The Testimony of Ghiberti and Vasari
In a land of savage animosities, Giotto remained singularly above the fray. So far as is known, he had no enemies and no detractors. A man of even temper and robust humour, he west his way unscathed by the clashes of his compatriots, increasingly sought after and successful.
Mount Subasio, Assisi Panorama
Kneeling humbly, the donor of the Arena Chapel in Padua, Enrico Scrovegni, presents a model of the building to the angel Gabriel, to Mary as the Virgin of Charity. The scene is a detail from a fresco; 'the last Judgement'. Virgin of the Annunciation, accepting the gift.
The sole surviving clue to his views on the rancorous of his time is a long poem he wrote attacking poverty at Orion and those followers of St. Francis who clung to his precepts of self-denial. To commend poverty, Giotto wrote, It was hypocritical, it was a condition that led to thievery, violence, corruption and the dishonour of women, and the society that condoned it was the weaker for it.
Giotto's argument had practical as well as philosophical implication. At one point in the furious struggle within the Franciscan order over the austerity issue, its proponents banned 'curious and unnecessary ornaments' in Franciscan churches, a category in which they included pictures, carvings, windows, columns and the like.
Had this policy prevailed, some of Giotto's works would never have been done. But the papacy, the ultimate arbiter of the Franciscan controversy, grew less and less tolerant of the pro-poverty faction, the so-called Spirituals.
During the period of Giotto's emergence as an artist, most of the rituals popes supplied both moral and financial support for the splendours of Assisi. The ever-larger crowds of pilgrims thronging the basilica on the slopes of Mount Subasio gave ample proof that art helped rather than hindered the purposes of the Church.
As the 14th Century approached, the papacy began to look to the enhancement of its own capital. The city on the Tiber had lost in old imperial aura; the marble remnants of antique glories stood deep in words. Mud and refuse clogged the streets and the dangers to life and limb were compounded by the incessant public brawling of local clans in recent decades.
The popes had taken to absenting themselves with increasing frequency, preferring the more salutary air of country retreats.o absenting themselves with increasing frequency, preferring the more salutary air of country retreats.
Vatican Grottoes
The Tomb of Boniface VIII
Compared to the later great programs for decorating Rome in which Michelangelo and Raphael and Bernini took part, the plans of Pope Boniface VIII, who began his reign in 1294, were modest. They were also fated to be short-lived. Compared to the later great programs for decorating Rome in which Michelangelo and Raphael and Bernini took part, the plans of Pope Boniface VIII, who began his reign in 1294, were modest.
They were also fated to be short-lived. From the very start of his pontificate, the pope wished to build a shrine against the inner facade of the ancient basilica, between the central door and the Ravenna Door. The intention was to create a noble chapel dedicated to the poor businessman.
🧩 The relics of St Boniface
History deals capriciously with documents, and while it has left no record of the exact dates of Giotto's Roman stay, it has preserved a piece of evidence that the sojourn was a lengthy one. The evidence is a legal paper written when Giotto was back home in Florence in 1313. Apparently he had been having his troubles with a balcony ex-landlady in Rome, and he appointed a proxy in that city to recover a number of households effects, bedding included.
From Giotto's listing of the domestic comforts with which he had surrounded himself when in Rome, biographers have deduced that he lived there for several years, long enough to have urned out a good deal more than the few works that survive. Although time has obscured the full extent of Giotto's achievements in Rome to the accounts of writers leave an impression of a virtuoso in the prime of his powers.
Moving confidently about the city on a variety of commissions: mosaics, illustrating a cardinal's manuscripts, painting in one church a Crucifixion and in another a series of medalions of the prophets, in a third church decorating the apse.
Old St. Peter's
Imperial Roman Basilica
Medallions of the prophets in a third church decorating the Ghiberti and Vasari between them credited Giotto with the lion's share of the redecoration of old St. Peter's. Built on the majestic lines of an imperial Roman basilica, this hallowed place of early Christianity had weathered almost 10 centuries by Giotto's time, and was to stand for nearly two more before being torn down to make way for the present St. Peter's.
