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GIOTTO DI BONDONE 



217 



Sil\.-stro, of tin- Suriinxii Palace, of tin- palace <if 

 Andrea Loredano, of th<> Cn.su Klangini, ami, along 

 witli Titian, of tin- Fondaco de' Tedeschi \\hen it 

 \\a- lehuili in l."(Mi. Sonic fragments of the last- 

 named nescoes are nil that now it-mains of his work 

 of tliis nature. The critic* an- much divided as to 

 the easel -pictures which may be correctly attrib- 

 uted to (iiorgionc, and iln- best authorities reject 

 1>\ tar the greater number tliat bear his name in 

 the various public galleries. The picture known 

 as 'The Family of Giorgione,' in the collection of 

 the late Prince Ciovanelli at Venice ; that titled 

 'The Three Philosophers,' in the Belvedere, 

 Vienna : and the 'Sleeping Venus,' in the Dresden 

 (lalh-ry, are admittedly genuine: but we can no 

 longer regard as undoubtedly from his brush even 

 such noble compositions as the 'Concert Cham- 



. ' of the Louvre, and that 'Concert' of the 

 ritti which seems to embody the very spirit of 

 music, an art to which, as we learn from Vasari, the 

 painter was devoted, his skill as a singer and lute- 

 player having procured his admission into the most 

 distinguished circles of Italian society. The former 

 i^ now attributed by Crowe and Cavalcaselle to the 

 school of Del PiomOO, and the latter which these 

 authorities esteem one of the greatest of the 

 master's pictures is regarded by Morelli as ' for 

 certain not a work of Giorgione,' but probably an 

 early and much repainted production of Titian. 

 Giorgione died at Venice in 1511, in his thirty - 

 fourtn year. He ranks with the veiy greatest of 

 Venetian painters, and his example powerfully 

 influenced such of his contemporaries as Sebastian 

 del Piombo, Pordenone, and even Titian himself. 



GiottO di Boildone, one of the greatest of 

 the early Italian painters, and also celebrated as 

 an architect, was born probably in 1266, though 

 Vasari gives the year as 1276," at the village of 

 \ Vspignano, 14 miles from Florence. At the age 

 of ten he was discovered by Cimabue, tending his 

 father's flocks, and drawing one of the lambs upon 

 a flat stone, and was by him taken to Florence and 

 instructed in art. The master was then at the 

 height of his fame : he had infused new life into 

 the old Byzantine forms which were current in the 

 art of the time, introducing more of nature, and 

 greater variety and truth of form and expression ; 

 and the changes which he inaugurated were, with 

 far greater power, carried towards perfection by his 

 gifted pupil, who introduced a close imitation of 

 nature, a vivid and dramatic realisation of subject, 

 more satisfying and varied composition, a broader 

 distribution of masses, and greater lightness of 

 colouring. The first of Giotto's independent works, 

 such as those which Vasari states that he executed 

 in the Badia of Florence, have perished ; and the 

 earliest that have been preserved are a series of 

 twenty-eight frescoes, scenes from the life of St 

 Francis, in the aisle of the Upper Church at Assisi. 

 The ' St Francis in Glory,' and the noble allegorical 

 subjects of ' Poverty,' ' Chastity,' and ' Obedience,' 

 on the ceilings of the Lower Church, mark the in- 

 creasing strength of the painter. They are assigned 

 by Crowe and Cavalcaselle to the year 1296, though 

 probably they are the work of a later period. Two 

 years afterwards he was employed in Home by 

 the Cardinal Stefaneschi, designing among other 

 works the mosaic of the ' Navicella, which, utterly 

 restored, may still l>e seen in the vestibule of St 

 Peter's. In 1300-2 we trace him at work in Florence, 

 taking part in the execution of a series of frescoes a 

 'Paradise,' an 'Inferno,' and scenes from the life 

 of Saints Magdalen and Mary of Egypt, in the 

 Bargello (now the Museo Na/.ionale). In the 

 'Paradise' he introduced portraits of Bmnetti 

 Latini, Corso Donati the celebrated Neri leader, 

 Charles of Valois, Cardinal d'Acijiiaspurta, and, 

 above all, a profile likeness of his friend Dante, 



who-e acquaintance ). \ llit \ made in Home, and 

 who refer* to the painter in canto xi. of the 1'urga- 

 tnnii. Tin-He work* were long concealed by white- 

 wash, which was icmoved in MM IJtlli century. The 

 head of haute lias lecn repainted in an incoms-t 

 and misleading manner; but an accurate tracing had 

 previously Iw-cn made by Mr Se\ moiir Kirkup, and 

 this has been reproduced by the Anindel S4ci?ty. 



