The Major Influence on Giottos Art - Case Study Example

GIOTTO DI BONDONE. Giotto di Bondone was an architect and painter in the last quarter of the middle ages from an Italian origin in Florence. Giotto’s art was notably biased towards religious subjects. Most of his art featured religious personalities with a biblical background. The most notable subjects of Giotto’s art included Christ, disciples and pioneers of the early church (Joseph and Batista 12). Just like any other artist, it can be deduced that the major influence on Giotto’s art was his surrounding and his personal believes. Giotto was a practicing catholic and he had a personal relationship with the highest catholic spiritual leader, the Pope. Giotto is generally considered as the first in a series of legendary artists who positively contributed to the renaissance in Italy. Religion played an important role in Italy during the renaissance. It was a period characterized by turmoil in the Christian faith especially the Roman Catholic. Renaissance had a profound impact on contemporary Christianity especially in the way people perceived the relationship between God and man. Some more secular aspects of humanism developed against a background of Christianity and art was used to portray Christianity as the true religion. Most of the new art of the time was in dedication to the church or was commissioned by the church. Self awareness that the masses developed during the renaissance also influenced art during the period. Architects, artists, writers and sculptors in Italy were using phrases like “alle romana et all antica” or “modi antichi” to show their awareness of the transformations that were taking place during the time. The awareness was not limited to classical antiquity but was also spread to the growing desire to imitate and study nature and portraying scenes from the bible to imitate classical forms. Renaissance art was distinguished because of its ability to develop high quality and realistic linear perspectives involving nature. Giotto di Bondone was a futuristic artist and the pioneer in applying perspective to develop a trend in arts that moved towards realism. Giovanni Villani, Giotto’s contemporary described him as the painting master who drew all his postures and figures according to nature. Giotto’s mastery of art is maybe best captured by Vasari Giorgio who described him as the artist who drew accurately from life. He was credited with applying a painting as a telescope into space though the art of perspective. Perspective only came to be formalized much later by Alberti Battista (1404-1472) and Brunelleschi Filippo (1377 -1446) in their subsequent works. Italian art critic and artist Vasari Giorgio described the period before the renaissance period as the era where the collapse of the Roman Empire led to the subsequent decline in the arts, which he referred to as “the decay in the arts”, and it’s the Tuscan artists like Giotto who are credited with reversing the steady decline in the arts. Giotto’s specialty was the fresco style of art. Fresco was a mural type of painting that was applicable on a flat type or flat surface. The most popular surfaces for fresco were ceilings and walls. Giotto capitalized on the popularity that frescoes enjoyed during the renaissance era. The fresco technique involved painting using a thin layer of fresh and wet plaster or lime mortar pigment missed with water. A frescoist is the term used to refer to an artist who develops frescos. Giotto was a frescoist. The renaissance age was characterized with the increased popularity of fresco art in major public buildings and churches. Giotto’s most revered masterpiece was the decoration of the chapel arena in Padua, also referred to as the Scrovegni chapel. The most prominent use of frescos, particularly in Giotto’s country of origin, Italy, was in government buildings and churches. The fresco cycle in Padua depicts the life of Christ and that of the Virgin Mary. Other landmarks artwork by Giotto in addition to the arena chapel includes the Florence cathedral’s bell tower. He painted the arena chapel and he was responsible for the design of the bell tower in the Florence cathedral. The impact of Giotto on fresco art is felt up to date because fresco decorations are still a key feature in government buildings and churches. It has been the general believe that Giotto was born at Romignano in Florence on a hilltop farmhouse. A disputed plaque bearing his birthplace honor lies at a tower house in a hamlet that is to be found to the north of Florence. His ancestry is also enshrouded in mystery with some theories suggesting that he could have been the son of a herder while others suggest that he was born to a blacksmith. His name has also drawn controversies. Some renaissance authors believe that Giotto was his genuine name while others believe that is a mere abbreviation of Angelo or Ambrogio. Giotto grew up as a shepherd for his family sheep. Indeed, it was while he was drawing the pictures of his herd on a rock using a sharp piece of stone when he was discovered by Cimabue, the great Florentine painter. The drawings of the sheep on the rock were so lifelike and immediately on seeing them, Cimabue approached Giotto’s father to request him to take his child as an apprentice. A differing view from scholars is that the story about the herd’s drawing is meant to elevate Giotto to a legendary status and that in fact he came from a well off family that moved to Florence upon noticing their child’s love for art and enrolled him as an apprentice in Cimabue’s workshop. The varied theories about his past show at length how the artist has been the subject of both historians and artistic interest. Stories about Giotto have been recounted with interesting insights about his artistic childhood. His skill as a curious apprentice who was willing to have a go at it alone have been recounted by Vasari, especially an instance when Cimabue left the workshop and Giotto painted a life size image of a fly on the painting that the master craftsman had been working on. The child tried severally to brush it off. His geometrical skills have also been revealed to be of amazing artistic standards. History documents an incidence in his apprenticeship when a messenger visited him from the papacy in Rome on orders by the pope to demonstrate his artistic skills. In response, Giotto hand drew a circle in red paint that was geometrically balanced that one would think it was drawn using a geometric