelve
Apostles, beginning with St. Peter and St. James — tall
and earnest figures, finely characterized and felt, each of
them stamped with an individuality entirely its own.
THE FIRST WORKS 4.3
The beautiful gold border that divides them is most
wonderfully figured, with a pattern that suggests the
strange and mystic lettering of some long-forgotten
language. The same sense of individuality which marks
these Apostles, is to be found in the half-length figures
in what was evidently the central panel of the predella,
on the reverse of the altarpiece.
Great as were the changes here brought about by
Giotto in the matter of form, composition, and expres-
sion, there remains still another most essential quality
in his work in which the revolution he effected was no
less startling or complete — the quality of colour. In this
distinctive element of his art, as well as in those other
qualities of form and of design, which we have spoken
of above, the Stefaneschi altar-piece must be considered
as the earliest of really modern paintings — a model to
the centuries that followed, and even foreshadowing the
creations of the great colourists of a later age. Only
to those well acquainted with the work of the Latin and
Byzantine artists before Giotto's day, will it be possible
fully to appreciate the real extent of the great and
lasting change that Giotto carried out — alone and un-
assisted— in this direction ; and although, in his later
works, his absorption in the problems of form and com-
position often caused him to neglect his early love of
colour and of beauty, pure and simple, he never really be-
came unconscious of the charm which these two qualities
seem so strongly to have exercised over him during the
earlier years of his career. Certainly nowhere in the
list of all his works — with the possible exception of the
earlier frescoes at Assisi — do we find a deeper love and
enjoyment of pure colour, than that which Giotto shows
44 GIOTTO
us here. In the vivacity of tints and gaiety of combina-
tions which illuminate this altar-piece, the painter seems
fairly to revel in his new-found secret ; and yet, with all
this feast of colour, there is combined a sense of tem-
perance and measure characteristic of the artist, and
there is naught that is meaningless or inharmonious
throughout the whole. Centuries have been unable to
dim the brightness of his work, and it remains until
to-day an unsurpassed delight among the panel-pictures
of the years that followed after.
Still again, in the matter of draughtsmanship and
technical execution, the work shows an immense advance
over the best Byzantine paintings of the time, and gives
us already an idea of that conscientious and painstaking
spirit which marks every genuine creation of Giotto's
brush. In it we find the exquisite delicacy of the minia-
turist coupled with the largeness and strength of one
accustomed to work of a broader kind ; there is a minute-
ness of finish to each part that clearly indicates the
amount of care and patience lavished upon it by the
painter ; and in the comparative security and command
of line, Giotto shows us that, even at this early period,
he was by no means so entirely lacking in his powers as
a draughtsman as many modern critics would lead us to
believe.
The relative perfection of workmanship evinced by
this painting, as well as its dignity of conception, cer-
tainly betoken the work of a painter who had already
arrived at a comparative maturity of style, and leave no
possible doubt that it must have been preceded, either
here at Rome or elsewhere, by other independent works
of no slight merit or importance. Nevertheless, to the
THE FIRST WORKS 45
best of our knowledge, as we have said before, no such
works have been spared us to the present day — or if
any such do happen to exist, as so many critics and
historians believe, we must confess our inability to recog-
nize in them the handiwork of the Giotto whom we
know ; and we must turn to Assisi — not to the Upper
but the Lower Church of San Francesco — for a continua-
tion of that style with which we have already become
acquainted in the Stefaneschi altar-piece. Before leaving
the scene of Giotto's labours at Rome, however, we may
devote our attention to the other of the two commissions
which we know him to have received from his patron,
Cardinal Stefaneschi ; and to a rapid consideration of
such other works as he is said to have undertaken during
his visits to the capital.
In a very different state of preservation from the altar-
piece is the mosaic of the " Navicella." From Giotto's
time to the present day, this work, so extolled by writers
and historians, has undergone such frequent and repeated
restoration as to be reduced to a mere caricature of its
former self. Fortunately, we are in the possession of
two works from which we may draw a better idea of the
original appearance of Giotto's famous mosaic than is
possible from a study of the mere wreck that now re-
mains. The first of these is a cartoon preserved in the
church of Sta. Maria dei Cappuccini — said to have been
made from the mosaic itself some twenty years after its
first recorded restoration in 1617; the second, a fresco on
the ceiling of the Spanish chapel in Sta. Maria Novella
at Florence, is evidently a free but close copy of Giotto's
original, painted either during the master's lifetime, or
soon after his death, by some one or other of his pupils,
46 GIOTTO
In both cases the composition is — allowing for differences
of space — almost identical in its main features.
Giotto has had before his mind, in the representation
of his subject, the words of the fourteenth chapter of St.
Matthew, and has seized upon the most dramatic moment
in the miraculous episode on the Sea of Galilee. In the
central background the ship of the Apostles tosses un-
evenly upon the storm-driven sea, its sails swollen before
the wind and thrown out against the lowering sky, the
rigging stretched to its utmost tautness. The Apostles
themselves crowd the boat in various attitudes of fear
and in wonder at the apparition of their Lord, Who
stands before us, to the right, a grandly impressive
figure, calm and majestic, His right hand held out to
the sinking Peter, who struggles in the waves near by.
On a rock in the foreground opposite kneels the figure
of a man, engaged in the peaceful occupation of fishing
with a rod and line, apparently unconscious of the scene
that is being enacted about him. In the clouds above,
two weird beings, evidently representing the genii of the
winds — strangely reminiscent of the classic and early
Christian art of a period long past — add to the fury of
the elements. In the mosaic itself, a diminutive half-
length figure of a worshipping cardinal — to all appear-
ance a portrait of the donor — fills the lower corner to
the extreme right.
Although it is impossible to judge of the exact extent
of the changes and alterations undergone by the mosaic
previous to the time in which the cartoon was executed
we may nevertheless arrive, through a careful study of
this drawing and of the fresco at Florence, at an approxi-
mate idea of the original appearance of what once must
THE FIRST WORKS 47
have been a masterpiece that claimed the attention of
every artistic visitor to Rome ; and it is easy to imagine
the effect which such a work must certainly have pro-
duced upon the artists of the time.1 Unfortunately, we
can go no further in our appreciation of the merits of
the original work, or in the formation of any definite
idea as to the exact development of Giotto's style at this
period of his career.
If we may accept the authority of the " Martirologio "
in placing the date of the mosaic at 1298, certain reasons
appear to us sufficiently weighty in themselves to con-
firm our opinion that the Stefaneschi altar-piece was
painted considerably before that time. The oft-repeated
statement of critics and historians alike, that the latter
work was commissioned and executed in the same year
as was the " Navicella," is due purely to a careless reading
of the notices already mentioned ; and it is hardly to be
believed that the master could have carried out all the
vast quantity of work which we know to be his in San
Francesco at Assisi — together with the other commis-
sions which he undoubtedly received in Rome, Florence,
and elsewhere — within the comparatively short period of
time between 1298 and the probable date of his journey
to Padua, in or about 1306. We know that Stefaneschi
was created Cardinal and Canon of St. Peter's, as early
as 1295, and there is no reason against our own sup-
1 Since the above was written, Mr. Berenson has drawn our
attention to an old drawing, evidently by an early Sienese master,
now in the possession of Lord Pembroke, which may perhaps be
considered as giving an even more faithful idea of Giotto's original
design than is the case with either of the above-mentioned repro-
ductions,
48 GIOTTO
position that the commission for the altarpiece may
have dated from that time, or from the year following ;
certainly such a supposition is far more in accordance
with a purely critical chronological arrangement of
Giotto's works, than is the acceptance of the traditional
date of 1 298.
It is impossible to ascertain the real extent of Giotto's
artistic activity in Rome during the closing years of the
thirteenth century, or the precise number and duration
of his visits to that city. Probabilities are certainly in
favour of his having undertaken other commissions than
those which we have already spoken of as having been
given him by Cardinal Stefaneschi, and it is hardly likely
that Pope Boniface and his court would have allowed a
man of his exceptional gifts to depart without exacting
from him a promise to return. Certain it is that internal
evidence points to more than one visit paid by the
painter to the Eternal City at this period.
Vasari, partly on the earlier authority of Ghiberti,
gives us to understand that, in addition to the two
works already mentioned, Giotto painted five scenes
from the life of Christ, in the tribune of St Peter's, and
various other works in different parts of the same church,
among them being an angel seven braccia high, which
evidently stood over the organ of the later church in
Vasari's own day. Again, the same writer specially
mentions a Crucifix painted for the church of Sta. Maria
sopra Minerva. Whether Giotto in reality executed
these works, we cannot say, as not a trace of them
remains. Tradition further has it that he painted for his
patron Stefaneschi, in San Giorgio in Velabro, of which
church that prelate was titular cardinal and deacon ; but
THE FIRST WORKS 49
the ruined frescoes in the apse of that building, although
defying criticism in their present state, can hardly be said
to have been conceived in the spirit of Giotto's known
manner.
Strange to say, neither Ghiberti nor Vasari makes any
mention of a work which, if we may judge by the one
repainted fragment that has been spared to us of the
original, was undoubtedly an important creation of the
master's hand — the only one of his Roman works, beside
the " Navicella " and the altarpiece of St. Peter's, a trace
of which has been handed down to us. We allude to
the much damaged fresco representing the Proclamation
of the Jubilee by Boniface VIII., now immured in one of
the pilasters in the nave of the Lateran Basilica. This
fragment was once part of a far more extensive work
which stood in the loggia of the old basilica of the Lateran,
one of three paintings — all probably by Giotto — ordered
by the Pope in commemoration of the Jubilee instituted
by him in the year 1300. Writers oi the sixteenth and
seventeenth centuries tell us that the two lateral frescoes
had for their subjects, the Baptism of Constantine, and
the Building of the Lateran Church. Of these two works,
no further descriptions have come down to us in any
form, but of the subject and composition of the principal
fresco we may derive a fairly correct idea from an ancient
drawing in the Ambrosian Library at Milan.1 This draw-
ing, which seems undoubtedly authentic, appears to have
been copied from the original fresco ; and, although we
cannot look for any resemblance in the matter of technical
detail and qualities ol style, the copyist seems to have
1 Discovered some years back by M. Eugene Miintz.
E
50 GIOTTO
faithfully represented the general arrangement of Giotto's
work. In the drawing we see Pope Boniface standing in
the balcony of the loggia, accompanied by two attend-
ants in precisely the same attitudes as depicted in the
remnant of fresco still preserved to us. The figure to the
Pope's left reads from a scroll, upon which are to be seen
the words : " Bonifacius ep. servus servorum Dei ad per-
petuam rei memoriain." To right and left of the balcony
are ranged the cardinals and other members of the papal
court. Below, a group of citizens on horse and foot are
gathered about the three tall columns which support the
loggia and its balcony. All in all, the composition is well
and symmetrically arranged ; and Giotto seems to have
succeeded, as usual, in endowing a subject that was in
itself of no particular dramatic interest, with that variety
and life imparted by him to all his works.
Covered, as it is, by successive coats 01 repaint, and
altered almost beyond all recognition, the damage it has
received has not been sufficient to deprive the fresco in
the Lateran of its original qualities of form and expres-
sion ; and it still bears unmistakable signs of Giotto's
style. Through this ruined fragment we can yet form
some idea of what was probably the last work painted by
Giotto in the Eternal City ; for, although we know him
to have passed through Rome on more than one occasion
during a later period of his life, no further records exist
of his activity in that capital. The Rome to which he
returned was no longer the great city of his youth — no
longer the seat of the Papacy nor the proud centre of
Italian art ; Avignon had replaced her in the first of
these positions — Florence in the second.
If we may trust the sources of information alluded to
THE FIRST WORKS 51
above, the frescoes in the Lateran loggia originally bore
the inscription : " Dominus Bonifacius Papa VIII. fecit
totum opus prasentis thalami. Anno Domini MCCC."
This would lead us to suspect the presence of Giotto in
Rome during at least a part of that most memorable
year. Vasari tells us that during his stay in the Eternal
City, he made the acquaintance of the celebrated minia-
turist, Oderigi da Gubbio, and his no less celebrated
rival, Franco Bolognese, as well as of Pietro Cavallini,
one of the most famous Roman painters of the day, who
is said to have assisted Giotto in the execution of the
" Navicella " and of other of his works, and to have been
among the first to adopt the master's manner as his
own. No doubt, in this respect, Cavallini was not alone ;
and we can easily imagine that Giotto's circle of acquaint-
ances, at this stage of his career, was a far wider one than
that spoken of by Vasari, and that there were few cele-
brities in the art world of the day with whom he did not
come more or less closely into personal contact. Among
the deeper and more lasting friendships, however, which
he may possibly have contracted or cemented in the
papal city, during this year of Jubilee, was that lifelong
one with Dante Alighieri, whom we know to have been
there present on an embassy from Florence. Whether
Giotto had made the acquaintance of the famous poet
during earlier years, we do not know, but certainly here
at Rome, ties of country and of taste, and the sympathy
of two great minds, would have brought them into a
closer intimacy than before.
Numerous must have been the commissions poured in
upon Giotto as his fame increased and spread — for that
such fame was his, the very importance of the works
52 GIOTTO
undertaken by him at Rome is in itself sufficient proof;
and it was but in the course of natural events that the
young artist should have been early called upon to
measure his powers against the older painters of his day,
in that great arena of mediaeval art, the church of San
Francesco at Assisi. And it is here, rather than at
Rome, that we shall find unfolded before our eyes the
history of the real development of his style.
CHAPTER V
ASSISI — THE LOWER CHURCH
THE limits of this little work render it impossible
for us to enter into any historical description, how-
ever interesting, of the great church of San Francesco at
Assisi — far less into a critical examination of the earlier
paintings with which it is adorned — and the reader must
rest satisfied with the few words of mention already ac-
corded these works in a previous portion of this volume.
Pages upon pages have been written concerning the
traditional share of Giotto in these same early frescoes,
but the futility of the discussion is so apparent, that we
may pass at once to an examination of such of the paint-
ings in this vast edifice as leave no doubts within our
mind as to their correct attribution to the master forming
the present subject of our studies. And, although our
chronological arrangement of these works may differ
absolutely from that generally held to be correct by the
majority of writers and of students, we may state that
any such arrangement on our part has been founded — as
is the case with our consideration of all of Giotto's work —
upon a purely critical basis, in absolute independence of
all traditional opinion ; and we shall attempt to give our
reasons for such a disposition in our review of the works
themselves.
Without further preliminary remarks, therefore, we
54 GIOTTO
may commence at once with the frescoes which cover
the walls of the right transept in the Lower Church, as
being without doubt the earliest independent works of
Giotto's brush of which the building can at present boast.
Here, on the ceilings and the lateral walls, the master
painted a series of ten scenes from the life of Christ, and
of the Virgin Mary, which, if not the most perfect, are
certainly to be classed among the most poetic and
charming of all his creations.
Giotto begins the series with the The Annunciation of
the Virgin, on the wall space above the arched entrance
to the Cappella del Sacramento. Incredible as it may
seem, this truly beautiful work has, by some unaccount-
able chance, up to the present day escaped the notice of
the majority of writers, and we have searched in vain for
even a passing mention of it on the part of any one of
the many critics who have occupied themselves with
descriptions of Giotto's paintings. Such silence, how-
ever, can only be attributed to careless oversight, as it is
difficult to believe that any serious student of Giotto's
work could possibly have failed to appreciate the beauty
and importance of this great fresco, artistically one of
the most lovely of his earlier creations. In force of
movement, as in beauty of expression, it stands pro-
claimed a masterpiece of the first rank, and it would
be hard to decide as to which of the two figures in the
composition is deserving of the greater meed of praise.
Next in order to The Annunciation comes the fresco of
The Visitation (PI. 3), high up on the vaulted ceiling to
the right. Here we enter at once into that simplicity and
conciseness of composition which later becomes so salient
a feature of the master's peculiar genius, and which we
V3
h«i
ASSIST— THE LOWER CHURCH 55
find at the highest stage of its development in the Arena
Chapel at Padua. Giotto has told the story of the meet-
ing of Mary and Elizabeth with a truth and depth of
sentiment that could with difficulty be surpassed. No-
thing could be more natural, or more deeply felt, than the
action of the elder of the two women, as she reverently
bends forward to gaze into the face of Mary, who so
quietly returns the look and the embrace. There is
an infinity of love and tenderness in the expression of
Elizabeth's face and figure — in the bend of her head and
in the movement of her body. Here we touch again
upon another most noticeable characteristic of Giotto's
art, and one which leads us in a way to compare it with
that of classic times — the significance of the body and
its movements as a means of expression. We shall
find, as we progress in our review of Giotto's works, that
all of his creations are stamped with this same sense of
the significance of movement, and that often, by the
merest motion of a hand or attitude of the body, he
succeeds in realizing far more than he could possibly
have done by relying merely upon facial expression —
indeed we find him at times neglecting this latter quality
almost entirely. Behind the Virgin come two matronly
figures, impressively statuesque in form and in the
splendid sweep of their drapery, followed by two maid-
servants bearing bundles and a basket. To the right
stands Elizabeth's house, a charmingly fanciful structure
of semi-Gothic style ; a vase of flowers adorns the terrace,
and a grape-vine spreads its leaves above the courtyard
wall. In the portico beneath, a maid awaits the coming
of the guest. Already, in this one fresco, we have gained
a true idea of Giotto's style and manner at this period of
56 GIOTTO
his career, and the paintings that follow are different but
in subjects and degree of attainment.
In the composition of The Nativity, Giotto has followed,
more closely than in any other fresco of the series, the
traditional Byzantine treatment of the subject, but,
despite the formality and almost too evident symmetry
of arrangement, he has contrived to endow it with a
charm entirely his own. In the centre of the fresco the
Virgin sits upright on a mattress, gazing upon the
swathed figure of her newborn Son. Beyond is the
manger, and above, four choirs of adoring angels sweep
through the air, their garments fading into mist — already
those bird-like beings which we learn so to love in
Giotto's later works. Below the shelf of rock on which
the Virgin's bed is laid, Giotto has, according to the
custom of the time, represented another episode of the
scene ; two women, very lifelike in action and expres-
sion, are engaged in washing and swaddling the Divine
Infant St. Joseph sits in deep thought close by, and to
the right, a flying angel appears to the two shepherds,
who receive the heavenly messenger with well depicted
surprise. In the background, a conical hill sweeps up-
ward into the night, flanked by a flowing stream shining
in the starlight, and crowned by the Star of Bethlehem.