The ne\t great series of 'works by Ciotto in the 

 frescoes in the Anniin/iata dell' Arena Chanel, 

 founded by Enrico Serovegni at I'adna. Here 

 we find the artist rising to his highest power, 

 and realising the scenes of sacred history and 

 legend with a direct ness and an intensity such ax 

 had not hitherto appeared in Italian art. The 



frescoes comprise tfnrty-eight subjects from the 

 lives of the Virgin ana Christ, as related in the 

 apocryphal and canonical gospels, a ' Christ in 

 (ilory,' a ' Last Judgment,' and a series of fourteen 

 single figures personifying the cardinal virtues and 

 their opponent vices. In 1306, during the progress 

 of these works, Dante, then in exile, visited Giotto 

 at Padua, and it lias been believed that the treat- 

 ment of the symbolical subjects, which are exe- 

 cuted with extreme care, doubtless entirely by the 

 master's own hand, embodies suggestions received 

 from the great poet. Engravings of the Arena 

 Chapel frescoes, with valuable letterpress by Mr 

 Kuskin, have been published by the Anindel 

 Society. No traces survive of the works which, 

 according to Vasari, Giotto afterwards executed 

 in Verona and Ferrara ; but the frescoes with 

 which, after 1307, he decorated the Peruzzi and 

 Bardi Chapels in the church of Santa Croce, Flor- 

 ence, have been disclosed by the removal of the 

 whitewash which concealed them for nearly two 

 centuries, and which still covers his works in the 

 Giugni and the Tosinghi and Spinelli Chapels in 

 the same church. The Penizzi frescoes, scenes 

 from the lives of St John the Baptist and St 

 John the Evangelist, mark the culminating point 

 of the painter's genius they are masterpieces 

 which 'clear contemporary admirers from the 

 charge of exaggerated admiration and unwar- 

 ranted flattery, and ' justify all that has been 

 said respecting the grandeur of his style.' The 

 noble ' Coronation of the Virgin,' in tempera upon 

 panel, in the Baroncelli Chapel of Santa Croce, is 

 another work of about the same period. From 

 1330 to 1333 Giotto was employed in Naples by 

 King Robert. Here he exercised a powerful in- 

 fluence upon artistic production, but only one 

 fragment from his hand a fresco in the old 

 convent of Santa Chiara remains ; the subjects of 

 'The Seven Sacraments' in the Chapel of the 

 In coronal a being now attributed to an unknown 

 follower of the painter. In 1334 he was appointed 

 master of works of the cathedral and city of 

 Florence. Aided by Andrea Pisano he decorated 

 the facade of the cathedral with statues, and 

 designed the exquisite isolated Campanile (q.v.) 

 and the vivid bas-reliefs which adorn its base. 

 This tower was completed after his death, at 

 Florence, 8th January 1336. 



The personal anecdotes of Giotto that have 

 been preserved by Boccaccio, Sacchetti, and other 

 writers, show him to have been a shrewd homely 

 personage, with an excellent sense of humour, and 

 a ready power of repartee. Vasari tells the often- 

 quoted story of ' the O of Giotto' how when the 

 pope sent a messenger to ask the painter for a speci- 

 men of his art in view of a proposed commission, 

 ' Giotto, who was very courteous, took a sheet of 

 paper and a pencil dipped in red colour, then rest- 

 ing his elbow on his side, to form a sort of com- 

 pass, with one turn of his hand he drew a circle so 

 perfect and exact that it was a marvel to la-hold.' 

 and handed this to the courtier as a sutlicient 



