Giotto and Dante

Giotto by Paolo Ucelli

Dante by Giotto

Once Cimabue thought to hold the field as painter; 

Giotto now is all the rage, 

dimming the lustre of the other's fame.

That quote is from Canto XI of Purgatorio. The translation is by Mark Musa. 

This portrait of Dante is from an altarpiece which Giotto painted for the Podestà Palace; however, the original chapel burned down, and so this is believed to be a copy from the original.

Dante and Giotto were good friends and Julia Cartwright in The Painters of Florence relates this story.

When Dante visited Padua, in 1306, he found his friend Giotto living there with his wife, Madonna Ciutà, and his young family, and was honorably entertained by the painter in his own house. The poet often watched Giotto at work, with his children, who were "as ill-favored as himself," playing around, and wondered how it was that the creations of his brain were so much fairer than his own offspring.

I'm not finished with the Scrovegni Chapel yet. There will be a bit more soon about Enrico Scrovegni, the patron of the chapel and why we're talking about Dante, and then another series on more of the pictures--the virtues and vices.

AMDG

Giotto: Easter Sunday

But Mary stayed outside the tomb weeping. And as she wept, she bent over into the tomb and saw two angels in white sitting there, one at the head and one at the feet where the body of Jesus had been. And they said to her, “Woman, why are you weeping?” She said to them, “They have taken my Lord, and I don’t know where they laid him.” When she had said this, she turned around and saw Jesus there, but did not know it was Jesus. Jesus said to her, “Woman, why are you weeping? Whom are you looking for?” She thought it was the gardener and said to him, “Sir, if you carried him away, tell me where you laid him, and I will take him.” Jesus said to her, “Mary!” She turned and said to him in Hebrew, “Rabbouni,” which means Teacher. Jesus said to her, “Stop holding on to me, for I have not yet ascended to the Father. But go to my brothers and tell them, ‘I am going to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God.’” Mary of Magdala went and announced to the disciples, “I have seen the Lord,” and what he told her. (John 20:11-18)

Mary Magdalene who, unlike the disciples in the Garden of Olives, has stayed awake with our Lord even after his death, is rewarded for her faithfulness by being the first to see the risen Lord. Giotto portrays her where she is so often found, kneeling at the feet of Jesus.

One thing about this fresco that is really interesting to me is the hand of the angel on the left. 

 

It is pointing to Jesus, but the fingers are held in the position that you see in icons of Jesus and the saints raised in blessing. The hand is always held upright, but in this case, it is not. The following explanation of the hand gesture was found here.

The fingers spell out “IC XC”, a widely used four letter abbreviation of the Greek for Jesus (IHCOYC) Christ (XPICTOC). It is by the name of Jesus that we are saved and receive blessings: “At the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of things in heaven, and things in earth, and things under the earth;” (Phil 2:10). 
 The three fingers of Christ – as well as spelling out “I” and “X” – confess the Tri-unity of God: Father, Son and Holy Spirit. The touching finger and thumb of Jesus not only spell out “C”, but attest to the Incarnation: to the joining of divine and human natures found in the body of Jesus Christ.

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SEQUENCE FOR EASTER

Christians, to the Paschal Victim
Offer your thankful praises!
A Lamb the sheep redeems;
Christ, who only is sinless,
Reconciles sinners to the Father.
Death and life have contended in that combat stupendous:
The Prince of life, who died, reigns immortal.
Speak, Mary, declaring
What you saw, wayfaring.
“The tomb of Christ, who is living,
The glory of Jesus’ resurrection;
bright angels attesting,
The shroud and napkin resting.
Yes, Christ my hope is arisen;
to Galilee he goes before you.”
Christ indeed from death is risen, our new life obtaining.
Have mercy, victor King, ever reigning!
Amen. Alleluia.