instrument. Such was the evidence that the messenger was sent to take back to the pope. Cimabue was one of the most accomplished painters in Tuscany. In the estimates of the year 1280, Cimabue went to Rome where Giotto accompanied him. In Rome Giotto enrolled in a school that was exclusive to fresco painters to learn the fresco art. Cimabue with his apprentice Giotto then left to Assisi from Rome where he was commissioned to work on several frescoes on the newly constructed St. Francis of Assisi basilica. The life of St.Francis depicted in a fresco cycle on the upper sides of the church are conveniently and widely suspected to be of Giotto. His skill and knowledge of fresco art overshadowed that of any of his contemporary during that period. Vasari documents Giotto’s early works to be that of the suspended enormous crucifix depicting the crucifixion of Christ on the cross and the fresco of the annunciation that gives an artistic impression of angel Gabriel delivering the message of conception of Christ to the virgin Mary. These artworks were created at the same time with those of the Assisi church making it even more possible that Giotto worked on the Assisi frescoes. Other works of Giotto include the Madonna and child panel depicting the relationship between the young Jesus and his mother Mary. Giotto is documented to have married at the age of 20 to Ricevuata Del Pela. Between 1297 and 1300, Giotto moved to Rome. However, he did not leave much of his presence there. Giotto’s most influential work was done in Padua in the interior of the Chapel of Scrovegni. The interior painting in the Scrovegni chapel was themed salvation and the presence of the Virgin Mary is notably emphasized. The fresco cycle is divided into 37 episodes narrated around the flat walls in three scenes. The first scene narrates the story of the parents of the Virgin Mary, Anna and Joachim and continues with the story of the virgin Mary. The story of the life of Jesus follows and pictorial openings of the counter façade is composed of the last judgment. The difference in work between Giotto and his master Cimabue is that Cimabue focused on painting in medieval ways incorporating both the gothic and byzantine styles. Giotto’s style does not strictly follow Byzantine models, they are not elongated, and they are not styled. Giotto’s figures have faces, a balanced anatomy, are solidly three dimensional with form and weight, have gestures that are noticeable upon close observation and are clothed in naturally hanging garments. Giotto often used perspective devices on his work giving them an appearance that resembled a stage set. The use of carefully arranged figures in compressed settings and perspective in his heavily sculptural figures gives the viewers a real feeling of involvement and ownership of a particular place in many of the scenes. This dramatic immediacy is what has separated Giotto’s work from that of his contemporaries. Other features that make Giotto’s work to stand out are his depiction of human emotions in the human face. Giotto achieved this by use of both gesture and emotion in his work. From the scenes, the viewer notices the shame on the face of the roman soldier who snatches a baby from its mother. Giotto applied gesture by having the soldiers head sunk into his shoulders. It is also observable from the scene that the baby’s mother is wailing. The depiction of the people gossiping about Joseph and Mary on the road to Egypt has also been given such an intense emotional feel. Other famous scenes in the series at Scovegni chapel include the Lamentation of Christ, Adoration of the Magi and the flight from Egypt. In the Adoration of the Magi, the blue-eyed alert camels are indicative of the exotic origin of the magi. The three wise men adore the Christ child and their stares are visibly in reverent wonder. The streaks from the sky from a comet as if star depict the guide that the wise men followed to arrive at the destination of Christ’s birth (Laura, 94). Giotto has drawn varied controversy on the early aspects of his life. His apprenticeship, his appearance, his birthplace, his birth date, the sequence in which he generated his work, his input in the frescoes of Assisi lacks certainty in history. Giotto worked and lived during an era when people’s talents and minds were being untied from the chains of medieval restraint. Giotto almost exclusively dealt with subjects that were traditionally religious and existed only in biblical stories but he breathed an earthly life into them through his art. The title “Magnus Magister” was enthroned on him. The title stood for ‘Great Master” befit of Giotto’s expertise in art. In recognition of his artistic abilities, the city of Florence appointed him the superintendent of public works and the city architect. Physically, he is characterized as homely and of limited height, a practical joker of great wit. His biggest contribution to modern art is perspective and emotions. He created subjects with depth, visibly happy, stressed, lost in thoughts, ashamed and even soul searching. His work could be given an emotional interpretation. Before Giotto, painting as an art was imitative and artists never bothered to include their surroundings in their art pieces. Giotto’s artwork was inclusive of both the human body and nature. He succeeded at depicting the real human experience in his work, an artistic approach that remains valid to date. A humanizer of art. Giotto’s cause of death is not documented but his year of death is estimated to be 1337. Bernardo and Taddeo, who were his pupils, succeeded him. The contribution of Giotto to art can be deduced from the fact that it took seventy-five years to advance his way of painting. It is an artist by the name Masaccio who later advanced Giotto’s discovery of perspective by experimenting with it on a flat plane. Giotto’s artistic content, freedom of expression and form forms the foundation upon which the modern painting and sculpturing practice lies (Norbert, 13). Maybe it’s true of the saying that an artist’s mark of excellence is drawn from his mysterious life. Indeed the artist might be dead, but in his art, he still lives. Works Cited. Joseph, Archer, Crowe and Batista Giovanni. Early Italian Art. London: Parkstone International, 2011. Print. Laura, Jacobus. "Giottos Annunciation in the Arena Chapel, Padua." The Art Bulletin, 81 (93- 107): 1999. Print. Norbert, Wolf. Giotto de Bondone, 1267-1337: The Renewal of Painting. Cologne: Taschen, 2006. Print. Read More