“Giotto’s genius blooms afresh in Padua” ✎

I would love to share a wonderful article by the historian Robin Lane Fox.

In “Giotto’s genius blooms afresh in Padua” (The Financial Times), he writes about “Joachim’s Dream” by Giotto di Bondone:

Restoration of the biblical frescoes in the Scrovegni chapel reveals the Italian painter to be not just the maestro of human gesture and form but a brilliant botanical artist as well.

Giotto was born in Tuscany. He was active from the 1290s until his death in 1337, not only as a painter but as an architect too, designer of the base of Florence’s multicoloured bell tower beside its cathedral. Modern critics like to decentre famous names and discover neglected talent among their contemporaries. Giotto was a genius, so much so that they tend to skirt around him. I have just checked what Kenneth Clark had to say about him in his wonderful BBC series, Civilisation, first broadcast in 1969. In episode three, Giotto, he declared, “ is one of the supreme painters of the world”.

Wearing a neatly pressed suit with a folded handkerchief in his top pocket, Clark spoke in the Arena chapel in Padua. In early October I stood there too, handkerchief-free in sagging trousers. Clark dwelt on some of the paintings that most captivated me, but said nothing about the items I have learnt to value. He presented Giotto as a master of human gesture, form and painted drama. Indeed he was, but Clark did not say that he was also a master artist of plants.

‘Joachim’s Dream’ Giotto painted borage, chives and a spiny thistle.

I had previously thought of Giotto’s landscapes as bare and rocky, unlike his lively human figures. His Nativity scene shows Mary lying on her side under a wooden roof and engaging with her baby Jesus, but the setting is a barren hillscape in which angels are bringing shepherds the glad news. However, in his Resurrected Christ, Giotto painted plants around Christ’s feet. The excellent restoration of the chapel’s frescoes has brought out the details. Christ has a laurel bush, a strawberry tree, or arbutus, and plants of parsley and dill behind him and a variety of calamintha under his feet. They are painted with exceptional precision. Some of the leaves on the parsley are yellow, just as in older age.

In ‘Joachim’s Sacrifice’, a goat eats a pink-flowered
clover; nearby is a marigold and a chamomile.

When Giotto painted The Dream of Joachim, father-to-be of the Virgin Mary, he also put in individual plants, this time on a rocky hill; borage, chives and a spiny thistle. When Clark discussed it in close-up, he ignored them. In the previous scene, Joachim’s Sacrifice, Giotto painted a goat eating a pink-flowered plant in the foreground. It is a clover, exactly painted, and around it there is a marigold and another chamomile.

Genius is capable of almost anything in its field: Giotto, I now realise, is a brilliant botanical artist. How and why did he paint particular plants? His Resurrected Christ is the Christ whom Mary mistook for a gardener. I do not think that he therefore showed plants behind him. Nor does Maria Autizi, one of the restorers who worked at close quarters on Giotto’s paintings.

Giotto in the Louvre ✎

Huge fan of Giotto. A genius of an astounding ouvre. I’ve already discussed his “Pentecost” at the National Gallery, London.

Below are some of his masterpieces at the Louvre.

His art functions today as it did in his day - tell the story of Christ and Biblical tales - but I find them aesthetically beautiful and appreciate the affected humanism/drama.

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The Crucifixion by Giotto (1290-1295)

“Christ on the Cross” between two thieves. I love the angels hovering over fiery clouds.

I do like the dark mountains and skyline - but it was originally golden, it seems. Stolen or “faded”?

Giotto’s innovation was his portrayal of events with believable emotions and recognisable settings and spaces.

Pain, upset, Mary overcome. Such ornate and glowing halos. And yet, most faces (eyes, noses etc.) seem to follow a given stylistic template. 

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Saint Francis of Assisi Receiving the Stigmata by Giotto (1295–1300)

Beautiful.

Magical gold. Seraph’s wings appear brown because Giotto used vermillion (mercury sulphide) as a red pigment and egg tempera as a base. They made his colours particularly susceptible to darkening over the 7 centuries since he painted them. 

It’s easy to see the captivating magic of his golden halo.

The sense of perspective to the houses is funny and those lonely trees (esp. by St Francis’ knee) have such ornate leaves on them.

Notwithstanding the above, it does feel still detached from our world, our nature and reality.

For me, especially the folds and shadows along the creases/wrinkles along St Francis’ habit. Not only is it remarkable, but I’m struck by the fact that’s bound to be more difficult on egg tempera to create shades of brown.

The predella

The predella shows three scenes from the saint’s life: 

The Dream of Pope Innocent III

St Francis holding up the Church while the Pope sleeps. Highly ornate, and decent 3D structural effect.

The Approval of the Franciscan Rule

The Sermon to the Birds

Beautifully painted bird wings landing.

Tree is detailed in its real-life branches & leaves.

The birds painted with attention.

Beautiful.

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Painted cross with a Pelican by Giotto (1300–1310)

This is huge and v. beautiful.

Takes up a large space on the wall of the Louvre.

The cross - with Christ’s head protruding - was intended for worshippers to “see” Christ from below as they looked up at him.

Giotto at the National Gallery ✎

Note: This post is part of the “Gothic and Proto-Renaissance period” on the National Gallery collection. These are some of the oldest works of art in the museum’s collection.

Giotto is regarded as the father of Western painting because of his shift away from Byzantine stylisation and introduction of naturalism and creating a sense of pictorial space and perspective.

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Pentecost by Giotto (1310-18)

Beautiful.

This is a biblical rendering of the 12 (count them) apostles receiving the Holy Spirit in the form of a dove and tongues of fire. 

The two witnesses (orange & blue robes) are listening in and marvelling at apostles now-found ability to preach the gospel in different languages. This is the universal mission of Christ’s disciples and is described in the Acts of the Apostles (2:1-13):

When the Day of Pentecost had fully come, they were all with one accord in one place. And suddenly there came a sound from heaven, as of a rushing mighty wind, and it filled the whole house where they were sitting. Then there appeared to them divided tongues, as of fire, and one sat upon each of them. And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak with other tongues, as the Spirit gave them utterance.

What makes this special is how — unlike other earlier painters — he seems to introduce a 3D reality and space to his personages and their settings. 

Different faces in looking in different directions, hand raised as though in the middle of speech. The 2nd row is positioned lower giving the illusion of greater distance. To the right, a dove high above giving some spatial depth (due to the pillars painted) and an ornate ceiling above it.

He seems to involve the viewer as a witness in the unfolding Christian dramatics. According to the NG, “his skill at bringing biblical stories to life was hugely influential and he is regarded as the founder of Italian Renaissance painting”.

The Holy Spirit is represented as (1) flames on the apostles heads; and (2), more commonly, as a dove, with rays emanating from it. 

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The Dead Christ and Virgin by Neapolitan follower of Giotto (1305-40s)

The Virgin Mary touches the wound in the side of the dead Christ, while two mourning angels appear above.

The way Christ has been painted is v. morbid. Blood dripping down his stomach forming a pool, only just visible. The way his eyes roll back slightly in their sockets. His gaunt appearance. It’s rather evocative of his suffering.

The interlocking arms and the way Mary’s robes fold, over her head, as they cover her suggests the 3D.

The gold is beautiful.