The Adoration of the Kings is remarkable for the
harmony of arrangement between the figures them-
selves, and the background of buildings and nobly formed
mountain. St. Joseph is, strange to say, conspicuous by
his absence — an unusual circumstance. Very realistic
and finely carried out, and showing to the full Giotto's
deep study of natural movement, is the figure of the
furthermost of the two grooms.
ASSISI— THE LOWER CHURCH 57
The next fresco has for its subject The Presentation in
the Temple. Some of the heads of the bystanders are
here of unusual beauty, especially the striking profile of
the woman in the group to the left. By no means the
least important feature of this work is the beautiful
Gothic interior in which the ceremony is taking place —
one of the finest architectural settings which we possess
from Giotto's hand, and one in which the master not
only shows himself as a careful student of architecture,
but as one possessed of no slight knowledge of per-
spective as well.
In The Flight into Egypt, Giotto has attempted, by
means of the hilly background, the, for him, unusual
number of trees, and the two distant fortified castles
eyeing each other from their respective heights, to give
an idea of the wildness of the country through which the
travellers are passing. St. Joseph heads the procession,
holding the bridle of the ass, which bears lightly its
precious burden. Two servants bring up the rear ; one
of them encourages the animal, and the other, an impres-
sive figure of a woman, bears a bundle upon her head.
In the air above, two angels, the easy motion of whose
flight is most beautifully rendered, point out the way.
Most characteristic of Giotto is the drawing of the trees,
so typically and distinctly represented by a few bold
strokes and touches.
Although violence of action was never a condition
under which Giotto was entirely at home — despite his
deeply dramatic tendencies — and although he seems to
have avoided, on every possible occasion, any subject
calling for exaggerated movement, he has been surpris-
ingly successful in his representation of the next scene,
58 GIOTTO
The Massacre of the Innocents. Excellent as a composi-
tion, this fresco exhibits a sense of form by no means
slight, especially in the carefully modelled bodies of the
dead infants. Again, in the matter of action, it ranks
higher than Giotto's later representation of the same
subject at Padua. Calling for particular attention is the
finely expressive little group of horsemen to the right.
The next subject, that of Christ Disputing with the
Doctors, hardly holds its own with the others in interest,
although some of the figures are most expressive in form
and action. Noteworthy again is the perspective of the
Gothic interior.
In the following fresco, lower down on the left wall,
Giotto has evidently intended to depict the Return of
Christ with His parents from the Temple, and not the
Return from Egypt, as some writers appear to believe.
There is something almost classic in the splendid figure
of the Virgin, so majestic and graceful in pose and
drapery ; and the artist has here fully realized his ideas
of plasticity and form. Of the greatest interest, also, are
the varied buildings within the city wall, and the quaint
Gothic palace to the right.
We now come to the last scene of all — The Crucifixion
(PI. 4) — one of the most perfect of Giotto's works. In
this representation of the culminating scene of the Divine
Tragedy, the painter arrives at a depth of power and
feeling, added to a nobility of expression and perfection
of composition, which raise it at once to a foremost place
in the list of his greatest masterpieces. Not only is it
one of the most perfect representations of the Crucifixion
that Christian art had known up to the time, but it can
safely be added without fear of exaggeration, that no
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ASSISI— THE LOWER CHURCH 59
subsequent attempt on the part of any artist has ever
succeeded in surpassing it in dignity and expressiveness.
Even Giotto himself, when he painted another version of
the tragic episode years later, and at the height of his
powers, in the Arena Chapel at Padua, failed to equal
this previous effort, either in force or effect, and certainly
not in the matter of design. Judged as a composition,
this flawless work is worthy of ranking with such artistic
triumphs as The Funeral of St. Francis, in the Bardi
Chapel in Santa Croce, and other like works of the
master's ripest years. In the painting of this Crucifixion,
Giotto undoubtedly had before his mind the — for its
period — equally wonderful representation of the same
subject in the transept of the Upper Church, attributed
by tradition to Cimabue. But, while the main effect of
that work is due to the delineation of the passionate
frenzy to which the majority of the participants are
given over, Giotto has raised his conception of the scene
to a higher spiritual plane, tempering the outward
expressions of grief and emotion on the part of the
followers of Christ with a certain nobility and calm
restraint which serves but to accentuate the depths of
feeling to which the different actors in the tragedy are
evidently moved. The strange sense of quietness and
suppressed passion which pervades almost the entire
work, is broken only by the violent grief of the fluttering
angels. Giotto has introduced the figures of St. Francis
and four other brethren J of his order as contemplative
participants in the scene, but in so perfect a manner as
1 One of these is crowned with a halo similar to that borne by
St. Francis, and, together with the figure in front, appears to be a
contemporary portrait.
60 GIOTTO
in no way to detract from the dramatic representation of
the subject. The figure of the Lord Himself hangs
quietly upon the Cross, unmoved by the painful physical
contortions common to the majority of the crucifixions
of the time ; the proportions are at once just and
pleasing — the expression of the head and the entire
body denoting a peaceful calm. The standing figures of
St. John and the two women behind him, as well as that
of the Magdalen, express most strongly the grief and
pain by which they are shaken. The look of wonder
and reverence on the face of the officer in profile is no
less strongly depicted, while the kneeling figure of St.
Francis is most beautiful in its expression of ecstatic
adoration. The group with the fainting Virgin is very
natural in action ; and the contending passions of the
priests, to the extreme right, are clearly expressed in
their faces and movements. In draughtsmanship, in the
sense of plastic form, and in the beautiful arrangement
of the drapery, Giotto has here surpassed all his previous
works, and the entire fresco shows clearly the care and
attention lavished upon it by the master.
To all who are in the least acquainted with Giotto's
style, or in any measure gifted with critical sense, it
must remain a matter of no small surprise that the
authenticity of these works, deeply stamped as they are
with the most characteristic qualities of the master's
manner, should ever have been questioned. Nevertheless,
such is the case, and even at the present day we meet
with certain writers who would lead us to believe that
these truly beautiful paintings are but creations of
Giotto's school. We may pass over all such unaccount-
able criticism, however, with the silence which it deserves,
ASSIST— THE LOWER CHURCH 61
and turn our attention for a moment to a comparison of
these frescoes with the Stefaneschi altar-piece. Although
possessing much in common, it will require no very great
insight on the part of the observer to recognize the
superiority, both technical and otherwise, of these paint-
ings at Assisi. In addition to a greater freedom and
precision of design, we find here a far higher develop-
ment of that most characteristic of Giotto's qualities —
form. Upon the importance of this feeling for the
plastic in Giotto's art we have already touched at length,
and we shall become more and more convinced, as we
proceed in our review of Giotto's works, that it is to this
predominant idea of form that we must look for a correct
critical classification of the master's paintings. In the
matter of movement and expression also, there is a
noticeable advance upon the Roman work ; and, allowing
for the difference of medium, the colouring has here
gained both in softness and in harmony. In regard to
composition, enough has already been said. Summarily,
the marked improvement of technique and style which
we meet within these frescoes, leaves no possible doubt
in our mind as to their being subsequent in execution to
the altar-piece at Rome, despite the prevalent opinion to
the contrary.
Before ending our examination of these frescoes, we
must call attention to the architectural features which
they contain. Nowhere in the list of works that Giotto
has left us, do we find the master more charming in the
detail of his architectural backgrounds than is here the
case, and nowhere do we find his evident love for that art
more pronouncedly asserted. Here we already find him
giving pictorial form to those architectural dreams — often
62 GIOTTO
fantastic though they be — to which he was destined to
give a permanent and lasting expression, years later on,
in that fairy-like Tower which still bears his name.
Leaving, for the present, the remaining three frescoes
in the transept, illustrative ot certain miracles of St-
Francis, we may pass to a consideration of the great
paintings on the ceiling above the high-altar — the next
in order of succession to those which we have already
examined, and perhaps the most famous of all Giotto's
works. Of the four frescoes which cover the arched
compartments of the vaulting, three are allegorically
representative of the vows of the Franciscan Order —
Poverty, Chastity, and Obedience — the fourth depicts
the Glory of St. Francis. Much has been said and
written regarding the original conception of these worksi
and many writers are of the opinion that Giotto was
especially indebted to Dante Alighieri for the arrange-
ment of his subjects. Such an opinion, however, is
devoid of any reasonable grounds for support ; and in all
probability, in the general representation of his subject
matter, Giotto followed the suggestions of his employers,
who had in turn enlarged upon the writings of the earlier
Franciscans. However this may have been, the master
has succeeded in handing down to posterity three of the
most perfect allegorical pictures that the Christian world
has ever known — works which, in their clear conciseness
of conception and of thought, are broadly characteristic
of the painter's spirit.
Taking the frescoes in their usual order, we may begin
with that in which Giotto has represented the allegorical
marriage of St. Francis with his " Lady Poverty" (PI. 5).
The master has, principally as an aid to the symmetry
ASSISI— THE LOWER CHURCH 63
of the composition, represented the mystic ceremony as
taking place upon the summit of a bare and shelving hill.
Upon the highest and central ledge of rock, Christ Him-
self blesses the union of the Saint with his chosen Bride.
Dignified and noble is the figure of the Redeemer, and
full of calm expression. That of Poverty is tall and
emaciated, clad in a patched and ragged gown supported
about her waist by the Franciscan girdle ; over her head
she wears a tattered scarf held by a hempen fillet. She
stands amid briars and thorns, but roses and tall lilies
flower behind her and about her head. Faith, Charity,
and Hope stand in attendance at her left ; the last-
named seems to answer for the bride, and with her bears
the hexagonal nimbus distinctive of the Virtues. Charity
holds in her hand a heart, and from her head, garlanded
with roses, spring flames of living fire. St. Francis
stands in profile to the left, beardless and comparatively
young, clad in the habit of his order, and about to place
the ring upon the finger of his Lady. Below, a boy casts
stones at the ragged bride ; another smites her with a rod,
and a dog, following their example, barks savagely at the
gaunt apparition on the rock above, so unconscious of
them all in the absorbing solemnity of the moment. On
each side of the principal group stands a glorious choir
of angels, tall and splendid beings, rapt witnesses of the
mysterious celebration. Lower down, to the extreme left,
a youth is in the act of divesting himself of his outer
garment, and about to give it to an aged beggar ; an
angel holds him by the arm and points upward to the
central figures in the scene. In the opposite foreground,
three men, symbolic of earthly greed and pleasure, turn
from the gentle admonishments of another angel, who
64 GIOTTO
seeks to draw their attention to the main event that is
taking place above. One of them, grasping a bag of gold,
appears not to disregard the angel's words, but the spirit
of avarice seems to gain a painful victory over his heart ;
a second, cloaked and covered in his hood, appears to be
less moved ; and the third, with a falcon on his wrist,
openly spurns, with a scoffing gesture, the advice of his
angelic counsellor. In the space above, two angels float
upwards, one of them bearing a garment and a bag of
gold, the other a miniature palace with an inclosed
garden, both of which gifts, representative of the worldly
goods given up in charity, are received with outstretched
arms by the figure of the Almighty, leaning from the
clouds of Heaven.
No less concise and clearly rendered is the allegory of
Chastity (PI. 6), which fills the following fresco. On the
summit, again, of a bare and fissured hill, rises a tall and
stately tower, protected by a battlemented fortress from all
outward danger of attack. The white banner of Purity
flies above the building, and below it hangs the bell of con-
stant Vigilance. Through the open window of the tower
can be seen the veiled figure of Chastity herself, engaged
in prayer. Toward her two angels fly, bearing in their
hands a book and vase of palm-leaves. In the fore-
ground before the fortress, two others are baptizing a
youth in a quadrangular marble font ; two more stand
in attendance, bearing the convert's garments ; Purity
and Fortitude lean from the walls and present him with
a banner and a shield. Stately bearded warriors, winged
and armoured, carrying bucklers and the symbol of
Penitence, the scourge, guard the precincts of the castle.
To the right, three beautiful angelic figures, clad in
ASSISI— THE LOWER CHURCH 65
monk-like garments, and armed with the symbols of the
Passion, beat back a hoard of evil spirits into the depths
below. Near them, hooded Penitence drives off, with his
scourge, the monstrous figure of Earthly Love — a creature
with the body of a youth and the talons of a harpy,
blindfolded and crowned with roses, with a string of
human hearts hanging from the belt which holds his
quiver. To the left, a more peaceful scene is taking
place, where St. Francis, accompanied by two angels, is
welcoming a monk, a nun, and a lay-brother — evidently
representative of the three divisions of his order.
Next comes the allegory of Obedience (PL 7). Seated
in an open Romanesque loggia, Giotto has represented the
winged figure of Obedience, dressed in the Franciscan
garb, a yoke about his neck, about to place a second
upon the shoulders of a kneeling friar, who bends his
head devoutly to receive it. To the right sits the
double-headed figure of Prudence, crowned, and holding
in her hands a compass and a small round mirror.
Under the corresponding arch to the right is the charm-
ing figure of Humility, bareheaded, with flowing hair,
clad in a simple gown, and holding in her outstretched
hand a lighted taper. In the foreground before her, a
centaur-like monstrosity, with the body of a man, the
fore-legs of a horse, the hind-quarters of a dog, and a
serpent-like tail, starts back upon its haunches as it
struck by a ray of light from the mirror held by
Prudence, towards whom the angel near by points. This
weird being is probably symbolic of the vices contrary
to the virtues here represented. Opposite, a second
angel draws the attention of two kneeling youths to the
figure of Humility. To either side is a group of kneeling
F
66 GIOTTO
angels, vying in loveliness with those in the preceding
fresco. In the upper part of the painting, St. Francis
stands upon the roof of the loggia, a cross in his left
hand, a yoke upon his shoulders. The hands of the
Almighty appear from out of the clouds, grasping the
end of the saint's girdle, as if to draw him by it up
to Heaven. Two angels kneel beside him, bearing
open scrolls symbolic of the rules of the Franciscan
Order.
Of a less allegorical nature is the fresco in the fourth
division of the ceiling, representing as it does the Glory
of St. Francis (PI. 8). The Saint — a strangely impressive
figure in his gown of black and gold — sits in majestic
dignity upon a marble throne, covered by a baldacchino
and surmounted by a banner bearing a cross and seven
stars. All about, the scene is one of joy and jubilation.
A swaying multitude of angels surrounds the throne
on every side, some dancing, some playing, others
bearing lilies — all joining in the loud hymn of joyful
praise.
In the ornamental borders which divide the frescoes,
are medallions containing busts and figures of angels, the
symbols of the Evangelists, and various other allegorical
subjects, executed with an exceptional delicacy and care —
some of them of unusual beauty.
Although we recognize in these great frescoes a direct
continuation of the manner with which we have already
become acquainted in the adjoining transept, in technical
execution and in general development of form they mark
a decided and unmistakable advance over the majority
of these earlier works. The occasional unevenness,
noticeable in the preceding frescoes, has here entirely
ASSIST— THE LOWER CHURCH 67
disappeared, and in its stead we find a uniformity of
style which hitherto we have not met with to any like
extent ; there is no longer the least sense of hesitation or
of weakness, but all is carried out with a decision and
security, and a sure control of means, that clearly show
Giotto in the full command of all his powers. In com-
position and in form, in movement and expression, his
later works are but superior in degree to these deservedly
famous master-pieces.
In lightness and beauty of colour, these allegories show
no falling off from the frescoes in the transept, and Giotto
undoubtedly took well into consideration, in painting all
these works, the dark interior of the building which they
were to adorn. Never during the remaining years of his
career did he equal the bright loveliness of colour in these
two series of frescoes — or, if he may have done so, the
restorer's brush has long since destroyed its former
beauty. Here, however, we may gaze upon the master's
handiwork in all its virgin purity, for no later brush has
to any visible extent left its mark upon the original
surface. Look well — for once outside this Lower Church,
we shall search in vain for any unspoiled fresco of Giotto's
hand — not even in the treasure-house at Padua have his
creations escaped the doom of " restoration."
Giotto appears to have continued and completed the
decoration of the north transept soon after the execution
of the allegories, and the three frescoes which cover the
lower courses of the northern and western walls certainly
date from this period of his activity. Opinion is divided
regarding the exact subjects which these paintings are
intended to represent. According to some writers, the first
of them (PI. 9) depicts the resuscitation of a child by a
68 GIOTTO
Franciscan friar — a certain Raho — at Rome ; according
to others, it represents the resurrection of a child of the
Spini family, killed by a fall from a window in Florence.
In answer to the prayers of his family, St. Francis himself
is said to have appeared upon the scene and restored the
boy to life. The second and third frescoes (Pis. 10, n)
probably refer to another somewhat similar miracle per-
formed by St. Francis in the town of Suessa, where a
young man, killed by the falling of a house, was once
more brought to life through the intercession of the
Saint.
In these three frescoes Giotto has transported us, at a
single step, from the world of allegory and of Biblical
History, to the contemporary life of his own day ; and
has given us a set of pictures in which the realistic ten-
dencies of his genius have had full play. A comparison
of these works with those near by will show the differ-
ence of spirit in which they were conceived and carried
out, and, although the word naturalistic may be truly and
rightly applied to all Giotto ever did, the distinctions
between them are not slight. Few faces or figures here
exist that are not, to all appearances, contemporary
portraits or studies taken more or less directly from life,
strongly drawn and individualized ; whereas, in the pre-
ceding frescoes, the heads are, almost without exception,
purely ideal types. The same difference holds good in
regard to costume, and in both cases we have an admir-
able example of Giotto's keen sense of fitness and
propriety.
We have already noticed these same realistic tendencies
toward contemporary representation and portraiture in
the fragmentary fresco of Pope Boniface, in the Lateran
ASSISI— THE LOWER CHURCH 69
at Rome,1 and it may well be said together with these
present works from which it cannot be far removed in
date, to form the beginning of what we may term Giotto's
more distinctly realistic manner — the beginning of a style
which must have arrived at the height of its expression
in the frescoes illustrating the life of St. Francis in the
Upper Church here at Assisi, and in the Bardi Chapel at
Florence ; and it is to the consideration of the first-named
of these works that we must shortly turn.
