School of _Giotto_ (Giotto: 1266-1336).
_See also_ (p. xix)
Giotto di Bondone--great alike as a painter, a sculptor, and
an architect--was the son of a shepherd in the country near
Florence. One day when he was drawing a ram of his father's
flock with a stone upon a smooth piece of rock, Cimabue (see
565) happened to be passing by, and, seeing the lad's natural
bent, carried him off to be a painter. Cimabue taught him all
he knew, and in time the pupil eclipsed his master. Dante
mentions this as an instance of the vanity of Fame: "Cimabue
thought to hold the field in painting, but now Giotto has the
cry." But another poet holds
That Cimabue smiled upon the lad
_At the first stroke which passed what he could do_,
Or else his Virgin's smile had never had
Such sweetness in't. All great men who foreknew
Their heirs in art, for art's sake have been glad.
MRS. BROWNING: _Casa Guidi Windows_.
The earliest examples of his work extant are the frescoes
forming the lower range in the Upper Church at Assisi. His
frescoes of the virtues in the Lower Church are believed to
belong to a later period. So great was his fame that in 1298
he was sent for to do some work for the Pope. It was for him
that Giotto sent as his testimonial the famous circle drawn
with a brush, without compasses. "You may judge my masterhood
of craft," Giotto tells us, "by seeing that I can draw a
circle unerringly." (Hence the saying, "rounder than the O
of Giotto.") After a short time in Rome, Giotto returned to
Florence and painted the chapel of the Podestà, or Bargello, of
Florence, which was rescued from destruction in 1841. Some of
Giotto's work in it was restored. Here is his famous portrait
of Dante (traced previous to restoration and published by the
Arundel Society). To a later period belong his frescoes in the
church of Santa Croce. In 1303 Giotto was called to decorate
the walls of the chapel of the Annunziata dell' Arena at
Padua. This he did with a series of compositions which are the
greatest monument of his genius. It was during the execution
of this work that Dante visited Padua, being entertained by
his friend the painter. "Thus went Giotto, a serene labourer,
throughout the length and breadth of Italy. He engaged himself
in other tasks at Ferrara, Verona, and Ravenna, and at last
at Avignon, where he became acquainted with Petrarch. Then
passed rapidly through Florence and Orvieto on his way to
Naples, where he received the kindest welcome from the good
King Robert. The King, ever partial to men of mind and genius,
took especial delight in Giotto's society; and Giotto (says
Vasari), who had ever his repartee ready, held him fascinated
at once with the magic of his pencil and pleasantry of his
tongue. Returning to Florence, Giotto was appointed chief
master of the works of the Duomo then in progress. He designed
the Campanile, modelled the bas-relief for the base of the
building, and sculptured two of them with his own hand. He died
full of honour and at the zenith of his strength. He was buried
in the cathedral, at the angle nearest his campanile; and thus
the tower, which is the chief grace of his native city, may be
regarded as his own sepulchral monument." Only those who have
seen Giotto's wall paintings at Assisi, Padua, and Florence can
form any true conception of his greatness. It is pointed out
below in what respects his work was remarkable and important
for his time. It has also an abiding value in itself. "In nine
cases out of ten," says Ruskin, "the first expression of an
idea is the most valuable: the idea may afterwards be polished
and softened, and made more attractive to the general eye; but
the first expression of it has a freshness and brightness, like
the flash of a native crystal compared to the lustre of glass
that has been melted and cut. Giotto was not, indeed, one of
the most accomplished painters, but he was one of the greatest
men who ever lived. He was the first master of his time, in
architecture as well as in painting; he was the friend of
Dante, and the undisputed interpreter of religious truth, by
means of painting, over the whole of Italy. The works of such
a man may not be the best to set before children in order to
teach them drawing; but they assuredly should be studied with
the greatest care by all who are interested in the history of
the human mind" (_Giotto and his Works in Padua_). Copies of
many of his works are in the Arundel Society's Collection.
It was Cimabue who first attempted to represent action as well as
contemplation. Giotto went farther, and represented the action of
daily life. "Cimabue magnified the Maid; and Florence rejoiced in
her Queen. But it was left for Giotto to make the queenship better
beloved, in its sweet humiliation." This picture is not by the master
himself, but it is characteristic--in its greater _naturalness_ and
resemblance to human life--of Giotto's work. Cimabue's picture (565)
is felt in a moment to be archaic beside it. Giotto is thus the first
painter of domestic life--the "reconciler of the domestic with the
monastic ideal, of household wisdom, labour of love, toil upon earth
according to the law of Heaven, with revelation in cave or island,
with the endurance of desolate and loveless days, with the repose of
folded hands that wait Heaven's time." The corresponding development in
the direction of greater naturalness which Giotto--himself a country
lad brought up amongst the hills and fields--introduced in the art of
_landscape_ painting cannot, unfortunately, be illustrated from the
National Gallery (see on this point Edinburgh _Lectures on Architecture
and Painting_, ch. iii.). But a third development--the introduction,
namely, of _portraiture_--is well seen in the Heads of St. John and St.
Paul (276), a work in which Giotto's influence is very marked. There
is no longer a mere adoption of conventional types: these apostles
are individual portraits. "Before Cimabue, no beautiful rendering of
human form was possible; and the rude or formal types of the Lombard
and Byzantine, though they would serve in the tumult of the chase,
or as the recognised symbols of creed, could not represent personal
and domestic character. Faces with goggling eyes and rigid lips might
be endured, with ready help of imagination, for gods, angels, saints,
or hunters--or for anybody else in scenes of recognised legend; but
would not serve for pleasant portraiture of one's own self, or of the
incidents of gentle, actual life. And even Cimabue did not venture
to leave the sphere of conventionally reverenced dignity. He still
painted--though beautifully--only the Madonna, and the St. Joseph,
and the Christ. These he made living--Florence asked no more: and
'Credette Cimabue nella pintura tener lo campo.' But Giotto came from
the field; and saw with his simple eyes a lowlier worth. And he painted
the Madonna, and St. Joseph, and the Christ,--yes, by all means, if you
choose to call them so, but essentially,--Mamma, Papa, and the Baby.
And all Italy threw up its cap--'ora ha Giotto il grido' (now Giotto
has the cry)." A fourth development which the art of painting owes to
Giotto may be well seen in this picture. Notice the pretty passages of
_colour_, as, for instance, in the dresses of the angels. "The Greeks
had painted anything anyhow,--gods black, horses red, lips and cheeks
white; and when the Etruscan vase expanded into a Cimabue picture, or a
Tafi mosaic, still--except that the Madonna was to have a blue dress,
and everything else as much gold on it as could be managed--there was
very little advance in notions of colour. Suddenly Giotto threw aside
all the glitter, and all the conventionalism; and declared that he
saw the sky blue, the tablecloth white, and angels, when he dreamed
of them, rosy. And he simply founded the schools of colour in Italy"
(_Mornings in Florence_, pt. ii.).