AMDG

Holy Saturday: A Little Hopkins, A Lot of Silence

O God, I Love Thee

Gerard Manley Hopkins

O God, I love thee, I love thee--- 

Not out of hope of heaven for me

 Nor fearing not to love and be

 In the everlasting burning. 

 Thou, thou, my Jesus, after me 

Didst reach thine arms out dying, 

 For my sake sufferedst nails and lance, 

 Mocked and marred countenance, 

Sorrows passing number, 

Sweat, and care and cumber, 

Yea, and death, and this for me. 

And thou couldst see me sinning: 

Then I, why should I not love thee, 

Jesu, so much in love with me ? 

Not for heaven's sake; not to be 

Out of hell by loving thee; 

Not for any gains I see; 

But just the way that thou didst me 

I do love and will love thee: 

What must I love thee, Lord, for then ? 

 For being my King and God. Amen.

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Repository for Holy Thursday

No Giotto today. More tomorrow.

AMDG

Giotto: Good Friday

Then they brought Jesus from Caiaphas to the praetorium. It was morning. And they themselves did not enter the praetorium, in order not to be defiled so that they could eat the Passover. So Pilate came out to them and said, “What charge do you bring against this man?” . . . Then Pilate took Jesus and had him scourged. And the soldiers wove a crown out of thorns and placed it on his head, and clothed him in a purple cloak, and they came to him and said, “Hail, King of the Jews!” And they struck him repeatedly. Once more Pilate went out and said to them, “Look, I am bringing him out to you, so that you may know that I find no guilt in him.” (John 18:28-29, 19:1-4)

We see here Pilate, protesting to that same figure--almost surely a chief priest--that we saw in the Garden of Olives yesterday. He is clearly very unhappy about what he feels forced to do. Instead of the purple cloak that is described in the scripture, Giotto portrays Jesus in a very finely-worked gold cloak. What strikes me the most is the contrast to Fra Angelico's image of the same scene. Giotto's mockers are very much flesh-and-blood with a schoolboy nastiness. Fra Angelico paints disembodied, anonymous hands and head, prompting us to see that they could have very well been ours had we been there.

So they took Jesus, and, carrying the cross himself, he went out to what is called the Place of the Skull, in Hebrew, Golgotha. (John 19:16-17)

Jesus carries his cross to Calvary followed by the crowd of people. We see many different classes of people in this group. The first person looks quite wealthy and is carrying something mysteriously blurry. There are soldiers, the high priest, and a man who looks like a laborer. And then we see his mother, her face filled with grief. It looks as if the soldier is trying to turn her back. Perhaps he wants to spare her the sight of her son suffering so much. It reminds me very much of the time that my comatose three-year old daughter had to have a spinal tap. I wanted to stay with her, but the nurse took me very firmly by the shoulders, turned me around, and said, "You don't need to see this." And Jesus is looking over his shoulder as though he realizes something is happening to his mother.

Because of his affliction he shall see the light in fullness of days; through his suffering, my servant shall justify many, and their guilt he shall bear. Therefore I will give him his portion among the great, and he shall divide the spoils with the mighty, because he surrendered himself to death and was counted among the wicked; and he shall take away the sins of many, and win pardon for their offenses. (Isaiah 53:11-12)

The face of Jesus has always troubled me in this picture because it looks so crudely executed when some of the other faces are so finely drawn. I wonder if it is a later restoration.

Here we see several elements that are frequently found in pictures of the crucifixion: the skull under the cross, Mary Magdalene in her traditional position at Jesus's feet, the sorrowing mother, and the soldiers arguing over the garments. And then there are those grieving angels. Three of them are catching the blood from his hands and side and one is rending its garments at the blasphemy of the murder of God in the same way that yesterday we saw the high priest rending his at the perceived blasphemy of Jesus's "I Am." But look at the difference in the expressions on their faces--Caiaphas so smug--the angel in true anguish.