In their comparative sobriety of colour, these paintings
in the transept show a perceptible change from the gaiety
and brightness of the Allegories and the earlier frescoes,
although they have not lost in harmony and shading, or
in the clearness of their tone. In outline they show an
advance both in decision and security of touch, and in
drapery and the rendering of form there is a noticeable
progress towards simplicity of effect and increased
economy of means. With these fine works Giotto may
be said to have closed a lengthy period of activity in the
Lower Church, and they may well be considered the con-
necting link between what may aptly be termed — speak-
1 Whether the three frescoes spoken of above were executed be-
fore or after those in the Lateran, we have no means of ascertaining,
and, in the absence of all certain information regarding Giotto's
movements during this or any other period of his life, we shall
not attempt to label his works either here or elsewhere with any
fixed or decisive dates. Enough has already been said concerning
our ignorance as to the real number of his visits to Rome, and the
same may hold good in regard to the exact duration of his labours
at Assisi. We have depended throughout this little work merely on
critical evidence for a general classification of Giotto's paintings,
and where any dates are given they must be accepted by the reader
as merely approximate indications, unless special reasons be given
for their maintenance.
70 GIOTTO
ing independently of the minor differences of realistic
treatment already dwelt upon above — his first and second
manner. What this second manner was we will attempt
to show in the following pages.
Before passing to an examination of the frescoes in the
Upper Church, we must pause to mention two smaller
works painted by Giotto in this same transept — the medal-
lion of Christ, in the vaulting of the window opening
out upon the cloisters ; and the fresco of St. Francis
standing with his hand upon the shoulder of a crowned
skeleton, on the same wall above the staircase, symbolic
of the passing glory of this world — both of which works
appear to date from the same period as the Allegories.
CHAPTER VI
ASSISI — THE UPPER CHURCH
NOT only has it been the general opinion ol writers
and of critics since Vasari's day that Giotto worked
as an assistant of Cimabue in the Upper Church at Assisi,
but all have unanimously agreed in considering the long
series of paintings representing the Life and Miracles of
the great Saint from whom the building takes its name,
as being, either entirely or in part, the earliest independ-
ent creations of the master's brush. Where, and at what
exact period, this opinion first had its rise, it is difficult
to discover ; but it has certainly grown to be regarded by
modern students in the fixed light of an ancient and
long-accepted tradition, and it is only during very recent
years that a single critic has dared to question the correct-
ness of what is still considered a proven and unquestion-
able theory.1
Those few writers who have attempted to put forward
any reasons of a critical nature in support of their views
regarding the supposed early date of these paintings, have
invariably sought to base their assertions upon certain
resemblances between these works, as they now stand,
1 We refer to Mr. Berenson, who, to the extent of our knowledge,
is the first and only writer to have cast doubts on the chronological
position assigned to these frescoes in the usual lists of Giotto's
works.
72 GIOTTO
and the older frescoes on the ceilings and the upper walls
of the same church. As far as these comparisons appear
to have extended, the conclusions arrived at by these
writers have been to some degree both rational and ex-
cusable. Some such points of resemblance as they have
happened to remark, do, to a certain limited extent, un-
doubtedly appear to exist — but it is in the comparative
superficiality of their examination of the works in question
that they have been at fault. In limiting themselves to
a comparison of certain details, such as an occasional
peculiar similarity of facial types and expression, a like
hardness of colour and of outline, and a certain vague but
noticeable outward affinity of technical execution, they
have almost entirely overlooked or under-estimated the
importance of such infinitely weightier criteria, necessary
to a truly critical comparison of style,as form, composition
and inner contents. Had they been less hastily content
with the conclusions arrived at through a comparison of
such purely outward technical analogies as they imagined
themselves to see, these writers might possibly have been
led to a deeper consideration of the more essentially
characteristic features of the different paintings. Such
a consideration would probably have led in turn to a closer
examination of the possible causes of certain apparent
similarities which, in the light of calm and reflective
criticism, could not fail to appear as other than sus-
picious at the least. No one of these otherwise pains-
taking and conscientious critics, however, appears ever
for a single moment to have entertained the slightest
doubts as to the genuineness of these paintings in their
present state. To be sure, certain only too conspicuous
blotches of quite recent repaint — far too evident to deceive
ASSISI— THE UPPER CHURCH 73
the most casual observers — did not escape the notice of
some of these, but the possibility of an older and more
general restoration seems never to have occurred to them
— or if so, to have been immediately dismissed.
It is not our intention here to enter into anything re-
sembling a dissertation on Repaint ; nor is this in any
way a subject fitted for verbal discussion, all knowledge
in this technical branch of connoisseurship being of
necessity acquired only by patient observation and prac-
tical experience ; and it would be little short of ludicrous
for us to attempt to prove, in the pages of this book, what
is only too often a matter of mere personal conviction,
even on the part of the most practised of experts. When,
therefore, we take it upon ourselves to state that we co-
incide throughout with the one critic whom we have
already mentioned as being at variance with all others in
his views regarding the frescoes at present under con-
sideration, and give it as our personal conviction that the
greater number of these paintings have not only been re-
stored, but made entirely over, we do not look for the
support of the majority of those who have taken the
usual stand in regard to the question, and who deny the
existence of anything beyond a slight retouching of
certain parts.
To us it appears a matter of certainty that these works
were entirely repainted at a comparatively early period,
and that since that time they have suffered frequent lesser
restorations — so that hardly an inch of the original surface
now remains exposed.1 As is usually the case, the figures
1 To all appearances, the restorer who undertook the principal
repainting of these frescoes must have had constantly in mind the
older works above, with which he undoubtedly had a previous close
74 GIOTTO
themselves have suffered most, the original features and
expression of the heads having been entirely lost in the
caricatures by which they have been replaced. The hands
and feet also, have, in almost every case, been either
changed or renewed. In the general conformation and
movement of the bodies, however, and to a certain extent
in the drapery as well, the restorer has by some strange
chance, either purposely or unconsciously, retained no
small amount of the original spirit of the work, enough
in fact — as we shall find in the somewhat similar case of
the master's later works at Florence — to leave no possible
doubt in the mind of any one really acquainted with
Giotto's style, as to the question of their authorship.
Aside from their excellence as compositions, and their
similarity in this respect to the later frescoes in the Bardi
Chapel, none but Giotto could have been responsible for
the powerful sense of form, the passionate energy of
movement, and the simple directness of expression which
these works still display, even under their present disguise
of restoration and repaint.
acquaintance — so much so that he seems to have attempted to imi-
tate as closely as possible their colour and their style in his restor-
ation of these later paintings. In doing so he appears early to have
discovered the impossibility of successfully combining the greatly
differing manners of Giotto and his predecessors in a partial restor-
ation, and to have decided upon entirely repainting the greater part
of the series. This, to us, is the most probable and credible solution
of the question, and may very possibly account for the visible
differences between ihefirst fresco and those immediately following.
The former, though heavily repainted, still preserves to a certain
extent Giotto's outward style and his manner of colouring, while the
second is quite different both in colour and expression, and has
every appearance of having been entirely re-done, at least as far as
the figures are concerned.
ASSIST— THE UPPER CHURCH 75
Of the twenty-eight frescoes which occupy, continu-
ously, the entire lower course of the walls inclosing the
nave, the first nineteen, together with the medallion of the
Madonna and Child above the entrance door, are — or
rather were — without doubt works of Giotto's hand ; the
remaining scenes no longer show the characteristics of
the master, and point to the work of one of his many
pupils, of whom we shall have more to say in another
place.
The commission to paint the principal events in the
history of the great Saint of Assisi, the memory of whose
life and deeds was still fresh throughout the greater part
of Italy, and especially so in Umbria, was undoubtedly
an honour appreciated to the utmost by Giotto, and one
calculated to stimulate him to the exercise of his greatest
powers. In taking up the subject of St. Francis he was
enabled to treat a series of episodes closely connected
with the life of his own day, and eminently adapted to
the employment of that realistic simplicity of treatment
so markedly characteristic of his genius. Here, too, he
was called upon to create his own compositions as well
as his own types. The story of St. Francis had not been
sufficiently long the property of painters to have acquired
the same conventional and set formulae of representation
as was the case with the older Biblical subjects, and in
this respect no small demand was made upon his inventive
genius. How he fulfilled the task which was set before
him is made evident in the frescoes themselves, and the
compositions here for the first time designed by him
were handed down through succeeding centuries and
schools, as models incapable of improvement.
In the treatment of his various subjects, Giotto un-
76 GIOTTO
doubtedly followed, more or less faithfully, the descrip-
tions given us by St. Bonaventura in his " Life of St.
Francis," written some thirty years after the Saint's
death, and based upon the earlier writings of the " Three
Companions " and Tommaso da Celano. Strongly as we
are tempted to quote at length from the interesting pages
of these mediaeval records, the short space at our command
renders this impossible, and we must content ourselves
with a few words descriptive of each fresco in the order
of its sequence. For those, however, who would more
fully appreciate the beauty of St. Francis' story, we
recommend the reading of one or other of the various
works more especially devoted to his life and deeds.1
The series commences at the end of the North wall,
nearest the High-Altar, and the first few frescoes refer to
certain significant happenings during the more youthful
period of the Saint's life, previous to his final conversion.
I. "St. Francis honoured by a Citizen of Assisi." (PI. 12.)
The simplicity and directness of arrangement and 01
action, in this first fresco, give us the keynote to Giotto's
style throughout the series, and already show us a
marked advance in conciseness and significance of repre-
sentation over his work in the Lower Church. Less
changed in its essential character than the majority ol
the paintings that follow, it still preserves a certain sense
of its original appearance, despite the restoration of the
1 For a more lengthy description of these frescoes and of the
entire Church of S. Francesco, we may refer the reader to the
charming volume on Assisi, by Miss Duff Gordon (" Mediaeval
Towns"), which has appeared since the greater part of this present
work was written.
Alinari photo\ [Assist, Upper Church
ST. FRANCIS HONOURED BY A CITIZEN OF ASSISI
Plate 12
ASSISI— THE UPPER CHURCH 77
heads and of the draperies. The expressive movement
of the figures is Giottesque to a degree — natural and true,
and sufficient to make up for the changed expression of
the faces. In the background we recognize a free copy
of the Temple of Minerva — still to be seen at the present
day in the Piazza of Assisi — in the decoration of which,
Giotto has given us an excellent example of that study
of the antique so noticeable in all his later works.
II. " St. Francis gives his Mantle to a Poor Man."
The stiff figure and wooden lineaments of the soldier
show the effect of the restorer's work most clearly — the
movement of the Saint and the realistic action of his
horse have been better preserved. Full of interest, and
of no slight charm, is the hilly landscape in the back-
ground, with the walled town crowning the summit to
the left.
III. "The Vision of St. Francis."
Giotto has indulged his fancy to an unusual extent in
his conception of the visionary palace. The figure of
Christ is very truthful and natural in movement, but all
idea of the original features and drapery has been lost.
Again, the genius of the restorer is made most prominent
in the sharp folds of the coverlet of the Saint's bed — so
unlike any of Giotto's drapery.
IV. " St. Francis before the Crucifix at San Damiano."
This fresco is one of the most damaged and faded of
the series, even the repaint having scaled away in parts.
Very natural, and full of deep devotion, is the figure of
the Saint, as he kneels in the quiet of the ruined building
before the Crucifix above the altar.
78 GIOTTO
V. " St. Francis renounces his Father and the World."
(PL I3-)
Not even the brutal repainting which this fresco has
undergone can hide the dramatic energy of expression
that has made it, not without reason, one of the most
highly praised and best known ot all these paintings. It
would be difficult to find among all Giotto's works a
more striking example of realistic action than that shown
us in the figure of the infuriated father. As usual, Giotto
has chosen the most dramatic moment possible for the
representation of his subject, and even in its present
deplorable state we feel unconsciously drawn to share in
the tense and excited interest of the spectators in the
scene.
VI. "The Dream of Pope Innocent III."
The attitude of the young Saint, as he supports the
falling church, is most natural and easy, and it is evident
that the restorer has here more carefully followed the
original. The figures of the two attendant watchers, one
of them overcome by sleep, are also very true to life,
although quite repainted ; that of the Pope himself is not
exempt from the stiffness common to almost all of Giotto's
representations of reclining figures.
VII. " Pope Innocent sanctions the Rules of the Order."
This composition strikes us not only by the fine arrange-
ment of the figures, but by the deep truthfulness of ex-
pression which pervades the whole. The sense of earnest
reverence and expectation, on the part of the kneeling
Saint and of his brethren, contrasts most effectively with
the wondering interest of the assembled prelates. Again,
Atinari photo} \_Assisi, Upper Church.
THE RENUNCIATION OF ST. FRANCIS
Plate 13
ASSIST— THE UPPER CHURCH 79
the heads have been rendered hard and hideous by the
work of the restorer.
VIII. " The Apparition of the Fiery Chariot."
Giotto has perhaps done both wisely and well in here
acknowledging the technical limitations of his art, and in
representing this rather difficult subject in a perfectly
literal manner. The figures of the horses betray the
master's study of classical models, and are at striking
variance with his more realistic conceptions of animals
in other of these frescoes.
IX. "The Vision of the Thrones."
In its present repainted state the angel in this scene
is quite unlike Giotto's usual representation of such
celestial beings. Very beautiful and quiet in expression
is the figure of the Saint, as, lost in prayer, he kneels
upon the step before the altar.
X. " The Expulsion of the Devils from Arezzo."
Full, again, of the deepest devotion is the kneeling
figure of St. Francis, and very powerful and noble that
of his companion Fra Silvestro, as, with a gesture of
command, he rids the city of the spirits of evil which
infest it. To the left is an interesting Gothic church,
and in the wall above the apse are three painted bas-
reliefs, the finely modelled figures of which are clearly
copied from the nude genii of classic times.1
1 It seems difficult to believe that these ornaments, so unsuitable
to the building which they decorate, and so akin in spirit to the
work of the later Renaissance, were not mere additions of the re-
storer's fancy ; but a comparison of them with similar creations of
Giotto's hand leaves little doubt of their having been introduced
into the original fresco by the master himself,
8o GIOTTO
XL " St. Francis before the Sultan."
Ruined and changed as it is, we can still appreciate
the original power of this painting. The noble and
impressive figure of the Sultan, together with those of
St. Francis and his companion, still retain no small
amount of their former expressiveness of gesture.
XII. " The Glory of St. Francis."
This fresco has also suffered most severely. As was
the case with No. VIII., Giotto did not attempt anything
beyond a purely literal representation of his subject.
The figure of Christ in the heavens is still most beautiful
in movement and expression.
XIII. "The Christmas night at Greccio."
In the repainting of the faces the restorer has here
outdone himself in his love of caricature, and has un-
consciously tried his best to ruin what must once have
been one of the most charming frescoes of the series.
Fortunately, the movement of the various figures is still
quite sufficient in itself to express what was in Giotto's
mind, and we cannot remain unaffected by this work,
even in its present state.
XIV. " The Miracle of the Spring." (PI. 14.)
Vasari dwells enthusiastically upon the realistic quali-
ties of the drinking figure in this scene, and we can quite
understand his admiration of the original. But to us it
is the feeling and conception of the entire work that
strike us as most beautiful. Even the restorer himself
seems to have felt a special reverence for this and the
'
Una ri photo\
Plate 14
[Assist, Upper Church
THE MIRACLE OF THE SPRING
ASSISI— THE UPPER CHURCH 81
following fresco, and both still retain much of their
former beauty of expression. Very fine, and full of the
deepest feeling, is the praying figure of the Saint, and
very true to life those of his companions with the ass.
In the background Giotto has, with no small success,
sought to express the wildness of the country through
which the travellers pass.
XV. " The Sermon to the Birds."
This must once have been in many ways among the
loveliest and most poetical of all Giotto's frescoes, and
even at the present day its charm is by no means lost.
It is difficult to conceive of this beautiful subject — so
deeply characteristic of St. Francis' all-embracing love —
ever receiving a more natural or sympathetic treatment ;
and Giotto seems here to have entered on his work with
a full appreciation of its deep significance. We might
look far before finding a more simple, and at the same
time a more truthful and touching, example of the ex-
pressiveness of movement, than that so apparent in the
action of the Saint, as, with hands outstretched, he
preaches his loving message to his little " sister birds."
Giotto seems here to have lavished special pains upon
the painting of his trees ; and in the varied forms and
movements of the different birds themselves, we recog-
nize to the full his careful observation of Nature's models.
On the wall above the door, between these last two
frescoes, is a painting of the Virgin and Child — now
entirely ruined by successive restorations — in all prob-
ability one of the first examples of those more naturalistic
representations of the Madonna and her Son, which
Giotto was destined to create as models for the imitation
G
82 GIOTTO
of later schools and ages. Nothing of the original, how-
ever, now remains visible through the thick repaint.
XVI. " The Death of the Knight of Celano." (PI. 1 5 .)
The subject of this fresco seems to have been emin-
ently suited to the dramatic tendencies of Giotto's genius,
and, even in its present condition, the movements of the
various figures are admirably suggestive of the surprise
and grief occasioned by the sudden death of the host.
With a total absence of all exaggeration, Giotto has fully
succeeded in giving us a perfectly natural and deeply
impressive representation of the tragic scene, remarkable
alike for its sincerity of feeling and its simple truthful-
ness.
XVII. "St. Francis before Honorius III."
Giotto has most effectively depicted the rapt atten-
tion of the Pope and of his followers, as they listen
with varied feelings of deep interest and surprise to the
eloquent words of the humble speaker. Worthy of re-
mark is the arched Gothic interior, recalling as it does
similar efforts in the frescoes of the Lower Church.
XVIII. "The Apparition at Aries."
Here again the painter has well expressed the different
feelings of an audience in the hooded figures of the friars.
With the exception of the one brother seated to the
left, all are unconscious of the tall figure of the Saint in
the central doorway. Most interesting is the simple
Gothic architecture of the building, with its delicate
decorations of mosaic.
