_Ugolino_ (Sienese: died 1339).
Ugolino was one of the founders of the Sienese School. So
great was his reputation that he was unanimously chosen by
the Florentines, in preference to their own artists, to paint
the altar-pieces of their two great churches; whilst another
picture that he painted for them was credited with miraculous
powers. These little pictures are portions of the one painted
by him for the high altar of Sta. Croce. "He always adhered,"
says Vasari (i. 138), "in great part to the Greek manner, as
one who, having grown old in that method, was induced by a
sort of obstinacy to follow the manner of Cimabue, rather than
that of Giotto." The points which have been already noticed as
characteristic of his contemporary, Duccio (see 566), may be
traced equally in Ugolino.
Notice in 1188 that the disciples are not mere conventional types,
but that an attempt is made to give them each an individuality, and
to express their characters on their faces. The same expressions may
be noticed again in 1189. It is interesting, too, to observe how the
first attempts of painting (as of poetry) to express action were epic,
rather than dramatic. The painter tries to tell the whole story at
once; here is Judas giving the traitor's kiss, there is Peter cutting
off the ear of the high priest's servant, and beside them are all the
other characters of the story (_cf._ under 579). As art advances,
it becomes on the other hand dramatic; the painter seizes on the
essential point and makes his picture out of that. The difference may
be seen by contrasting Ugolino's picture with one of the same subject
at Florence by Giotto, which Ruskin thus describes: "See what choice
Giotto made of his moments. Plenty of choice for him--in pain. The
Flagellation--the Mocking--the Bearing the Cross; all habitually given
by the Margheritones, and their school, as extremes of pain. 'No,'
thinks Giotto. 'There was worse than all that. Many a good man has been
mocked, spitefully entreated, spitted on, slain. But who was ever so
betrayed?' ... He paints the laying hands on him in the garden, but
with only two principal figures--Judas and Peter, of course: Judas and
Peter were always principal in the old Byzantine composition,--Judas
giving the kiss, Peter cutting off the servant's ear. But the two
are here not merely principal, but almost alone in sight, all the
other figures thrown back; and Peter is not at all concerned about
the servant, or his struggle with him. He has got him down, but looks
back suddenly at Judas giving the kiss. 'What!--_you_ are the traitor,
then--you!' 'Yes,' says Giotto; 'and you, also, in an hour more'"
(_Mornings in Florence_, ii. 41).