After this, Joseph of Arimathea, secretly a disciple of Jesus for fear of the Jews, asked Pilate if he could remove the body of Jesus. And Pilate permitted it. So he came and took his body. Nicodemus, the one who had first come to him at night, also came bringing a mixture of myrrh and aloes weighing about one hundred pounds. They took the body of Jesus and bound it with burial cloths along with the spices, according to the Jewish burial custom. Now in the place where he had been crucified there was a garden, and in the garden a new tomb, in which no one had yet been buried. So they laid Jesus there because of the Jewish preparation day; for the tomb was close by. (Isaiah 53:11-12)

Lamentation. It's such a perfect word. Here are the steadfast few: his mother, of course, and all the faithful women, Mary Magdalene at the feet of her beloved master, John, Nicodemus, and Joseph of Arimathea, and the grieving angels. Are they thinking about the fact that man has killed God, or are they just missing the one they love, wondering how they will be able to go on without him?

All pictures are from the Web Gallery of Art.

AMDG

Giotto: Holy Thursday

The devil had already induced Judas, son of Simon the Iscariot, to hand him over. So, during supper, fully aware that the Father had put everything into his power and that he had come from God and was returning to God, he rose from supper and took off his outer garments. He took a towel and tied it around his waist. Then he poured water into a basin and began to wash the disciples’ feet and dry them with the towel around his waist. He came to Simon Peter, who said to him, “Master, are you going to wash my feet?” Jesus answered and said to him, “What I am doing, you do not understand now, but you will understand later.” Peter said to him, “You will never wash my feet.” Jesus answered him, “Unless I wash you, you will have no inheritance with me.” Simon Peter said to him, “Master, then not only my feet, but my hands and head as well.” Jesus said to him, “Whoever has bathed has no need except to have his feet washed, for he is clean all over; so you are clean, but not all.” For he knew who would betray him; for this reason, he said, “Not all of you are clean.”  (John 13:2-11)

One thing about writing these posts is that I notice things in scripture that I never noticed before. I don't think that I ever noticed that Judas was still present when Jesus washed the disciples feet. When I get a minute, I'm going to sit and think about that for a while. If you look at the picture above, at first it looks like there are only eleven disciples present, but then you can see the twelfth halo in the upper right-hand corner. At first I thought this was Judas, hiding, but then I saw Judas on the right-hand side with a misshapen halo that is black. From my reading, I believe that the halos of the other disciples were originally silver but have darkened over the years.

This fresco of the Last Supper is the one from which I posted the detail on Tuesday.

And the last event of the evening.

I wish I had more time to write about this one, but this kiss may be Giotto's most famous picture. Once again, look how intensely Jesus and Judas look into each other's eyes. What must they have been thinking? And look at Peter on the left, cutting off the soldier's ear from behind. Is that one of the chief priests richly dressed in pink and gold lace in the lower right corner? And what are we to make of that mysterious hooded figure with his back to us, holding onto the cloak of an escaping disciple? 

Now a young man followed him wearing nothing but a linen cloth about his body. They seized him, but he left the cloth behind and ran off naked. (Mark 51-52)

The high priest questioned Jesus about his disciples and about his doctrine. Jesus answered him, “I have spoken publicly to the world. I have always taught in a synagogue or in the temple area where all the Jews gather, and in secret I have said nothing. Why ask me? Ask those who heard me what I said to them. They know what I said.” When he had said this, one of the temple guards standing there struck Jesus and said, “Is this the way you answer the high priest?” Jesus answered him, “If I have spoken wrongly, testify to the wrong; but if I have spoken rightly, why do you strike me?” Then Annas sent him bound to Caiaphas the high priest. (John 18:19-24)

The high priest rose before the assembly and questioned Jesus, saying, “Have you no answer? What are these men testifying against you?” But he was silent and answered nothing. Again the high priest asked him and said to him, “Are you the Christ, the son of the Blessed One?” Then Jesus answered, “I am; and ‘you will see the Son of Man seated at the right hand of the Power and coming with the clouds of heaven.’” At that the high priest tore his garments and said, “What further need have we of witnesses? You have heard the blasphemy. What do you think?” (Mark 14:60-63)

All pictures are from the Web Gallery of Art.