Aliiiari fihoto\ [Assist, Upper Church
THE DEATH OF THE KNIGHT OF CELANO
Plate 15
ASSISI— THE UPPER CHURCH 83
XIX. " The Stigmata."
It would be superfluous to dwell upon the direct sim-
plicity with which Giotto has treated this crowning
wonder of St. Francis' life. Though artists without
number have attempted since his day to paint the mar-
vellous vision in many different ways, none can be said
to have improved upon the simple force and effectiveness
of Giotto's characteristic representation of the scene.
With this fresco of the Stigmatization ends Giotto's
personal share in the great series, and the paintings which
follow, representing the death and funeral of the Saint,
together with some of his posthumous miracles, point un-
mistakably to the work of another hand, so marked is the
difference in style between them and the frescoes which
we have already examined. To us they appear most
certainly to be the creations of a pupil of the master — one
who, although unknown by name, was by no means the
least gifted among Giotto's followers, and who has left us
further examples of his talents in other parts. The affin-
ities which exist between these paintings and those re-
lating to the life and miracles of St. Nicholas of Bari on
the walls of the Cappella del SS. Sacramento, in the Lower
Church, leave little doubt in our mind as to their being
by the same artist, and Mr. Berenson has further traced
his peculiar manner to a well-known picture now in the
Uffizi Gallery at Florence, representative of certain scenes
from the life of St. Cecilia, generally attributed to
Cimabue. Although one of the most faithful imitators
of Giotto's style, his work still presents such visible differ-
ences as to render any confusion of the two impossible.
84 GIOTTO
His figures lack Giotto's solidity of form and justness of
proportions ; his heads and extremities are smaller and
more attenuated, and there is a general tendency to
slimness and to height, especially in the high-waisted
figures of his women. In his composition, also, we miss
the concise simplicity of his master.
In this hasty and unsatisfactory review of Giotto's
paintings in the Upper Church, the reader will undoubt-
edly have missed the usual long descriptions accorded
them by other writers. In their present ruined state,
however, it would be as vain for us to dwell more at length
upon their many merits — still so evident in themselves —
as it would be unjust to judge them by what are seem-
ingly their defects, so great have been the changes they
have undergone at the restorer's hand. Concerning this
question of restoration we have already said enough, and
it is to be hoped that the student may by this time, in his
study of Giotto's works, have acquired sufficient know-
ledge of the master's style to appreciate for himself the
many beauties of form, composition, and expression with
which these frescoes are so richly filled, and to discern be-
tween what is Giotto's own and what has followed after.
What exact reasons Giotto may have had for the sud-
den discontinuation of his work in the Upper Church, we
have no means of knowing ; nor do we possess any cer-
tain information regarding his movements at this par-
ticular period of his life. Nothing would be more natural
than that he should have frequently returned to Florence
during the years in which he was engaged upon his work
at Assisi, especially as we know him to have looked upon
that city as his home throughout his life. With the fame
that was already his, invitations would certainly never
ASSIST— THE UPPER CHURCH 85
have been lacking, both here and from other parts, for the
demonstration of his skill, and it is by no means likely
that all such opportunities should have been laid aside.
However this may have been, we know of no visible
records — with the exception of one or two panel-pictures,
concerning which we will have more to say later — of
any work carried out, either here at Florence or elsewhere,
during this " Assisan Period."
The great majority of writers, even to the present day,
have insisted in accrediting to Giotto, as a work of this
particular period, the frescoes which adorn the Chapel of
the Palazzo del Podesta — better known as the Bargello
— at Florence. One or two of our more modern critics
have, however, strongly combated the correctness of this
attribution, and we certainly share the opinion of this small
minority in according, not to Giotto himself, but to a pupil
of the master, the execution of these works.1 In their
present ruined and repainted condition, a just critical
judgment of these frescoes is rendered quite impossible.
Nevertheless, from the little of the original work that
still remains visible, it is clearly apparent that they once
possessed merits, which, although not such as to warrant
their traditional attribution to Giotto's own hand, certainly
attest the work of one of the most gifted of his followers
— one not only most signally successful in copying his
master's style, but who seems also to have made free use
1 Sig. Gaetano Milanesi, the celebrated archivist and editor of
Vasari, was the first to oppose Messrs. Crowe and Cavalcaselle's
acceptance of these frescoes as works of Giotto's hand, and his
argument — based not upon critical, but purely documental and his-
torical foundations — is certainly in many ways a sufficiently convinc-
ing one against the possibility of Giotto's personal connection with
these paintings.
86 GIOTTO
of his designs. Space forbids us from entering here into
a closer examination of these very interesting works, and
we must leave the reader to study them in detail for
himself.
Whatever may have been the truth in regard to Giotto's
doings during the years immediately preceding his ac-
ceptance of the commission to decorate the Arena Chapel
at Padua, it is certain that his labours at Assisi did not
end with the frescoes of the Life of St. Francis ; for we
come upon unmistakable proofs of his handiwork in the
Cappella di Sta. Maria Maddalena, in the Lower Church,
the walls of which chapel are entirely covered with scenes
from the life of the saint to which it is dedicated, and
with figures and medallions of various other holy person-
ages. By one of those strange chances through which
some of the greatest masterpieces are at times passed
over with comparative neglect, these frescoes have always
been spoken of by the generality of writers with a truly
remarkable insensibility to their great and obvious merits.
Indeed, they have come to be looked upon as works of
quite inferior importance — hardly deserving of any serious
consideration — and we know of but two living critics who
have of late years accorded them anything approaching
the recognition which they deserve, and who have stopped
to question their attribution to that most ill-defined of all
Giotto's followers, Buffalmacco, to whom they are by
general consent given.
To us Giotto's personal share in these important paint-
ings seems beyond all question certain, despite the strange
lack of uniformity Jin their style and execution, which
plainly points to the co-operation, upon no small scale, of
several of the master's pupils in the completion of these
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ASSIST— THE UPPER CHURCH 87
works, and which gives them an appearance of having
been executed at different periods of time. This diversity
of manner is so pronounced as to render it well-nigh im-
possible to clearly separate the work of Giotto himself
from that of his followers and assistants. Nevertheless,
the master's hand is unmistakably apparent to a greater
or less degree in almost every one of the principal
frescoes in this chapel, and it is somewhat difficult to
understand how any one at all intimately acquainted
with Giotto's work at Padua, to which they bear so close
a resemblance, should fail to recognize the power and
strength which lie in these much neglected paintings.
A glance at the first subject of the series — the Anoint-
ing of Christ's Feet — is sufficient to dispel all doubts as
to its authorship. None but Giotto could have been capable
of such a simple, and at the same time, such a deeply felt
treatment of the scene. But if in this first fresco we
already clearly recognize the principal characteristics of
the master's Paduan style and manner, the same can be
said with even greater reason of the Raising of Lazarus
(PL 1 6), on the wall above it — perhaps the most powerfully
effective work of Giotto's genius up to this particular
point in his career. Inferior only in matter of arrange-
ment to the master's later treatment of the same subject
in the Paduan Arena, in its deep solemnity of expression,
the grand dignity of its figures, and the sense of mystery
and awe which overshadows the whole scene, it stands
second to but few of the master's later works.
In the " Noli me Tangere," on the opposite wall, Giotto's
hand is still unmistakably apparent in the exquisitely
beautiful and expressive figure of the kneeling Magdalen.
That of Christ is, however, inferior to the average of the
88 GIOTTO
master's creations. Nevertheless, despite the evident
assistance of his pupils in the execution of this work, its
great beauty of sentiment and its excellence as a com-
position point clearly to Giotto's own large share in it.
Almost entirely the work of his pupils, on the contrary —
at least in regard to execution — is the fresco on the wall
above, representing the Voyage of the Magdalen from
Palestine to Marseilles and the Miracle of the Prince of
Marseilles.
The two lunette paintings which complete the series,
although differing noticeably in certain details of drapery
and type from the foregoing works — owing probably to
the co-operation of assistants, or even to later touches of
repaint — again most certainly betoken Giotto's handi-
work. Most impressive, and full of a strange attraction,
is the first of these, in which the hermit priest is bringing
a garment to the Penitent in the desert. In the Last
Communion of the Saint (PI. 17), on the west wall, the
splendid drapery, the fine feeling for form, and the noble
dignity of the figures, mark it as one of the most beautiful
paintings of the series.
We again recognize the grandeur and dignity of Giotto's
style in the two smaller frescoes, representing, in all prob-
ability, the donor of the chapel at the feet of the Magdalen
and St. Maximin (?). In the four medallions of the
ceiling, are life-sized busts of Christ, Mary Magdalen,
Martha, and Lazarus ; and the wall spaces on either side
of the stained glass window, and in the entrance arches,
are completely filled with heads and figures of various
saints — works of uneven merit, in many cases betokening
their execution by pupils and assistants, but one and all
worthy of attention,
CHAPTER VII
THE ARENA CHAPEL
THE present chapel of Sta. Maria dell' Arena, at
Padua, was erected, if we may believe an inscrip-
tion handed down to us by Scardeone and others, about
the year 1303, by Enrico Scrovegno, or de' Scrovegni,
son of a Paduan citizen of great wealth, Reginaldo by
name, whose reputation for avarice and usury was so
great as to secure for him the unenviable immortality
of being consigned by Dante, on account of those charac-
teristics, to the Seventh Circle of his " Inferno."
Enrico, who seems to have inherited to a less extent
the miserly qualities of his parent, and to have deter-
mined to make use of the great wealth left to him in a
manner that might to some degree make amends for the
unhappy reputation attached to his father's name, may
have deservedly merited the title of nobility which was
conferred upon him by the Venetian Republic in the
year 1301. Whatever may have been the nature of his
character or of his good deeds, the action through which
he has been accorded a fame as lasting as that of his
unhappy father, was his reconstruction of the famous
chapel to the Virgin which still bears his name.
In the embellishment of the new edifice he was evi-
dently determined to spare neither trouble nor expense
in procuring the most capable workmen that Italy could
90 GIOTTO
afford ; and, either at the suggestion of some friend, or
on account of the fame which had undoubtedly by this
time accompanied Giotto's name into the most distant
parts of the peninsula, as one of the greatest of living
painters, that artist was chosen as the most competent
person to be intrusted with the onerous task of decorat-
ing the walls of the chapel.
The inducements to accept the invitation seem to have
been sufficient to have persuaded Giotto to undertake the
great commission, and in all probability he had commenced
work in the building when Dante visited Padua in the
year 1306, at which time, according to Benvenuto da
Imola, the poet was received by Giotto in his own house.
The strong impression of external bareness and severity
which makes itself felt upon our first view of the building
from without, is more than compensated for as the visitor
enters the chapel door. Lighted by the apse, the six
long Gothic windows of the right side-wall, and the large
triple one above the entrance, the interior of the edifice
presents a scheme of decoration such as is seldom, if ever,
to be met with, even in the churches of Italy. Not a
square foot of wall space has been left uncovered, and
yet, with all its completeness, the decoration never once
overweighs or hides the architectural proportions of the
building, so that the effect is that of one harmonious
whole — the realized ideal of a perfectly decorated in-
terior.
The entire lateral walls, together with the space on
either side of the great arch opening into the tribune,
are occupied by parallel courses of frescoes representing
scenes from the lives of the Virgin and of Christ. Below,
forming a species of frieze, is a series of allegorical repre-
THE ARENA CHAPEL 91
sentations of the Virtues and Vices. The entire entrance
wall, or such of it as is not occupied by the window, is
taken up, as usual, with the subject of the Last Judgment
and the lunette opposite, above the arched entrance to
the tribune, with that of Christ in Glory, surrounded by
Angels. The ceiling, coloured in blue and studded with
golden stars, is adorned with medallions of Christ, the
Virgin, and various saints and prophets. Delicate orna-
mental designs separate the various frescoes. The tribune,
containing the high-altar and the monumental tomb of
Enrico Scrovegno — the work of Giovanni Pisano — is also
completely covered with frescoes and decorations by fol-
lowers of Giotto, belonging, however, to a later date than
the works in the main body of the chapel.
The first sensation of the spectator, in the presence of
this monumental work, is one of wonder and surprise at
the perfect manner in which the original decorative
scheme has been carried out. Nor is his admiration un-
justified, for it would be difficult to cite or even to
imagine any example of a decorated interior more per-
fectly in keeping with the architectural character of the
building than is the case here. Indeed, this exceptional
unity of feeling between the architectural features of the
edifice and its mural adornment, is by no means one of
the least of Giotto's many artistic triumphs, and has
been the primary reason for the belief that he acted here
in the capacity of architect as well as in that of decorator,
a tradition lacking the support of probability.
The great painter must fully have appreciated the
magnitude of the commission here offered him, but he
no doubt gladly seized upon so favourable an occasion
for a challenge to such of his contemporaries as still held
92 GIOTTO
to the older traditions of mediaeval art. Although he
had already made good at Rome and at Assisi his claim
to the proud title of the founder of a new school of art,
and although Rome and Central Italy in general had
been forced, ere now, to acknowledge the absolute su-
periority of his genius, the more northern provinces still
awaited a proof of his powers. The desired opportunity
had at last arrived. Never in the entire course of his
career, not even at Assisi, had Giotto been offered a
single commission of such dimensions as those of the
present one, or one affording a more splendid occasion
for the full exercise of his now mature genius. How he
fulfilled the great task set before him, all who are inter-
ested in his progress and development now know, and
the Arena Chapel ranks to-day as one of the greatest
glories in the artistic history of Italy.
Turning to a detailed examination of the frescoes
themselves, it will be well for us to take each subject in
the order in which it was in all probability painted, and
we may commence our review with the first scene in the
series relating to the life of the Virgin, high up on the
right-hand wall, nearest the tribune.1 Here Giotto has
represented (I.) the Rejection of Joachim's Offering. In
this first work we become at once acquainted with that
grandeur and simplicity of style which mark the entire
In our notice of these works, we shall limit our remarks to as
few words as possible, and earnestly recommend the reader to care-
fully read the interesting account of the Chapel and its decorations,
given us by Mr. Ruskin in his " Giotto and his works at Padua."
To attempt to improve, or even to enlarge upon what Mr. Ruskin
has already so beautifully and correctly said in regard to these
frescoes, would be to draw forth a comparison as unnecessary as it
would be unfavourable to ourselves.
THE ARENA CHAPEL 93
series of frescoes. In the paucity of architectural detail,
and the entire absence of all figures and accessories not
having a direct connection with the subject to be repre-
sented, we find Giotto finally realizing to the full those
ideals of conciseness and simplicity already apparent,
to a lesser degree, in the later frescoes at Assisi. In the
plastic grandeur and severity of form, the broad simplicity
of drapery, the directness of movement and expression,
and the compressed significance of the smallest detail, we
recognize the most essential and characteristic qualities
of Giotto's genius — qualities which are broadly manifest
in every fresco which goes to make up this wonderful
sequence of paintings. We need but cast a single glance
at this first subject to realize the progress made by the
master in the gradual perfection of all these characteristics
of his art. His never-failing sense of dramatic effect,
again, is at once apparent in the contrast between the
two pairs of figures, the conflicting emotions which move
the two principal actors in the scene being strongly set
off by the quiet of the two minor personages within the
screen of the Temple, where the priest is in the act ot
accepting the offering of a second worshipper. The whole
scene, simply portrayed as it is, forms a drama in itself,
the hidden passion of which cannot fail to make itself
felt ; and it is to this same deep sense of the tragedy and
passion of the human heart that Giotto owes so much of
that mysterious power which he wields over us in his
representations of what may often, at first sight, appear
but matters of everyday import.
Fine as it is, however, this fresco is far surpassed in
beauty and depth of feeling by the one following (II.), in
which Joachim is depicted as returning from the Temple
94 GIOTTO
to his Sheep-folds in the hill country (PI. 18). With
bowed head, his eyes bent upon the ground, he moves
slowly forward, sorrowful and depressed by the words of
the High Priest and their all too evident truth, utterly
unconscious of all his surroundings. In its quiet dignity
and grandeur, this noble figure remains unsurpassed by
the work of any Christian artist before or after Giotto's
time, and stands before us as a lasting memorial of what
the great painter's genius was capable of in the matter
of expression, as conveyed by attitude and movement,
as well as by cast of countenance. Again, the reality
of the whole scene cannot fail to impress itself deeply
upon our memory. The contrasting figures, the joyful**
greeting of the dog, so natural in its movement as it
leaps up before its master, the sense of the wilderness
expressed so simply and yet with such unfailing effect
by the cliffed mountains and a few scattered trees — all
are touches of masterly power on the part of the artist-
Even the feeling for beauty, at times so conspicuous by
its apparent absence in some of Giotto's later works, is
here by no means lacking.
III. The Angel appears to St. Anna.
This fresco is again most Giottesque in its simplicity
of conception. The sweeping flight of the angel, as it
passes through the open window, is beautifully carried
out, and the kneeling figure of St. Anna is a very noble
one. In the outer entrance, her maid sits weaving — most
natural in action. Giotto's masterly use of light and
shade in this painting has been justly commented upon
by Mr. Ruskin.
[Arena Chapel, Padua.
IOACHIM RETURNING TO HIS SHEEPFOLDS
Plate 1 8
THE ARENA CHAPEL 95
IV. Joachim's Sacrifice.
Giotto has invested this subject with an indefinable
sense of mystery, which is enhanced by the wild and
desolate aspect of the landscape. Most expressive is the
figure of Joachim, as he gazes with awe and wonder at
the apparition of the angel. The vague form of a winged
spirit floats upward in the smoke of the burning sacrifice.
In interesting contrast to these supernatural elements in
the scene, is the group of goats and sheep in the fore-
ground.
V. The Angel announces the Birth of the Virgin
to Joachim. (PI. 19.)
This is another most characteristic work of the painter.
It is impossible to escape the sense of wildness and space
produced by the background of cliffs and the precipitous
hill to the right ; and Giotto here shows no slight know-
ledge of the secrets of aerial perspective.
VI. The Meeting of Anna and Joachim at the
Golden Gate.