Petrarch’s concluding words to his epic poem Africa are equally applicable to Ghiberti studies. Long under the dark shadows of Richard Krautheimer and John Pope-Hennessy, Lorenzo Ghiberti and his magnificent Gates of Paradise from the Florentine Baptistery are finally being seen in a new light with fresh eyes.
Free of corrosive deposits and later varnishes, the gilded bronze doors now appear much as they did at their installation in 1452, allowing us to witness Ghiberti’s breathtaking skill as a metallurgist, sculptor, storyteller, and goldsmith and to share the astonishment of Renaissance viewers like Michelangelo Buonarroti and Giorgio Vasari, who claimed them to be 'the most beautiful work which has ever been seen in the world, whether ancient or modern', (quoted in the catalogue, 38).
Roman basilica, this hallowed place of early Christianity had weathered almost 10 centuries by Giotto's time, and was to stand for nearly two more before being torn down to make way for the present St. Peter's. The combined testimony of Ghiberti and Vasari.
Petrarch’s words inside the Splendours of Assisi, to his epic Africa poems are equally applicable to Ghiberti studies. Dark shadows of Pope-Hennessy, Ghiberti and his magnificent Gates of Paradise from the Florentine Baptistery are finally being seen in a new light with fresh eyes.
This testimony ascribe to Giotto the design of the mosaics of the huge nave of the ancient church, five frescoes of the life of Christ, another fresco series of scriptural scenes, and diverse panel paintings on which St. Francis of Assisi, were too numerous to mention.
St. Francis of Assisi, probably the most popular of all Italian saints, had a profound impact both on Christian thought and Art. His life, pictured again and again, reflected a long-forgotten beer history & philosophy.
Noble and worthy creatures, and that life can be more than mere rehearsal for death. One of the earliest representations of St. Francis (the other side) was painted only nine years after his death, to reflect fully the stylistic effects of the saint's humanizing influence.
The figures, drawn almost abstractly, awe the viewer. Starting at top left, the scenes show Francis at the other side of a period of prayer and meditation receiving the stigmata-symbolic wounds representing his identification with Christ and preaching his wounds to the birds.
Francis of Assisi and touching homilies about healing the lame in prison and exorcising the devil from a madman. Throughout, the emphasis is on the mystical: of the six scenes, four are miracles.
Some paintings in our own day, and some have been either destroyed or car away from the old structure of St. Peter's during the building of 'renewed walls'. Although nothing shows Giotto's, two works for the basilica, that tradition has assigned to him have eluded the wreckers.
The combined testimony of Ghiberti and Vasari. This testimony ascribe to Giotto the design of the mosaics of the huge nave of the ancient church, five frescoes of the life of Christ, another fresco series of scriptural scenes, and diverse panel paintings on which St. Francis of Assisi, were too numerous to mention.
Some, he wrote in 1568, 'have been restored by nother artists in our own day, and some have been either destroyed or car away from the old structure of St. Peter's during the building of renewed walls'. Although nothing remains that definitively shows Giotto's hand, two works for the basilica that tradition has assigned to him have eluded the wreckers.
By the same whim of preservation that kept intact the record of his joust with his Roman landlady, there survives a document naming the price he received for each of the two works. This document is a roster of benefactors of the Church and their gifts; included in the roll of Cardinal Jacopo Gaetani degli Stefaneschi, a nephew of Pope Boniface, canon of St. Peter's, and Giotto's devoted patron.
For a mosaic depicting Christ's rescue of Peter from the Sea of Galilee, the Cardinal paid Giotto 2,200 gold florins; for an altarpiece, 800 gold florins. These sums were so munificent by prevailing standards that scholars suspect prideful padding on Stefaneschi's behalf.
Even so, the figures offer a measure of Giotto's stature at the time. The
mosaic, known as the Navicella, or The Little Boat—was originally in the courtyard of old St. Peters.
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