AMDG

Giotto: Spy Wednesday

Judas' Betrayal

From today's gospel:

One of the Twelve, who was called Judas Iscariot, went to the chief priests and said, “What are you willing to give me if I hand him over to you?” They paid him thirty pieces of silver, and from that time on he looked for an opportunity to hand him over.

Matthew 26:14-16

“...woe to that man by whom the Son of Man is betrayed. It would be better for that man if he had never been born.” Then Judas, his betrayer, said in reply, “Surely it is not I, Rabbi?” He answered, “You have said so.”

Matthew 26:24-25

Surely those are some of the most frightening words ever said.

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I hope that you can enlarge this picture (click once) enough so that you can see the expressions on the faces. It looks very much like every shady deal that ever took place in a back room. Judas has Cassius's lean and hungry look. The evil one looks almost comic at this size, but not so much magnified. On a website called Everything2, I found an article that says:

...this strange image of the Devil is notable for the manner in which it echoes the figure of Judas (or vice versa), especially in the positioning of the head, hands and beard, as well as the arches of his shoulder and lower torso, which correspond to the curves of Judas’ robe.  

Although I think the author draws the wrong conclusion from this (that the devil is purely figurative), I can see what he's talking about. And what is that black shape over Judas' head? Is it a black halo, and is the reason we can't see the rest of it because the picture was damaged in some way where there appears to be a crack in the plaster? I was looking for some commentary on that when I found the above article. One interesting thing about this picture is that the frescoes in the chapel are arranged in three ranks and in chronological order. This image is out of order, coming after and not before the Last Supper. This places it on the front wall of the nave, just to the left of the sanctuary. Is is just opposite the fresco of the Visitation, and you can see, very similar in style and color--two very different sorts of meetings.

See how the color of the robes in each picture is almost a mirror image or the other. There's even a dark space behind St. Anne. And in both pictures, look how they are looking into each other's eyes.

When I started posting these frescoes by Giotto, I thought that it would be much less time-consuming than posting all of Fra Angelico's pictures last year, and it will be because there are fewer pictures and I don't have to translate Latin. Still, it is taking up much more time than I thought it would because I keep having questions about the artwork, and the questions lead me to more and more information that I find fascinating.

All pictures are from the Web Gallery of Art.

AMDG

Giotto: The Betrayers

Detail from The Last Supper

From today's gospel:

Reclining at table with his disciples, Jesus was deeply troubled and testified, “Amen, amen, I say to you, one of you will betray me.” The disciples looked at one another, at a loss as to whom he meant. One of his disciples, the one whom Jesus loved, was reclining at Jesus’ side. So Simon Peter nodded to him to find out whom he meant. He leaned back against Jesus’ chest and said to him, “Master, who is it?” Jesus answered, “It is the one to whom I hand the morsel after I have dipped it.” So he dipped the morsel and took it and handed it to Judas, son of Simon the Iscariot. After Judas took the morsel, Satan entered him. So Jesus said to him, “What you are going to do, do quickly.”

John 13:21-27

Simon Peter said to him, “Master, where are you going?” Jesus answered him, “Where I am going, you cannot follow me now, though you will follow later.” Peter said to him, “Master, why can I not follow you now? I will lay down my life for you.” Jesus answered, “Will you lay down your life for me? Amen, amen, I say to you, the cock will not crow before you deny me three times.”

John 13:36-38

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In this detail from The Last Supper from the Arena Chapel, we see Judas in the lower left-hand corner dipping his hand in the dish with Jesus. We see John reclining at Jesus' side and it appears that the figure in the upper right-hand corner is perhaps nodding. This figure is very similar to Giotto's portrayal of St. Peter in the Upper Church, San Francesco in Assisi.