Most lovely is the action and expression of the two
principal figures in this scene, as they embrace each
other on the bridge before the gate of the city. The
apparent ugliness of some of the women's faces is due
principally to restoration.1
1 The frescoes of the Arena Chapel have been more fortunate
than the majority of Giotto's later works in the treatment they have
received. Despite decided protestations to the contrary, however*
the handiwork of the restorer is far too evident to escape detection
by a practised eye. Almost all the paintings have been, to a certain
extent, retouched, and, as usual, the repaint is most noticeable in
96 GIOTTO
VII. The Birth of the Virgin.
Again quite a simple and realistic representation of
the scene. Giotto still keeps to the prevalent custom of
the time, in depicting simultaneously two different epi-
sodes relating to the same subject, and in the foreground
we find two women engaged in washing and swaddling
the newborn child. The graceful figure of the servant,
without the door, involuntarily calls up before us the later
creations of Fra Angelico.
VIII. The Presentation in the Temple.
A very beautiful composition, and full of varied in-
terest and expression. The figure of the High Priest is
most gravely dignified and noble. Very noticeable, also,
is the splendid head of the white-haired patriarch who
stands beside St. Joseph.
IX. The Bringing of the Rods to the High Priest.
Although not lacking in beauty of arrangement, this
fresco is entirely eclipsed in interest by the one which
follows after.
X. The Watching of the Rods.
Here the figures of the priest and the various suitors,
grouped as they are about the altar, express, to an ad-
mirable degree, the tense expectation of the anxious
watchers. The arrangement of the figures, and the pecu-
the heads of many of the figures. On the whole, however, the
restorer has done his duty conscientiously, and has kept the spirit of
Giotto's work well in mind, so that the original effect has not been
ruined, as has been the case in the Upper Church at Assisi and in
Santa Croce at Florence.
[Arena Chanel, Padua
THE ANGEL APPEARS TO JOACHIM
Plate 19
THE ARENA CHAPEL 97
liarly horizontal tendency of the entire composition, are
strikingly impressive.
XI. The Marriage of the Virgin.
Very simply and beautifully composed. The young
and girlish figure of the Virgin contrasts strongly with
the older but manly one of St. Joseph. Full of the
deepest feeling and expression is the figure of the youth
to the left, in the act of breaking his rod across his knee.
The quiet solemnity of the whole scene is broken only
by the action of the young man who stands with raised
hand behind the chosen bridegroom.
XII. The Return of the Virgin to her Home.
It would be difficult to describe in words the deep
sense of calm solemnity expressed in this truly wonderful
composition. The simple majesty of the different figures,
and the striking effect of slow and measured movement
imparted by the entire procession, are points to which
the spectator's attention cannot be too often called ; and
we know of no existing work in which this same rhythmic
sense of movement has been more perfectly expressed.
Fortunately, although much damaged, this work is also
one of the least repainted of the series.
XIII. and XIV. The Annunciation.
Giotto has divided this fresco — the connecting link of
the two series of subjects relating to the lives of the
Virgin and her Divine Son — between the spaces on either
side of the arch opening into the tribune. The figure of
the angel is of a divine majesty, as, with hand out-
stretched in benediction, he announces his heavenly
H
98 GIOTTO
message. In his left hand he holds a scroll, in place of
the customary lilies. The Virgin — a more fully developed
figure than in the preceding scenes — is most beautiful
and dignified. In neither case is there any effort at ex-
aggerated or theatrical action, and the whole scene is
imbued with a deep sense of that dignity and calm in
which it must have been enacted.
XV. The Visitation.
Wonderfully simple and effective again, in the limited
number of figures and almost total absence of accessories,
either architectural or otherwise, Giotto has given us in
this painting a striking example of his great powers of
concentration. A comparison of this and the following
frescoes with the representations of the same subjects at
Assisi, will be of the greatest advantage to the student,
in affording him an excellent opportunity for the
study of the changes which had taken place in Giotto's
manner.
XVI. The Nativity of Christ. (PI. 20.)
The first of the second tier of frescoes on the right
wall — a very beautiful work, full of the deepest human
sentiment and feeling. Upon comparing it with the
fresco at Assisi, the painter's progress in his ideals of
simplicity and naturalism is apparent at a glance, Giotto
having here reduced both the participants in the scene
and the action itself, to the simplest possible limits-
The traditional incident of the washing of the Child has
been entirely done away with, and in its stead the Infant,
already washed and swathed, is being presented to Its
mother, who, rising on her mattress, looks down with the
deepest tenderness upon the new-born Saviour,
[Arena Chapel, Padua.
Plate 20
THE NATIVITY
[Arena Chapel, Padua.
Plate 21
THE ADORATION OF THE MAGI
[Arena Chapel, Padua.
THE PRESENTATION IN THE TEMPLE
Plate 22
Plate 23
[A rena Chapel, Padua
THE FLIGHT INTO EGYPT
THE ARENA CHAPEL 99
XVII. The Adoration of the Magi. (PI. 21.)
In the general arrangement of this beautiful fresco
Giotto has not essentially departed from his representa-
tion of the same subject at Assisi. The later work has
gained, however, both in conciseness and simplicity.
XVIII. The Presentation in the Temple. (PI. 22.)
Very striking, again, is the simplicity of this scene as
compared with the earlier and more elaborate painting
in the Lower Church at Assisi. Giotto, as usual, has
sought to represent the subject in as natural a manner
as possible, and he has been singularly successful in the
child-like action of the little Christ, as He turns from the
loving embrace of Simeon toward the outstretched arms
of the Virgin.
XIX. The Flight into Egypt. (PI. 23.)
This beautiful work is surely to be classed in the list
of Giotto's masterpieces, and it would be difficult to
imagine a more perfect representation of the subject
than that which the painter has here given us. As in
the fresco at Assisi, we find the same sense of wildness
and solitude most ably expressed in the simple land-
scape background. In the matter of composition the
little processional group could hardly be better arranged,
and both in movement and expression each figure is
admirable to a degree.
XX. The Massacre of the Innocents.
Inferior as a whole to the painting at Assisi. A com-
parison of this work with Giovanni Pisano's treatment of
the same subject is most interesting, as clearly showing
ioo GIOTTO
how far Giotto still remained behind that master in the
depiction of violent movement and spontaneous action.
XXI. Christ and the Doctors in the Temple.
A very quiet composition, the most damaged of the
entire series, although comparatively free from restora-
tion.1
XXII. The Baptism of Christ.
Giotto has here held closely to the traditional Byzan-
tine treatment of this subject. The splendid figure of
the old disciple behind St. John probably represents
St. Andrew. Very beautiful in expression is the group
of attendant angels on the opposite bank.
XXIII. The Marriage at Cana.
Apart from itspriginality of conception, this fine fresco
is an excellent example of Giotto's powers in the simple
and naturalistic treatment of an unusually difficult sub-
ject. The characterization of the different personages in
the scene calls for especial remark, and some of the
heads are of great individual beauty. Giotto's study of
natural movement is particularly apparent in the realistic
figure engaged in filling the classic amphora to the right
XXIV. The Raising of Lazarus.
A strikingly dramatic work in Giotto's grandest style.
1 Giotto has here replaced the Gothic background of his Assisan
period by one of a Byzantine character. This change in the style
of his architectural settings is an interesting one, and due, perhaps,
in no small measure, to the near proximity of Venice with its
monumental Byzantine church of St. Mark, with which building
Giotto seems to have been well acquainted.
[Arena Chapel, Padua.
Plate 24
THE ENTRY INTO JERUSALEM
THE ARENA CHAPEL 101
We have already spoken of this fresco in comparison
with the painter's representation of the same subject in
the chapel of the Magdalen at Assisi, which work it
undoubtedly surpasses in composition and naturalistic
vigour of expression. Giotto's sense of plastic values is
most strongly evident in the swathed form of Lazarus.
XXV. The Entry into Jerusalem. (PI. 24.)
Another admirable example of Giotto's exceptional
powers in the expression of slow and measured move-
ment. Very noble and fine are the figures and heads of
Christ and of the foremost of the Apostles. The ass
and the head of her foal are among the best representa-
tions of animals which we have from the painter's hand.
XXVI. The Expulsion from the Temple.
Not so successful as many of the preceding frescoes,
owing in part, no doubt, to the necessity for the realiza-
tion of violent action. The figure of the disciple shelter-
ing the frightened child beneath his mantle, to the
extreme left, is masterly in its truth of action. Very
interesting are the lions and horses which surmount the
pilasters of the loggia — the latter unmistakably copied
from the famous quadriga of St. Mark's at Venice.
XXVII. The Hiring of Judas.
Despite its vastly different subject, this fresco may be
said to rank with that of the Visitation in its simplicity
and conciseness. The sense of mingled secrecy and
fear, on the part of the two principal personages in the
scene, is most strikingly expressed in their faces and
their movements.
102 GIOTTO
XXVIII. The Last Supper.
With his usual innate artistic sense of truth, Giotto
has here made no attempt to distinguish Judas from the
rest of the company by any of those base or vulgar
characteristics with which the painters of a later period
invariably endeavour to stamp his personality, and he
still bears the halo together with the other Apostles.
XXIX. The Washing of the Feet. (PL 25.)
This subject, so seldom touched upon by later artists,
has been here most beautifully treated by Giotto. The
figure of Christ is very beautiful in attitude and gesture,
and the varied feelings of the different disciples are aptly
depicted in their faces. Wonderfully fine is the splendid
figure of the old Apostle lacing his sandal in the fore-
ground to the left.
XXX. The Betrayal.
Although avoiding, as usual, all exaggerated violence
of action, Giotto has fully succeeded in representing the
turbulent passion of the mob in this dramatic scene. In
striking contrast to the vulgarity of His assailants, is the
calmly dignified figure of Christ. To the left, the painter
has attempted to depict, in as natural a manner as
possible, the conventional episode of St. Peter cutting off
the ear of Malchus.
XXXI. Christ brought before Caiaphas.
Here, as in the preceding fresco, the calm figure of
Christ stands out in noble relief against the background
of passion and disorder.
[A rena Chapel, Padua
Plate 25
THE WASHING OF THE FEET
THE ARENA CHAPEL 103
XXXII. The Scourging of Christ.
Giotto has succeeded admirably in representing the
coarse brutality of Christ's persecutors. Strongly at
variance with the work of later ages is the expression of
patient resignation on the part of the Saviour Himself.
XXXIII. The Way to Golgotha.
Most dramatic is Giotto's treatment of this scene.
The attention is at once fixed upon the figure of Christ,
as He looks backward toward His agonized mother, who
strives in vain to reach Him.
XXXIV. The Crucifixion.
This fresco naturally provokes at once a comparison
with Giotto's earlier representation of the subject at Assisi
— nor can we say that the painter has, upon the whole,
surpassed his former effort. How far such a comparison
is just or legitimate, however, it is difficult to say, as the
spirit in which the two works are conceived seems to
differ in both cases in no slight degree. Whereas the
fresco at Assisi is marked by a far greater depth of
spiritual significance and feeling, in this later representa-
tion at Padua we are plainly conscious of the artist's de-
sire to treat the subject in as naturalistic a manner as
possible. To some temperaments more than to others,
this Paduan work may appeal as being the preferable of
the two ; to our own mind, however, the superiority of
the earlier conception remains unquestionable.
XXXV. The Entombment. (PI. 26.)
This beautiful composition has justly been awarded no
small amount of praise by all admirers of Giotto's art
io4 GIOTTO
and even the most indifferent observer cannot fail to be
impressed by the passionate intensity of the scene. Here,
as in the preceding fresco of the Crucifixion, the rapid
movement of the angels, as they wheel and circle through
the air in a frenzied agony of grief, is most wonderfully
expressed. The barren hill, and the bare and leafless
branches of the tree, thrown out against the darkening
sky, add strangely to the solemnity of the scene.
XXXVI. The Resurrection. (PI. 27.)
It is quite beyond our power even to attempt a de-
scription of this most wonderful fresco, and we must refer
the reader to the annexed illustration for anything re-
sembling an adequate idea of its many beauties. The
noble figure of Christ is certainly one of the most beautiful
conceptions of the Redeemer ever given us by Giotto.
Admirable beyond all words is the manner in which the
mingled feelings of wonder, love, and longing, are ex-
pressed in the raised head, the movement of the body,
and the outstretched hands of the kneeling Magdalen.
Most striking again, is the contrast between the majestic
white-robed angels and the sleeping figures of the guards,
as they lie grouped against the tomb, heavily unconscious
of the celestial presence near them. Giotto's conscientious
care in the execution of the smallest details is clearly
visible in the careful painting of the plants which spring
up about Christ's feet.
XXXVII. The Ascension.
Very grand and beautiful is the upward sweep of the
figure of Christ and of the accompanying choirs of saints
[A rcna Chapel, Padua.
THE ENTOMBMENT
Plate 26
THE ARENA CHAPEL 105
and angels. The more slowly moving figures of the two
angels which follow after, seem set between the lightness
of the heavenly company above and the earth-bound
heaviness of those below. Very fine is the kneeling
figure of the Virgin, and equally beautiful in expression
those of the various disciples, as they watch the departing
figure of their Lord.
XXXVIII. The Descent of the Holy Spirit.
Most peaceful and quiet in general effect. This fresco
is the last of the series on the lateral walls.
In the lunette above the entrance to the tribune, Giotto
painted what was undoubtedly intended to represent
Christ Enthroned in Glory, surrounded by attendant
angels. The central figure in this fresco is now so dark-
ened and damaged as to be scarcely distinguishable from
below, although upon close examination we may yet
make out its general attitude and form. Many of the
heads and figures of the accompanying angels are of great
beauty of expression, but the whole work has suffered
too severely for us to judge rightly even of its original
effect as a composition.
We may now turn to what is at once the grandest and
most monumental, if, at the same time, one of the least
known of all Giotto's works — the great fresco of the Last
Judgment (PI. 28). The immensity of this majestic work,
covering as it does the entire surface of the entrance wall,
renders impossible any adequate description of its mani-
fold beauties ; nor do any reproductions or engravings
exist through which the student may gain anything
106 GIOTTO
beyond a mere general idea of its composition and
arrangement.1 A few words must therefore suffice to
indicate the plan of Giotto's conception of this colossal
subject
In a glory of the colours of the rainbow, in the centre
of the painting, sits the Divine Judge, hieratic and
supreme, simply clad and without a crown, His right
hand outstretched toward the army of the Just in a
gesture of approval, His left turned down against the
condemned souls of the Wicked. The glory which en-
circles Him is supported by twelve beautiful long-winged
angels, four of whom announce the coming of the Final
Judgment through the great trumpets which they hold.
To right and left, on either side, sit the Twelve Apostles,
each on his separate throne, and above them soar the
mighty hosts of Heaven, with banners, swords, and
lilies. Below the enthroned figure of the Judge, two
great angels support the Cross of Redemption, at the
foot of which is seen the kneeling figure of Enrico
Scrovegno, in the act of presenting to three saintly beings,
of truly heavenly beauty, the model of his chapel, borne
on the shoulders of a monk. To the left, headed by the
beautiful figure of the Virgin, herself surrounded by a
glory supported by attendant angels, comes the gathering
of the Saints and Martyrs, the Doctors and the Prophets.
Below them, in another zone, are the arisen figures of the
Just, led on by their angelic guardians, while, yet lower
1 Sufficient blame cannot be attached to the Paduan authorities
for preventing, as they have done, the publication of a satisfactory
series of photographs of these great frescoes — the present limited
reproductions sold by them being quite insufficient for purposes of
serious study.
[Arena Chapel, Padua.
Plate 27
THE RESURRECTION
THE ARENA CHAPEL 107
down, the dead still rise from out their graves. To the
right, the entire lower division of the fresco is given up
to the representation of Hell, the flames of which proceed
from beneath the feet of Christ. At the bottom of this
fiery region of the damned, sits the monstrous and
gigantic figure of Lucifer, and about him the lost souls
of the wicked undergo the hideous tortures common to
the generality of such representations of the scene.
We must once more accentuate the utter impossibility
of any adequate description of the countless beauties to
be found in this truly marvellous work — a summary,
as it may rightly be considered, of all Giotto's great
and varied powers. Indeed, a careful study of this
wonderful creation might easily afford material sufficient
for an entire volume of the size of this present mono-
graph, and in his examination of the numberless details
which this work contains, the student might find ample
opportunity for the study of every phase of Giotto's
genius.
It will be unnecessary for us to here dilate upon the
comparative perfection, both technical and otherwise,
arrived at by Giotto in this great series of paintings, the
progress and development of his art being far too evident,
possibly to escape the notice of even the most casual
observer among those who have followed us in our
examination of the master's earlier works.1 Here at
Padua we find carried to the utmost possible limits, those
1 It will be unnecessary for us to here remark upon the share
taken by Giotto's pupils in the execution of these works. As was
the custom among painters of his day, the master was undoubtedly
surrounded by assistants during the execution of all his larger fresco
paintings.
io8 GIOTTO
efforts toward conciseness of representation and arrange-
ment already so noticeable in Giotto's earlier creations,
and in this respect these frescoes mark a culminating
epoch in the artist's great career. In charm of colour
and in abstract beauty, as in poetic delicacy of feeling,
they may indeed be said to fall below the enchanting
paintings in the Lower Church of S. Francis at Assisi,
but Giotto has replaced those softer qualities with a
monumental grandeur and dignity of style and of con-
ception, which stamp these later works as unique, raising
them at once above all criticism or comparison.
Unsurpassed as they are in splendid development of
form, and in truthful effectiveness of movement and ex-
pression, it is perhaps not so much in their possession of
these qualities — common, in a greater or a less degree to
all of Giotto's work — as in their grand simplicity and
beauty of composition, that these frescoes of the Arena
Chapel stand out most strongly against the work of the
master's earlier years. Although a thorough knowledge
of pre-Giottesque art is essential to a true appreciation of
the changes and innovations effected by Giotto in the
treatment of his various subjects, it requires no very
extraordinary degree of artistic understanding on the
part of the student to recognize, at a single glance, the
comparative perfection of distribution and design so
apparent throughout the entire series. Despite the fact
that, in the majority of his subjects, Giotto has not here
departed from the fundamental arrangement of the tra-
ditional Byzantine compositions, the vital transformation
which the ancient designs underwent at his hands is at
once apparent to all who will spare the time necessary to
a comparison of these frescoes with the older treatment
W
THE ARENA CHAPEL 109
of the same scenes by the artists of the Byzantine and
Latin schools.1 In this great series of paintings at Padua,
Giotto may truly be said not only to have perfected the
iconography of Byzantium and the Middle Ages, but to
have permanently fixed the laws of religious composition
for the centuries that were to follow — and in this one
respect alone, apart from all other claims to greatness,
there is sufficient reason that his name should be handed
down through all the ages as one of the first and greatest
of all modern Christian artists.
1 An excellent example for such a comparison — to mention but
one of many similar works — is to be found in the bronze portals of
the cathedral of Benevento, in Southern Italy. These remarkably
fine doors, Byzantine products of the middle of the Twelfth Century,
contain no less than forty-three subjects from the life of Christ, thus
affording us an exceptional opportunity for comparing them with
Giotto's treatment of a great number of the same.
CHAPTER VIII
THE ALLEGORICAL SCENES AT PADUA
IF Giotto may be said to have exhibited his greatest
gifts as a painter in the foregoing frescoes, he has
given us no less striking an example of his intellectual
powers in the series of allegorical figures representative
of the seven Virtues and their opposite Vices, which form a
species of monochrome border below the paintings on the
lateral walls. In these extraordinary works, executed in
the master's most monumental style, we have, even more
than in the famous Allegories at Assisi, what may be
considered almost entirely the outcome of Giotto's indi-
vidual invention — a series of symbolic representations
affording a perhaps unequalled opportunity for the
appreciation of those concise and significant qualities of
the great artist's genius, concerning which we have so
often spoken. Although the natural tendencies of Giotto's
talent toward the representation of dramatic and his-
torical scenes had here, of necessity, to be put aside in
order to make way for a freer use of his vivid, yet ever
healthful, imagination and suggestiveness,the remarkable
simplicity and directness of his symbolism are visible
proofs of the versatility, as well as of the sanity and
freshness, of his intellect Not only did he here produce
a work possessed of far more than ordinary artistic merit,
but he succeeded also in formulating a series of allegorical
[A rena Chapel, Patina
Plate 29
JUSTICE
PADUA in
representations which, on account of their powerful sig-
nificance of imagery, were handed down by his successors
to take their place in the art of the succeeding centuries
as generally accepted types, incapable of improvement,
of those abstract qualities which they were intended to
symbolize.1
Beginning nearest the entrance door with the first
number of the series, we have Giotto's pictorial idea of
Hope, which figure, although entirely painted over at a
comparatively recent date, still reveals its originally classic
drapery and form. Nowhere is Giotto's admiration of
the antique more evident than in this charming figure,
which seems almost to have been copied from some old
Roman bas-relief. Clad in the classic Grecian peplos, her
hair bound up in a manner according with her costume,
winged and girdled, she might be taken for an ancient
Victory but for her attitude of quiet adoration, as she
floats upwards to receive the crown held out to her by
an angel from above.
Facing her, on the opposite wall, is her contrary Vice,
Despair, the tall figure of a woman, with flowing and
dishevelled hair, hanging by her neck from a bar above
her, her hands clenched and face contracted in the last
agonies of death, while the black form of a fiend flies
down to possess himself of her lost soul.
Charity, the next of the Virtues, does not differ essen-
1 A comparison of these figures with those representing the same
subjects in the works of the Pisani and other earlier artists, is both
interesting and instructive, as showing the originality of Giotto's
genius, for, although he may have been to a certain extent influenced
by these early models in the formation of his own conceptions, this
very indebtedness serves but to accentuate his own merits as an
inventor.
ii2 GIOTTO
tially from Giotto's earlier conception of the same per-
sonage at Assisi. Clad in the same fashion as her sister
Hope, her head crowned with roses, she treads upon
the money-bags of Avarice and Greed. With her left
hand she offers to her Lord her heart ; in her right she
carries a bowl of flowers and fruit, symbolic of the
heavenly bounty which is hers to distribute here on
earth. Opposite her, in a flaming fire, stands the hideous
figure of Envy, with horns and bat-like ears, a serpent
issuing from her mouth which turns to bite her. Her
hands are armed with claws ; one is outstretched in a
gesture of grasping greed, the other tightly holds a bag
of gold.
Faith, a tall figure clad in churchly garments, the key
of Heaven hanging at her waist, stands upon a heap of
cabalistic books. In her right hand she holds the Cross,
in the left a scroll on which are written the first words of
the Creed. Infidelity, a heavily-draped figure of a man,
stands unsteadily before a fire, bearing in his hand the
small image of a woman to which is attached a cord
ending in a noose about his neck. Above, a reverend
figure of a prophet or Evangelist holds out to him a
scroll which is kept from his eyes by the broad-brimmed
helmet which he wears.
Justice and Injustice (Pis. 29, 30) come next in order —
perhaps the finest of the series. The first of these, a
splendid figure with crown and mantle, is seated on a
Gothic throne, bearing in her hands the dishes of a pair
of scales. In one of these a small winged figure is crown-
ing a man at work at a small table, in the other an
executioner is beheading a malefactor. Below, on the
face of the throne, is a painted bas-relief representing the
[Arena Chapel, Padua
Plate 30
INJUSTICE
PADUA 113
beneficial results of Justice and the public safety derived
therefrom. To the left, two noblemen ride forth to the
chase, accompanied by their dogs. The splendid horse of
the foremost one is again undoubtedly copied from the
quadriga of St. Mark's. In the centre, a figure is engaged
in dancing to the accompaniment of castanets and a
tambourine played by two girls. To the right are two
more riders. Confronting this fine work is Giotto's repre-
sentation of Injustice. Dressed in the costume of a
noble, he sits in the arched entrance of a ruined tower in
the middle of a wood. His features are sharp and
angular, his expression at once cruel and keen, watchful
as a bird of prey. His right hand grasps a hooked hal-
berd, expressive as his own claw-like talons of rapacity
and greed ; his left touches the hilt of his sword. In
the lonely wood below a scene of robbery and violence
is taking place. To the left, the murdered body of a
man lies beneath the hoofs of his plunging steed ; near
by, two men rob a woman of her garments, while others
stand by keeping watch and guard. Wonderfully fine
in its naturalistic treatment of movement is this little
scene — a splendid example of Giotto's careful study
of nature, as well as of his technical powers of repro-
duction,
Temperance — a tall and graceful figure, a bridle in her
mouth — is engaged in binding the hilt of a sword to its
scabbard. Opposite to her is Wrath, her head thrown
back in an excess of fury, as she tears open her garments
in the violence of her passion.
In his representation of Fortitude, Giotto has deviated
less than usual from the conception of his predecessors.
Clad in a breastplate and a lion's skin, a sharp four-
l
ii4 GIOTTO
edged mace in her hand, she stands on guard behind her
tall and tower-like shield. Inconstancy, her opposite, is
depicted as falling from a rolling wheel or globe.
Prudence and Folly bring the series to a close. The
first of these does not differ from Giotto's representation
of her at Assisi — Janus-headed, and seated at a desk,
she gazes into the polished mirror of Truth. s Folly, a
male figure of coarse and vulgar proportions, clad in a
fantastic dress, and crowned with feathers, holds aloft a
heavy club.
CHAPTER IX
LATER WORKS
IF the history of Giotto's earlier life may be said to
rest beneath a cloud, we have at least been able to
account for his presence in Rome and at Assisi during
the greater part of the ten years preceding his accept-
ance of the commission to decorate the chapel of the
Paduan Arena.1 With the completion of this great work,
however, commences a period of nearly twenty years dura-
tion which remains to us a sealed chapter in the story of
the master's life. We do not possess as much as a single
document or record of sufficient importance to throw any
real light upon the manner in which these years were
spent, or to determine in any way the truth regarding
the various journeyings which the painter is said to have
undertaken during this lengthy space of time. Even
in the matter of existing works, we possess relatively
little in comparison with the length of time covered
by this period — by no means sufficient, in fact, to
1 That Giotto had already painted in the Communal Palace and
the Chapel of the Arena at Padua — and also, to all appearances, in
the town of Rimini — previous to 1312, is made clear to us by a little
known chronicle of that year from the pen of Riccobaldo Ferrarese.
This invaluable record — the only contemporary notice of Giotto's
doings at this particular period of his life— settles finally the question
as to the approximate date of the Arena frescoes.
n6 GIOTTO
account for more than a small fraction of these obscure
years.
How long Giotto may have remained in Northern
Italy, after the completion of the frescoes in the Arena
Chapel, we have no means of ascertaining. That the
fame which these great works must surely have brought
him should have led to various other commissions, both
at Padua and elsewhere, is certain ; and there is un-
doubtedly some foundation of truth to Vasari's statement
that he painted important works at Verona, Ferrara, and
Ravenna, as well as in Padua. Unfortunately, the hope-
less chronological confusion and the utter disregard of
historical exactness which characterize Vasari's narrative,
render it impossible for us to depend upon his words,
which here, as elsewhere, must be accepted only with all
due allowances for the inventive genius of their author.
In regard to Giotto's work at Padua, more especially, he
seems exceptionally confused. According to his record
of events, the great painter paid two visits to this city at
distinctly different periods — one almost immediately
after his return, in 1316, from an imaginary sojourn of
some ten years' duration in Avignon and other parts of
France j1 another, shortly before his death in 1336. In
his account of the first of these two visits, Vasari makes
no mention whatever either of Scrovegno or his chapel,
1 After having spoken at length concerning Giotto's extraordinary
activity in Rome, Vasari tells us that, Clement V. having been
created Pope on the death of Benedict IX. (*>., Benedict XI.),
Giotto was obliged to accompany that pontiff to Avignon, in which
city, and in other parts of France, he painted many wonderful works,
returning to Florence in 1316, "not less rich than honoured and
famous. As the seat of the Papacy was transferred to Avignon in
1306, Giotto's stay in France would of necessity have dated from
LATER WORKS 117
and satisfies us with the knowledge that Giotto, having
been called to Padua at the instance of the Signori della
Scala, painted a most beautiful chapel — " una bellissima
cappella " — in the church of S. Antonio. Whether Messer
Giorgio may have had in mind — as was later the case
with Baldinucci — the Cappella di S. Jacopo, with its
frescoes by Altichieri and Avanzi, or some other chapel
within the main church, it is impossible to say, but there
exists to the present day what once must certainly have
been " a most beautiful chapel," still used as the chapter-
house of the church, wherein we may look upon the
ruined remnants of a series of frescoes which clearly be-
speak, in part at least, the work of Giotto's brush. Sadly
damaged and repainted, as a natural result of the various
architectural changes which the chapel has undergone, as
well as of the succession of fires to which it has been
subject on no less than three different occasions, the
fragments that have been left to us of the original deco-
rations afford little more than a few general indications
of their former style and manner. Vague as these indi-
cations may be, however, they are sufficiently convincing
to confirm the identity of their origin, and we clearly
recognize Giotto's own hand in the row of mutilated
saints along the two end walls. In general style these
figures still closely resemble those of the Arena Chapel,
although their greater grandeur and severity, and their
monumental dignity of pose, would point to their having
been executed during a somewhat later period of the
that year. We find, therefore, a period of no less than ten whole
years in the painter's life most easily accounted for by Vasari through
the invention or adoption of a legend, upon the plausibility of which
we need waste no serious comment.
n8 GIOTTO
master's development. Unhappily, all further discussion
of their merits is rendered impossible owing to the de-
plorable state to which they have been reduced.1
The frescoes in this chapter-house may well have been
among the " many other things and chapels " which,
Vasari tells us, were painted by Giotto during his second
visit to Padua, at which time, we are given to understand,
he also executed a Gloria mondana, in the " Place of
the Arena,"2 which work " brought him much honour and
benefit." The tradition that Giotto painted in the great
Sala della Ragione of the Palazzo Comunale, seems to
be confirmed by a passage in the chronicle of Riccobaldo
Ferrarese, to which we have alluded in a note. No
traces of the master's handiwork, however, are to be
found at the present day among the endless frescoes
which adorn the walls of this vast hall.
If we may believe Vasari, Giotto painted for Messer
Cane (Can Grande della Scala), and for the friars of S.
Francesco in Verona, and, later, in Ferrara, for the House
1 The upper part of the lateral wall seems to have been decorated
with scenes from the life of St. Francis. Of these, the fragmentary
remains of two subjects — St. Francis receiving the Stigmata, and
the Martyrdom of the Franciscan Brethren in Morocco— are still
visible — together with a small Annunciation above a painted arch-
way in the course below. Although possibly executed under Giotto's
personal supervision, these works point unmistakably to the handi-
work of pupils.
a In this single mention of the paintings in the Arena Chapel,
Vasari undoubtedly refers to the fresco of the Last Judgment. We
also have it, on the older authority of Ghiberti, that Giotto painted
a Gloria mondana in the church of the Arena, as well as an
Allegory of the Christian Faith in the Palagio della Parte (Palazzo
del Comune), and many other things in that same palace and in the
church and convent of S. Antonio.
LATER WORKS
of Este. The works which he executed in this latter
town, in the palace of the Este family and in the church
of S. Agostino, were still to be seen, the historian tells
us, in his own day. Needless to remark, nothing now
remains to prove the correctness of this assertion.
It was during his stay at Ferrara, Vasari goes on to
say, that Giotto was invited to Ravenna by Francesco
da Polenta, at the suggestion of Dante Alighieri, who
was a guest of that nobleman at the time. Whether
there be any truth in this tradition, it is impossible to say,
for we do not find it corroborated by any of the early
chroniclers. Nevertheless, the picture of the meeting of
the two great Florentines, during these closing years of
Dante's life,1 is one far too temptingly affecting to be
easily put aside by the majority of modern writers ; and,
indeed, nothing would have been more natural than that
Giotto should have gladly seized upon such an oppor-
tunity for renewing the friendship of early years, and once
more enjoying the company of the exiled poet, his com-
patriot ; nor would the pleasure have been less on Dante's
own part. However this may really have been, there
seems little reason to doubt Giotto's presence in Ravenna
during some period of his life, although nothing now
remains of his own handiwork in either of the two churches
in which Vasari tells us he once painted. The much re-
painted ceiling frescoes in one of the side chapels of S.
Giovanni Evangelista, which are still accepted by most
critics as creations of Giotto's brush, point rather to the
work of one of the more talented of his many followers.
Nor is this the only Giottesque work to be found in
1 Dante was at Ravenna during the greater part of the last four
years of his life, and died in that city on September i4th, 1321.
120 GIOTTO
Ravenna and its neighbourhood, where numerous frescoes
by other of the master's followers bear evidence to the
strong influence which he brought to bear upon the
painters of these parts.
From Ravenna, Vasari takes the subject of his bio-
graphy back to Florence by way of Urbino and Arezzo,
painting as he goes. Strange to say, the town of
Rimini is left out of the present tour, to be visited by
the master at a later period, on his return from Naples(P),
when, Vasari tells us, he painted in the church of S.
Francesco "very many things," which were destroyed
during the remodelling of that building by Sigismondo
Malatesta. " He painted also in the cloister of that place
the story of the Beata Michelina ; which was one of the
most beautiful and excellent things that Giotto ever
made." Two closely printed pages follow this latter
statement, in which Vasari gives full vent to his enthusi-
astic admiration for these works, describing them with a
care and minuteness which he bestows to a like extent
upon no other of the many creations which he attributes
to the master. The paintings in question are now under
whitewash, and we of the present day are no longer able
to enjoy their undoubted merits ; but it is unfortunate
for Vasari's reputation as a critic of Giotto's style, that
the subject of the series, the Beata Michelina of Pesaro,
is known to have died some twenty years after that great
master had passed away from the scene of his earthly
labours. That Giotto really did work in Rimini, how-
ever, seems almost certain from a passage in that same
record of Riccobaldo Ferrarese, which we have already
had reason to quote on two occasions.1
1 The passage in question is worded as follows : " Zotus pictor
LATER WORKS 121
Once returned to Florence, Giotto is not given much
time by his biographer for rest, and although, as usual,
he " painted many things," immediately upon his arrival
in that city, in 1322 we find him in Lucca working for
Castruccio, lord and ruler of that town, and shortly
afterwards in Naples with King Robert After having
executed a vast number of works in this last-named city,
as well as in Gaeta, Rimini and Ravenna, Vasari brings
him back again to Florence some time before 1327, in
which year we find him called upon to supply a design
for the tomb of Guido Tarlati, the warlike Bishop of
Arezzo.
So much for Vasari's wonderful narrative of Giotto's
movements, and of the herculean labours accomplished
by that painter during this somewhat limited period of
his life. Whether Giotto really made more than one
visit to Padua and its neighbourhood during these years
of his activity, or if, as we are told by Michele Savon-
arola, in that writer's " De Laudibus Patavii," l he really
made that town his headquarters for a lengthy period of
time, we have no means of determining. Certain it is,
however, that sooner or later he must have returned to
his beloved Florence, where he doubtless spent a goodly
number of years, previous to his famous journey to
Naples, which could not have taken place, despite
Vasari's statement to the contrary, until considerably
after 1327. Of the many works which he is said to have
eximius Florentinus agnoscitur qualis in arte fuerit. Testantur
opera facta per eum in ecclesiis Minorum Assissti, Artmini,
Paduae, et ea quaepinxit in Palatio Communis Paduae, et in ecclesia
Arenas Paduae"
1 Published in 1440. " Et tantum dignilas Civitatis eum com-
movtl, ut maximam suae vitae partem in ea consummavit."
122 GIOTTO
painted during different periods of his life, in this his
adopted city, a single altar-piece and two sadly damaged
series of frescoes are all that now remain to tell the tale
of those long years of steady toil and labour ; and to the
Florentines themselves belongs the glory of having
wantonly destroyed the grand creations of this their
greatest artist.
In the great Franciscan church of Santa Croce, which,
before its desecration by the vandals of the so-called
" Later Renaissance," was assuredly to be counted among
the grandest monuments of early Italian art, Vasari
mentions no less than four different chapels as having
been decorated by Giotto's hand.