This scripture brings Judas and Peter into close contrast. Judas knows that he is the betrayer, his price is thirty pieces of silver, and once he is discovered, he leaves. Jesus challenges Peter in much the same way he does Judas, but Peter does not know himself, or what the price of his betrayal may be.

Like Peter, we can never be too sure what our price is. Jesus says, "one of you," but in truth, we are all that one.

All pictures are from the Web Gallery of Art.

AMDG

Giotto: The Raising of Lazarus

Raising of Lazarus

The large crowd of the Jews found out that he was there and came, not only because of him, but also to see Lazarus, whom he had raised from the dead. And the chief priests plotted to kill Lazarus too, because many of the Jews were turning away and believing in Jesus because of him. (John 12:9-13)

This reading from today's gospel comes directly before Jesus's entry into Jerusalem in John's gospel. I had never noticed until I read this last night, on Palm Sunday, that the gospel gives one of the reasons for the large crowds that came to welcome Jesus as a desire to see the man who had been raised from the dead. Also, we can see in the plotting of the chief priests to kill Lazarus, a portent of what can be expected by those who are associated with the mission of Jesus in the future.

Giotto's portrayal of Jesus in the above picture and in the picture from yesterday are almost identical. The slight differences in color may have to do with differences in the photos and not in the actual pictures. You also see an almost identical representation of Jesus in fresco of the Marriage at Cana.

You can see that Jesus's robe in the picture on the left has much less blue in it than the one on the right. The presentation from the Kahn Academy explains that except for the blue parts, the fresco used is buon fresco which means that the plaster was still wet when the color was applied, and is therefore a part of the actual wall. The blue is fresco secco, which means that the plaster was already dried when the blue was applied. The blue color is made from lapiz lazuli which was very expensive, and the patron of the chapel, Enrico Scrovegni wanted to use fresco secco because it required less lapiz lazuli. Because this method was used, much of the blue has flaked off over the years.

All pictures are from the Web Gallery of Art.

AMDG

Giotto: Palm Sunday

Entry Into Jerusalem

So they brought the colt to Jesus and put their cloaks over it. And he sat on it. Many people spread their cloaks on the road, and others spread leafy branches that they had cut from the fields. Those preceding him as well as those following kept crying out: “Hosanna! Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord! Blessed is the kingdom of our father David that is to come! Hosanna in the highest!”   (Mark 11:7-10 

Last year during Holy Week, I posted paintings by Fra Angelico (unfortunately this link will show Easter first, so you'll have to scroll to the end to get to Palm Sunday). Most of the paintings were from the Armadio degli Argenti, which is described in one of these posts. This year I thought I'd do the same with frescoes by Giotto from the Cappella degli Scrovegni in Padua, also known as the Arena Chapel because it's next to the arena.

There is a wonderful four-part series from Khan Academy about the Scrovegni Chapel here. It takes a while to watch, but if you are at all interested, it is well worth the time.

Giotto was probably the first painter in the 14th century to move away from the Byzantine style of art that had been favored for the past two centuries. Although he was not as skilled as Fra Angelico at portraying the human figure with accuracy (see the detail from Entry into Jerusalem below), his work is quite beautiful and detailed--and then there is that lovely blue which I will write about later in the week.

Note the rather squat roundness of this character who has climbed a tree to watch Christ's triumphal procession. I can't even tell if this is a man or woman, child or adult, human or angel. Look at that almost comic foot and the face looks like it is carved from wood. Nevertheless, there is something charming about the figure, and the branches of the tree are lovely.

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Giotto's life was also quite different from that of Fra Angelico who was a Dominican Friar. Giotto was a married man and a father and was quite wealthy. Their work is quite similar, though, in subject matter and in the setting of the scenes of the Bible narrative.

Unless otherwise noted, all the pictures in this series were found at the Web Gallery of Art.

AMDG