Incredible as it may seem, not even the time-honoured
name of the great master by whom they were adorned
was sufficient to save these beautiful chapels from the
deluge of whitewash which the barbaric taste of the
seventeenth and eighteenth centuries poured out upon
the older churches of Italy, and Giotto's paintings shared
the common fate of many another masterpiece. The
walls of two of these chapels — those of the Bardi and
Peruzzi families — have since been freed from their coats
of plaster and of wash, and some of the grandest of
all Giotto's works rescued from permanent oblivion —
not, however, without the inevitable accompaniment of
" restoration " and renewal. Nevertheless, deplorably
damaged and repainted as they are, the original grandeur
of these once splendid frescoes still makes itself felt
through the screen of modern paint, stamping them un-
mistakably as having once belonged to the list of Giotto's
most perfect creations, painted at the zenith of his powers.
Although all attempts to fix the exact date of these
LATER WORKS 123
paintings can but end in mere approximate conjectures,
a critical comparison with Giotto's works at Padua and
Assist plainly shows them to belong to a much later
period than that fixed upon by many critics, and they
are certainly the latest in date of all the master's works
preserved to us.1
An examination of the two series leaves no doubt as
to the Bardi Chapel having been the first to be decorated
by Giotto, and here he once more takes up the favoured
subject with which he had already shown his powers at
Assisi — the Life of St. Francis. Space has here rendered
so lengthy a series as that in the Assisan church im-
possible, and the painter has been obliged to content
himself with eight subjects, chosen by his employers as
being, in their estimation, the most important ones
of all.
Giotto commences on the right wall, with St. Francis'
Renunciation of his Father and the World. Let us com-
pare this fresco with the master's treatment of the same
subject at Assisi. After making due allowance for the
influence of the space — which differs in each representa-
tion— upon the general arrangement of the figures, we
find that the essential features of the composition are
not radically changed. In the later work, painted to fill
a long and low lunette, the artist has been allowed far
greater freedom for the lengthening out of his design,
which has thereby gained in grace over the more com-
pact arrangement of the figures at Assisi. In the matter
of action and movement, the two frescoes resemble each
1 Vasari is clearly mistaken in classing these works, as he does,
among those earlier creations of the master, executed before his
journey to Rome.
124 GIOTTO
other closely, even to the repetition of certain minor
motives. In simple energy of expression, the painting
at Assisi distinctly holds the first place, while the later
representation is characterized by a greater ease of move-
ment, and a certain dignified quiet and restraint. The
work of the restorer has, however, in both cases rendered
a just appreciation and comparison of the original figures
quite impossible, all such details as those of facial ex-
pression having been entirely changed or lost.
In the fresco of St. Francis before Innocent III., in
the opposite lunette, Giotto has sought by means of the
sloping architectural lines and the addition of the two
lateral pairs of figures, to adapt his composition to the
space allowed him. In the fulfilment of this intention,
he has been singularly successful, although we instinct-
ively feel that the symmetrical balance of the whole has
been purchased at the cost of a certain amount of that
freedom and naturalness so characteristic of the master
as we generally know him. In the treatment of the
principal group, Giotto has not essentially departed from
his earlier design.
In the painting below, of St. Francis before the Sultan,
the master no longer follows the arrangement of the same
scene at Assisi, but has here produced an entirely different
composition. Restoration has again dealt severely with
this once splendid fresco, and is especially to be thanked
for the present awkward and badly draped figure of the
Saint. Better followed out, however, is the truly noble
and expressive one of the Sultan himself, and those of
the Saracen guards and the retreating priests. In the
last-named, especially, the restorer has kept quite faith-
fully to the beautiful lines of the original drapery. Very
LATER WORKS 125
fine, in its purity of style and decoration, is the Sultan's
throne, with its classic marble canopy.
The Apparition at Aries forms the subject of the fresco
next in order. Here, again, although perhaps superior in
symmetry of arrangement, Giotto's later work, as it now
stands, falls behind his treatment of the subject at Assisi,
both in grandeur and in energy of expression.
The painter has combined the next two subjects, those
of the Visions of Frate Agostino, and of the Bishop of
Assisi, in a single fresco. This painting has suffered more
severely than any other of the series, the figure of St.
Francis appearing to the Bishop being entirely new, while
those of the other personages in both scenes are hardly
better off.
We now come to the closing scene of all — the Funeral
of the Saint (PI. 31). Probably, in more ways than one,
Giotto's greatest masterpiece, as a composition this work
remains unsurpassed, if not unparalleled, in the entire
history of Italian art. No words can do the slightest
justice to the beauty of this wonderful design, so faultless
in its absolute perfection — in a way the culminating effort
of the master's genius as an artist, and sufficient in itself
to confirm all our claims to the great position held by
Giotto, not only as the first painter of his own day, but
as one of the greatest of all times. Here, for once, even
the sad work of the restorer passes almost unnoticed in
our admiration of the whole, and his worst efforts have
been powerlessto ruin the effect of solemnity and grandeur
which still pervades this veritable triumph of Giotto's
art.
In the four divisions of the ceiling are representa-
tions of St. Francis in Glory, and of those three Virtues
126 GIOTTO
most particularly held in reverence by his order —
abridged versions of the far more elaborate Allegories
at Assisi.
On either side of the altar, one above the other, are
painted the full-length figures of St. Louis of Toulouse l
and St. Clara, St. Louis, King of France, and St. Elizabeth
of Hungary, each in a feigned Gothic niche. Terribly
repainted as they are, the original nobility of these
figures still shows out clearly from beneath their thick
coatings of repaint. Even more unfortunate in the treat-
ment they have received, are the figures of saints in the
vaulting of the entrance, preserving as they do, nothing
beyond a few vague traces of their original character and
design.
High above this arched entrance to the chapel, on the
main wall of the church, Giotto painted as a complement
to the series — and probably as forming the most signifi-
cant subject of all — the Reception of the Stigmata by
St. Francis (PI. 32). Comparatively free from restoration,
this damaged painting is the only one of the entire series
from which we may derive anything resembling a correct
conception of the original beauty and nobility of these
frescoes, as they left Giotto's hand. To all who give it
a moment's real attention, the advance accomplished by
the master in his technical rendering of form, movement
and expression, will be easily apparent. As compared
1 Dr. Thode, in his monograph on Giotto, dwells, not without
reason, on the fact that St. Louis of Toulouse, whose effigy Giotto
has here painted, was not canonized until 1317, a sufficient reason
to his mind, for placing the date of these frescoes at a period sub-
sequent to that year — an argument certainly in support of our own
opinion as regards this question.
Alinari p/ioto\
\Stct. Croce, Florence
ST. FRANCIS RECEIVING THE STIGMATA
Plate 32
LATER WORKS 127
with his earlier treatment of the subject at Assisi, we find
here an increased simplicity and conciseness of representa-
tion, the painter having eliminated the extra figure of
St. Francis' companion, thus concentrating the entire
attention of the spectator upon the Saint himself, and
the Divine Vision which is the subject of the fresco.
In part even more cruelly repainted than these frescoes
of the Bardi Chapel, are those relating to the lives of
St. John the Baptist and his namesake the Evangelist, in
the adjoining chapel of the Peruzzi family. The monu-
mental style in which these works were originally con-
ceived, is, however, still unmistakably apparent ; and they
are certainly to be considered as products of the most
mature period of Giotto's activity, in all probability
posterior in date, by some years at least, to the paintings
in the Bardi Chapel, as well as the latest of all the
master's existing paintings. Commencing on the left
wall, we have three subjects from the life of the Baptist.
The first of these represents the appearance of the Angel
to Zacharias. So entirely repainted is this fresco, that
nothing now remains of the original figures beyond a
general sense of their form and movement — sufficient,
nevertheless, to afford us some idea of their former beauty.
The same may be said with equal truth of the scene that
follows — the Birth and Naming of St. John. The fresco
of the Feast of Herod (PI. 33), however, has in some
inexplicable manner escaped, to a great extent, the fate
of the other paintings, and a goodly portion of Giotto's
work is still left to us, in a measure free from the restorer's
changes. As in the case of the fresco of the Stigmata in the
preceding series, we may still arrive through a study of
this one work at a comparatively just appreciation of the
128 GIOTTO
perfection of Giotto's style at this period of his activity.
Best preserved of all is the beautiful and justly praised
figure of the viol player, but we need not confine our
interest to this one personage, for, one and all, the par-
ticipants in the scene are worthy of careful study and
attention. Beneath the archway to the right, Giotto has
represented a second episode in the tragedy — Salome
presenting the head of the Saint to her mother. Very
interesting is the architecture in this painting, and the
master's study of classic models comes most strikingly to
the fore in the decoration of the loggia , foreshadowing, as
it does, the work of the later Renaissance.
The lunette fresco on the opposite wall — representing
the Vision of St. John the Evangelist on the Isle of
Patmos — is chiefly remarkable as an example of Giotto's
powers in concisely treating a subject which, in the hands
of most painters of the time, was usually spread out into
a number of different scenes. The various figures are
here too heavily repainted to admit of further discussion
of their respective merits. Restoration has also had far
more than its due share in the following painting — The
Raising of Drusiana — but the striking grandeur of
arrangement, the noble dignity of the principal figures,
their deep expressiveness of movement, and their splendid
development of form, still impress us with much of their
original power, proving the uniform excellence at which
Giotto had arrived at the time these works were painted.
Even grander and far more carefully preserved, is the
fresco that follows, representing the legendary Assump-
tion of the Saint (PI. 34). No later artist ever succeeded
in surpassing the perfect realization of movement arrived
at by Giotto in this wonderful work. It would indeed
LATER WORKS 129
be difficult to conceive of a more dignified, and at the
same time a more impressive and rational, conception
of the subject than that here given us by Giotto — a
worthy climax indeed to the long series of the master's
paintings with which we have hitherto become ac-
quainted.
Of the other works executed by Giotto in Santa Croce,
nothing now remains. Chief among these must have
been the decorations of the chapels belonging to the
Giugni, and to the Tosinghi and Spinelli families. Both
these chapels were, however, whitewashed together with
the others, and early in the past century the last-named
was covered with the modern paintings which now deface
its walls, Giotto's work being irretrievably lost thereby.
As to the famous " Baroncelli " altar-piece — still looked
upon by critics as one of the most " authentic " of Giotto's
paintings — we must again express our wonderment that
any one pretending to the least acquaintance with the
master's style should for a moment have mistaken this
work for a genuine production of Giotto's brush. A
single glance at any of the figures in the composition is
certainly sufficient to effectually disprove its present
attribution to the master whose name it bears ; for, apart
from the evident falsity of the signature, the long straight
noses, the narrow slit-like eyes, the peculiar folds of the
drapery, the comparative slightness of form, all point to
a production of one of Giotto's many pupils — in this case
very near to Taddeo Gaddi.1 To Taddeo himself belongs
the long series of little panels — once a part of the cup-
boards in the Sacristy — now in the Academy at Florence.
1 To the best of our knowledge, Mr. Berenson has been the first
and only critic to impugn the authenticity of this work.
K
1 30 GIOTTO
These interesting little works relating to the life of Christ
and of St. Francis, and so nearly resembling Giotto's own
works in composition and in spirit as to easily lead to
the supposition that they were executed from the master's
own designs, are still by many considered to be entirely
his creations. The Last Supper and the other frescoes
on the end wall of the Old Refectory are also unmistak-
able productions of Taddeo.
For a detailed account of the many other paintings
said to have been executed by Giotto during these later
years of his activity, we must recommend the reader to
the pages of Vasari. However inexact that writer's list
may be, there is little reason to doubt that, apart from
the innumerable works carried out by his many pupils,
the master must have fulfilled with his own hand a large
number of the endless commissions which poured in upon
him both at Florence and elsewhere. Nevertheless, with
the exception of the ruined frescoes which we have already
examined in the Bardi and Peruzzi chapels, and one or
two relatively unimportant little panel pictures, no further
traces of the master's industry during these later years of
his activity now remain.
CHAPTER X
THE CAMPANILE AND FINAL WORKS
THE exact date of Giotto's journey to Naples is not
known to us, although we are in the possession of
a document, dated January, 1330, in which he is offered
by King Robert the full honours due to a familiar guest.
According to Vasari, it was through the recommendation
of Duke Charles of Calabria, son of King Robert, that
Giotto received the invitation to paint in the southern
capital. Charles had been elected Lord of Florence in
1326, and had resided in that city for a good part of the
two years preceding his death in 1328, at which time,
Vasari further tells us, Giotto was called upon to paint
him kneeling at the feet of the Virgin, in the Palazzo
Vecchio at Florence. That the painter's stay at the
Neapolitan court was a comparatively lengthy one, is
proved by another document attesting his presence in
that city during 1332-1333, and it is furthermore quite
probable that he left Florence for the South at an even
earlier period than is generally supposed. Tradition
dwells especially on the warm personal friendship which
existed between Giotto and his royal patron, and more
than one old chronicler is loud in praises of the works
executed by the great painter in the Castel Nuovo, the
Castel delP Uovo, and in the church and convent of
Sta. Chiara. Of all these great creations, however, not a
132 GIOTTO
vestige now remains, although the many interesting works
in the churches of Naples and the surrounding country,
by various of the master's followers and pupils, still
attest, as at Rome, Florence, and Ravenna, the extra-
ordinary influence exercised by Giotto in these parts.
Quite possibly, on his return journey to Florence, he
may have stopped and painted at Gaeta, as Vasari tells
us in his " Lives," although nothing now remains of his
work in that city. Regarding his visit to Rimini and
Ravenna, we have already spoken in another place.
Whatever may have been the duration of his stay at
Naples, or of his journey back to Florence, he certainly
was already in that city by April, 1334, for on the I2th
of that month we find him appointed by public decree
Capo-Maestro of Sta. Reparata, and Architect of the
Commune.
The appointment of Giotto to these two important
and responsible posts certainly tends to the supposition
that he had previously given some material proofs of his
architectural talents, or of his genius as an engineer.
Unfortunately, we have no means of ascertaining if this
were really the case, and, beyond a few traditional attri-
butions, nothing remains to us by which we may gauge
the master's ability in these branches of art and science.
The exact extent of the work accomplished on the
Cathedral itself under Giotto's superintendence is not
precisely known. Tradition has it that he commenced
the decoration of the old facade, which, however, was
never competed, remaining in an unfinished state until
1588, when it was finally removed. How far Giotto was
really responsible for this and other works connected
with the building of the Cathedral, it is impossible to
Lombard! photo} {Opera del Dnomo, Siena
DRAWING FOR THE CAMPANILE
Plate 35
CAMPANILE AND FINAL WORKS 133
ascertain ; certain it is, however, that to him alone was
due the original conception of that most daringly imagin-
ative of all towers — the Campanile which still bears his
name.
The foundation stone of this famous tower was laid on
July 1 8th, 1 334, in the presence of the Bishop of Florence,
the Priors, and a great gathering of the people, the event
being made the occasion for a grand and solemn pro-
cession on the part of the Florentines. The building
seems hardly to have progressed beyond the first story
with the bas-reliefs, however, when Giotto died in 1336.
In the hands of Andrea Pisano, who was appointed to
succeed him, Giotto's original plan seems to have under-
gone essential alteration. The nature of Andrea's changes,
however, evidently failed to meet with the approval of
his employers, and the commission to complete the tower
was transferred to Francesco Talenti. To this genial
architect is due the greater part of the present edifice,
the entire three last stories having been carried out
beneath his supervision.
Whether Talenti returned in part to Giotto's original
design, or whether he is alone responsible for the work
as it now stands, it is impossible to determine with any
certainty, no authentic copy of Giotto's plan having been
handed down to us. There exists, however, in the Opera
del Duomo at Siena, an old drawing (PI. 35) first brought
to the notice of the critical public some years ago by Signor
Nardini-Despotti, which, according to that writer, repre-
sents Giotto's original conception of the tower. Certainly
a careful study of this work can but incline us toward
the acceptance of Signor Nardini's opinion. The base
of the present building — the part that is generally attri-
i34 GIOTTO
buted to Giotto himself — certainly coincides perfectly
with the drawing, which further brings to mind Vasari's
statement that the edifice was to have been crowned,
according to Giotto's original design, by a spire fifty
braccia in height, which scheme was, however, abandoned
by the later architects as being " a German thing and of
antiquated fashion."
If Giotto's share in the building of the Campanile has
given rise to endless discussions, still more words have
been spent in regard to the famous series of bas-reliefs
which adorn the walls of its first story. It has been a
time-honoured tradition that the great master himself
both designed and executed these beautiful works, and
Ghiberti goes so far as to tell us that, in his day, Giotto's
original clay models for some of them were still to be
seen in Florence. By many modern critics, however,
Giotto's connection with these works has been altogether
denied, and the entire honour of their creation given to
Andrea Pisano. A comparison of the reliefs with the
known works of Andrea and Giotto can, however, leave
no doubt as to their having been originally designed by
the latter master. To all who have studied the creations
of the two artists, the great difference in their style can
but be apparent. Gifted as he was with a far keener
feeling for abstract beauty, the graceful and charming
manner of Andrea is hardly to be confounded with the
far grander and more simply naturalistic one of Giotto,
unless, indeed, Andrea's style may have undergone a
complete and radical change during the short period of
time between the completion of the famous Baptistery
Doors in 1330, and the probable execution of the bas-
reliefs in question some four or five years later — a suppo-
Alinari photo}
[Bas-relief on Campanile, Florence
JABAL
Plate 36
CAMPANILE AND FINAL WORKS 135
sition hardly within the range of probability. On the
other hand, the exquisite execution of these reliefs cer-
tainly betokens the handiwork of a practised sculptor,
and although the versatility of Giotto's genius would by
no means exclude the possibility of his having been a
master of the chisel as well as of the brush, we have no
reason to believe that he ever practically exercised the
stone-cutter's art. Essentially a painter by profession,
it would have been but natural that the technical execu-
tion of his designs should have been intrusted to his
friend and contemporary Andrea, then the greatest
sculptor of his day ; and to that artist and his pupils
is undoubtedly due this share in the production of these
works.
Twenty-seven in number, the different reliefs represent
the creation of man and his subsequent earthly occupa-
tions, commencing with the older and more primitive
branches of industry, and ending with the higher arts and
sciences. The series has its beginning on the western
wall, where are represented : the Creation of Man — the
Creation of Woman — the Toiling of Adam and Eve —
Pastoral Life (Jabal in his Tent) (PI. 36) — Jubal, the
Inventor of Musical Instruments — Tubal Cain, first of
Metal-workers — the Drunkenness of Noah, possibly re-
presentative of the First Vintage. To the south we have :
Astronomy — Building — Pottery — Riding — Weaving (PI.
37) — the Giving of Law — and Daedalus, representing,
according to Mr. Ruskin, the Conquest of the Element
of Air. On the eastern side are : Navigation — Hercules
and Antceus, or the " Victory of Intelligence and Civiliza-
tion over Brute Force" — Agriculture — Trade (?), or
rather the Subjection of the Horse to Draught — the
136 GIOTTO
Lamb of the Resurrection (above the entrance door) —
Geometry. On the north wall : Sculpture and Painting.
The remaining five reliefs : Grammar, Arithmetic, Logic,
Song, and Harmony, are later works by Luca della
Robbia. The second row of reliefs higher up on the
walls are undoubtedlyproductionsof the school of Andrea,
and in one or two cases possibly by Andrea himself.
Reasons of space unfortunately prevent us from entering
into any detailed description of these truly beautiful com-
positions. Whatever may have been Giotto's exact share
in their creation, sufficient it is that in them we find,
carried to the highest point of possible perfection, all
the grandly characteristic qualities of that master's genius
with which we have already become so intimately ac-
quainted in our examination of his paintings. Nowhere
do we find his study of Nature shown to better advantage
— nowhere, at the same time, is his appreciation of classic
models more apparent. In their concise simplicity of
conception, in their directness of expression, and in their
deep significance of thought, these designs nearly ap-
proach the famous Allegories in the Paduan Arena, and
are, with them, to be classed among the most character-
istic of all the master's works. Once again, the com-
parison of Giotto's conceptions with the treatment of the
same subjects by earlier mediaeval artists, and more
especially with the work of Niccolo and Giovanni Pisano
on the public fountain at Perugia, will reward all who
may spare the time to make it. For those who would
more closely study these wonderful reliefs, we can but
recommend a careful perusal of the sixth chapter of
Ruskin's " Mornings in Florence."
Onerous as may have been Giotto's duties as an archi-
A linari photo\
\_Bas-relicfon Campanile, Florence
WEAVING
Plate 37
CAMPANILE AND FINAL WORKS 137
tect and as an engineer, they do not seem to have inter-
fered, to any really great extent, with his activity as a
painter, and it was in this capacity, Villani tells us, that
he was sent by the Florentine Republic to Milan, in
order to fulfil certain commissions for Azzone Visconti,
then lord and ruler of that city, who had expressed his
great desire that the master's services might be spared
him for a time. The exact duration of his stay in that
city is not known to us, but it was evidently here that
Giotto painted his last works, for Villani tells us, that
shortly after his return to Florence, he passed away from
the scene of his earthly labours on the 8th of January,
1336 (1337) — as full of honour as of years.
CHAPTER XI
THE GENIUS OF GIOTTO
r I ^HERE exists, perhaps, in the entire history of art,
J_ no single personage whose character is more truly
reflected in his works than is the case with Giotto di
Bondone. To us they are a lasting commentary on his
life, and from them we may draw a far truer idea of the
man than any written documents could possibly afford ;
nor could the result of our deductions be more clearly or
beautifully expressed than in the words of Ruskin : " His
love of beauty was entirely free from weakness ; his love
of truth untinged by severity ; his industry constant,
without impatience ; his workmanship accurate, without
formalism ; his temper serene, and yet playful ; his
imagination exhaustless, without extravagance ; and his
faith firm, without superstition."
Of the master's private life we know comparatively
nothing beyond the fact that he was married to a certain
Ciuta di Lapo, of the Popolo of Sta. Reparata, by whom
he became the father of eight children : Francesco, whose
name we find inscribed among the members of the
Company of Painters in 1351 ; Caterina, who married
the painter Ricco di Lapo ; Lucia, Chiara, Bice, Donate,
a second Francesco, by calling a priest, and Niccola.
Giotto seems never to have forgotten his native home
in the quiet Val di Mugello, and documents prove to us
THE GP:NIUS OF GIOTTO 139
that he possessed considerable landed property in those
parts. In Florence, also, he appears to have owned
several houses, and we can easily imagine that he amassed
no small amount of wealth during his long life of con-
stant industry and toil.
Many are the anecdotes related of him by the writers
of the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, as well as by
Vasari. Although not entirely dissimilar to the traditions
which gather, in the course of time, about the personality
of every great artist, we find among them, in this present
case, a strange and significant coincidence in their paint-
ing of the man ; and, each and all, they tend but to con-
firm our own previous conception of his nature. An alert
shrewdness and an abundance of sound and practical
common sense seem to go hand in hand with an amiable
humour, and a quick but kindly wit. Little wonder that
a nature so perfectly balanced as was his made him the
chosen companion of the greatest minds of his day; little
wonder that his company was sought for both by scholars
and by princes.
As an artist, we have already made clear to the reader
Giotto's position among the painters of his time. The
history of art affords no parallel to the tremendous
transformation effected by him in the field of painting
during the short period of his earlier artistic activity.
Not only did he bring about a fundamental change in
the technical treatment, as well as in the spiritual signifi-
cance, of his art, but he succeeded in raising it to a
position of independence such as it had never before
enjoyed. Eminently a naturalist, in the highest meaning
of the term, his work is equally removed from the stiff
conventionality of his Byzantine predecessors, and the
i4o GIOTTO
trivial and photographic realism of a later age. His
was an idealized naturalism, one which aimed at the
expression of Nature's deeper truths, far rather than at
the exact reproduction of her more obvious outward
details.
To many modern critics the technical development
of his art may leave much to be desired ; but to him his
means were amply sufficient unto his ends. Indeed,
these very so-called technical deficiencies serve but to
accentuate his marvellous artistic powers ; and we can
bring to mind no other artist who can be said to have
accomplished as much as did Giotto, at so wonderfully
slight an expenditure of means. The direct simplicity
and significance of every line and touch, of every move-
ment and gesture, of every detail and of every spot of
colour, cannot possibly escape the observation of any
serious student of Giotto's art. Nor does there exist a
single genuine creation of the master's brush which does
not possess, to a greater or a less extent, this same
marked spirit of concise expression.
Of the versatility of his genius we have already had
occasion to remark. If we may believe the writings of
the earlier historians, he united to his gifts as a painter,
architect and engineer, those of a poet. Of his pro-
ductions in this field we have been left but a single ex-
ample— a long poem on the Virtue of Voluntary Poverty
— in which, however, the practical qualities of his nature
are as clearly and vividly apparent as in any of his
paintings.
Of the technical innovations which Giotto introduced
into the art of his day in the matter of colour and de-
sign, and, above all, in the representation of plastic form,
THE GENIUS OF GIOTTO 141
we have already spoken in the preceding pages of this
little book.
The first to break away from the trammels and conven-
tions of the painting of his time, Giotto not only laid the
foundations of a new art, but during his own lifetime
brought it to such a stage of perfection as to limit the
progress of the succeeding centuries of the Renaissance
to a mere development of technical detail. In dramatic
force of representation, in unfailing directness of expres-
sion, in concise significance of action, in dignity and
nobility of conception, in sanity of imagination and
sincerity of feeling, he stands unsurpassed among the
painters of Italy and the world. In Masaccio and Filippo
Lippi, in Michelangelo, in Titian and in Tintoretto,
vastly different as they seem among themselves, we find
his legitimate successors — men showing, to a greater or
a less degree, these same qualities of his genius. In no
one of them, however, do we find that rare and perfect
combination of all these varied gifts, which was so
uniquely his possession ; and it is in this respect, if in
no other, that Giotto must remain to us and to all time as
one of the greatest artists that the world has ever known.
Of Giotto's numberless followers and pupils, we have
made but slight and passing mention in these pages.
Spread as they were, during the master's own lifetime,
throughout the length and breadth of Italy, we must
reserve for a future volume the study of their art and of
its influences, as space forbids us here from entering into
any discussion either of their faults or of their merits.
As to their technical methodsof execution, which were also
Giotto's own, we cannot do better than refer the reader
to the famous treatise of Cennino Cennini on that subject.
CHAPTER XII
THE PANEL PICTURES
TIME has left us but few panel pictures from the
hand of Giotto, and none equalling in importance
the great Stefaneschi altar-piece at Rome which, as we
have already stated, is not only the earliest recognizable
work of the master now in existence, but also the only
one, the approximate date of whose execution is known
to us.1 There are, however, a few examples of this
branch of Giotto's art still existing in public and private
collections, as to whose authenticity no doubt need be
expressed, and we have for reasons of comparison
purposely reserved our notice of them to the present
moment.
Earliest, in date of execution, is undoubtedly the little
picture of the Presentation, now belonging to Mrs. J. L.
Gardner, of Boston, U.S.A. As far as regards composi-
1 Mr. Berenson is of the opinion that Giotto's earliest recognizable
work is to be found in three little panels — one in the possession of
the Duke of Northumberland, the others in the Munich Gallery
(Nos. 979, 980). The first of these we have not seen. As to the
two beautiful little pictures at Munich, we must beg to differ with
Mr. Berenson regarding their authorship, for, although possessing
to an extraordinary degree Giotto's exceptional sense of form, they
appear to lack the vitality and force so characteristic of the master.
In the matter of drapery, facial and bodily types, and general ex-
pression, they seem to us the work of one of the more talented of
Giotto's pupils.
THE PANEL PICTURES 143
tion, this painting foreshadows Giotto's fresco of the same
subject at Padua, although the figures do not appear to
have arrived at the fullness of form so conspicuous in the
later work — a fact which would lead us to place it among
the productions of the master's later Assisan period.
Closely connected with the frescoes of the Life of St.
Francis at Assisi, but in all probability painted at a
somewhat later date, is the large altar-piece, once in the
church of San Francesco at Pisa, now in the Louvre.
Vasari tells us that this work was held in such veneration
by the Pisans as to have been the direct cause of Giotto
being called to paint in the Campo Santo of that city,
where he executed the frescoes relating to the trials of
Job, which works in turn led to his invitation to Rome by
Pope Benedict IX (?) — a piece of fiction in Vasari's most
genial vein. In the arrangement of its principal subject,
the Stigmatization of St. Francis, this work resembles
very closely its predecessor at Assisi, even to the details
of the background. For reasons, probably of space,
Giotto has omitted the figure of the Saint's companion,
as in the later fresco above the Bardi Chapel. The pro-
portions of the kneeling figure are slightly less heavy and
compact than in the larger wall-painting at Assisi ; the
attitude, however, is identical in both cases. In the pre-
della below are represented the Dream of Innocent III.,
the Presentation of the Rules of the Order, and the Ser-
mon to the Birds — all faithfully copied from the frescoes
of the same scenes at Assisi. A comparison of this altar-
piece with its different prototypes is at once instructive
and of the greatest importance in revealing, to some ex-
tent, the original strength and beauty of those works of
which it is evidently so faithful a reflection ; for, although
144 GIOTTO
this painting has suffered severely from age and restora-
tion— the original colour being almost entirely lost —
much of Giotto's handiwork still remains.
Belonging to the master's Paduan period is the small
painting of the Last Supper, No. 983 of the Munich
Gallery. Slightly earlier in date is the Crucifixion
(No. 981) in the same collection.
The beautiful Crucifix in the sacristy of the Arena
Chapel at Padua is also an unmistakable production of
Giotto's brush. This work — the most exquisitely finished
of all his panel pictures — is to our mind the only one of
all the many Crucifixes attributed to the master that can
be looked upon as a genuine work of his hand.
Not far removed from this same period of his Paduan
activity, is the large painting of the Virgin and Child
surrounded by Saints and Angels (PI. 38), now in the
Academy at Florence, originally in the church of Ognis-
santi in that city. Located as it now is, beside the great
altar-piece attributed to Cimabue, this work affords the
spectator an exceptional opportunity for the comparison
of Giotto's art with that of his Florentine contemporaries
and predecessors. Indeed, we can hardly think but that
it was painted by the master as a special challenge to
the Florentine painters of the time, for, although holding
closely to the conventional composition of the older
school, he has thrown into this great picture of the Virgin
all the force and power of his new ideals. Let those who
will, carefully compare this work with the many older
pictures of the Madonna still in existence — such a com-
parison will do far more than mere words toward accen-
tuating the great differences between the art of Giotto
and that of his predecessors.
A nderson photo}
[Accadenna, Florence
Plate 38
THE VIRGIN ENTHRONED
CATALOGUE OF WORKS
ALNWICK CASTLE. Duke of Northumberland, Panel with
Sposalizio : St. Francis receiving Stigmata, etc. (?)
Ass i si. S. Francesco \ Lower Church :
1?. Transept. Frescoes from Lives of Christ and Virgin,
Miracles of St. Francis.
Above High Altar. Four Allegories.
Chapel of St. Mary Magdalen. Frescoes from Life of
Magdalen (in part).
Upper Church. Frescoes from Life of St. Francis (first
nineteen subjects), Virgin and Child.
BOSTON, U.S.A. Mrs. J. L. Gardner. Presentation (panel).
FLORENCE. Academy \ No. 103. Madonna with Saints and
Angels (panel).
Santa Croce, Bardi Chapel. Frescoes from Life of St.
Francis.
Peruzzi Chapel. Frescoes from Lives of Baptist and St.
John Evangelist.
MUNICH. Gallery r, No. 981. Crucifixion (panel).
No. 983. Last Supper (panel).
PADUA. Arena CJiapel. Frescoes (all with the exception of
those in choir).
In Sacristy. Crucifix (panel).
S. Antonio, Sala del Capitolo. Frescoes of Saints.
PARIS. Louvre, No. 1312. St. Francis receiving Stigmata,
with predelle (panel).
ROME. 61. PietrO) Sagrestia del Canonici. Stefaneschi altar-
piece.
S. Giovanni Laterano. Boniface VIII. proclaiming the
Jubilee, 1 300 (fragment of a fresco).
INDEX
Assisi, Upper Church of San Fran-
cesco, 18, 19, 20, 26, 29, 40 «.,
69, 7 1 f/ ,r<?<7.
Lower Church, 45, 54 et seq.
86, 108.
Eerenson, Bernhard, 4, 28, 37, 39,
47»., 71, 83, i29»., 142.
Bonaventura, St., his " Life of St.
Francis," 76.
Boniface VIII., Pope, 32, 48, 49,
50.
Buffalmacco, 86.
Cavallini, Pietro, 51.
Charles, Duke, of Calabria, 131.
Cimabue, 16, 18, 24-28, 41 «., 59,
71, 83, 144.
Dante, 7, 24, 51, 62, 90, 119.
Duccio of Siena, 27.
Florence, Sta Maria Novella, the
Rucellai altar-piece in, 27 ; Ceiling
of the Spanish Chapel in 45.
Academy, 27, 144.
Badia, 32.
Sta Croce, Bardi Chapel, 59,
69, 74, 122-127; Peruzzi chapel,
122, 127.
Chapel of the Bargello, 85.
Florence, Campanile, 133.
Franco Bolognese, 51.
Gaddi, Taddei, 129, 130.
Gardner, Mrs. J. L., 142.
Giotto, authorities for his life, 2-4 ;
birth, 22, 23 ; his early works
lost, 28 ; influence of Giovanni
Pisano on, 30, 31 ; the Stefan -
eschi altar-piece, 33 et seq. ; form
in his works, 37, 38 ; his colour,
43 ; the "Navicella," mosaic, 34,
45 ; fresco in the Lateran, 49 ;
friendship with Dante, 51 ; the
frescoes in the Lower Church at
Assisi, 54 et seq, ; frescoes in the
Upper Church, 71 et seq. ; frescoes
in the Chapel of St. Mary Magda-
len, 86, 87 ; frescoes in the Arena
Chapel, 89 et seq. ; allegorical
scenes at Padua, 1 10 et seq. ; visit
to Ravenna, 1 19 ; works in Flor-
ence, 122 et seq. ; visit to Naples,
131 ; appointed Architect of the
Commune, 132; his share in the
Campanile, 133 et seq. ; his death,
137 ; his marriage and family,
138 ; his character and genius,
139 ; his versatility, 140 ; his
panel pictures, 142.
Gubbio, Oderigi da, 51.
i48
Imola, Benvenuto da, 90.
Margaritone of Arezzo, 17.
Milan, Ambrosian Library, 49.
Milanesi, Gaetano, 85.
Munich Gallery, 142 n., 144.
Miintz, Eugene, 49.
Nardini-Despotti, Signer, 133.
"Navicella," the, 34, 45-47, 51.
Northumberland, Duke of, 142 n.
Padua, Arena Chapel, 55, 58, 59,
67, 86, 87, 89 et seq. ; Sacristy,
144.
S. Antonio, 117, 118.
Paris, Louvre, 143.
Pembroke, Lord, 47 n.
Pisano, Andrea, 15, 133, 134, 135,
136.
Pisano, Giovanni, 7, 14, 30, 31, 91,
99, I3i-
Pisano, Giunta, 17, 41 ;/.
Pisano, Niccolo, 7-11, 13, 14, 15,
17, 20, 21, 136.
INDEX
Pacci, Antonio, 23.
Riccobaldo Ferrarese, Ii5«., 118,
1 20.
Robbia, Luca della, 136.
Robert, King, of Naples, 121, 131.
Rome, St. Peter's, 22, 33, 34-48.
S. Giovanni Laterano, 49, 50,
69.
Ruskin, J., 92 «., 136, 138.
Scrovegno, Enrico, 89,91, 106, 116.
Stefaneschi, Cardinal Giacomo Gae-
tani de', 33, 35, 45, 47, 48.
Stefaneschi altar-piece, the, 33-45,
47, 61, 142.
Talenti, Francesco, 133.
Tarlati Guido, Bishop of Arezzo
121.
Vasari, 2, 3, 22, 24, 25, 32, 48, 51,
116, 118, 120, 121, 130, 131, 143.
Visconti, Azzone, 137.
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