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Giotto di Bondone, The Expulsion of the Devils from Arezzo, 1297-99, Saint Francis of Assisi, Assisi |
| Giotto di Bondone (c. 1267 – January 8, 1337), better known simply as Giotto, was an Italian painter and architect from Florence in the late Middle Ages. He is generally considered the first in a line of great artists who contributed to the Italian Renaissance. We do not have excessive reliable data on the life of Giotto di Bondone, or the date of his birth, nor what were their teachers, not even the accurate dating of many of his works. What do we know,from the Chronicles of his contemporaries, is the great revolution that brought his new artistic conception, which can be considered the forerunner of innovations that will change the progress of Western painting from then to the Renaissance until the twentieth century. In his Lives of the Artists, Giorgio Vasari relates that Giotto was a shepherd boy, a merry and intelligent child who was loved by all who knew him. The great Florentine painter Cimabue discovered Giotto drawing pictures of his sheep on a rock. They were so lifelike that Cimabue approached Bondone and asked if he could take the boy as an apprentice. Cimabue was one of the two most highly renowned painters of Tuscany, the other being Duccio, who worked mainly in Siena. From Rome, Cimabue went to Assisi to paint several large frescoes at the newly-built Basilica of St Francis of Assisi, and it is possible, but not certain, that Giotto went with him. The fresco cycle of the Life of St. Francis in the Upper Church at the newly-built Basilica of St Francis of Assisi, is one of the most hotly disputed works of art in the history of art history. Recently, however, technical examinations and comparisons of the workshop painting processes at Assisi and Padua have provided strong evidence that Giotto did not paint the St. Francis Cycle.[11] There are many differences between the Francis Cycle and the Arena Chapel frescoes that are difficult to account for by the stylistic development of an individual artist. It seems quite possible that several hands painted the Assisi frescoes, and that the artists were probably from Rome.[1] |
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Giotto di Bondone, The Expulsion of the Devils from Arezzo (detail), 1297-99, Saint Francis of Assisi, Assisi |
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| The Expulsion of the Devils from Arezzo is the tenth of the twenty-eight scenes (twenty-five of which were painted by Giotto) of Legend of Saint Francis. During the civil war in Arezzo, St. Francis saw demons over the city. He called upon a brother of his order, Sylvester, to drive them out. The picture area is dominated by the architecture of the city, which is divided from the rest of the world by a crack in the earth, and by the towering church building. Giotto portrays the saint deep in prayer in front of the latter. His strength seems to pass to Brother Sylvester, who raises his hand commandingly in the direction of the city of towers. Thereupon the demons flee, and the citizens can return to their business in peace - they can already be seen at the city gates. |
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During the civil war in Arezzo, Sr. Francis saw demons over the city. He called upon a brother of his order, Sylvester, co drive them out. The picture area is dominated by the architecture of the city, which is divided from the rest of the world by a crack in the earth, and by the cowering church building. Giotto portrays the saint deep in prayer in front of the latter. His strength seems to pass to Brother Sylvester, who raises his hand commandingly in the direction of the city of towers. Thereupon the demons flee, and the citizens can return to their business in peace - they can already be seen at the city gates.[2] |
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 [1] There is no evidence that Giotto was placed in charge of the decoration of the Upper Church or was selected as the "most suitable" artist for its decoration. If records of the commissions existed, they may have been lost. The early documents held by the church have been destroyed. The fresco cycle of the Life of St. Francis in the Upper Church is commonly considered to be the work of Giotto, but the documents of the Franciscan Friars that relate to artistic commissions during this period were destroyed by Napoleon's troops, who stabled horses in the Upper Church of the Basilica, and in the absence of documentary evidence to the contrary, it has been convenient to ascribe every fresco in the Upper Church that was not obviously by Cimabue, to Giotto, whose prestige has overshadowed that of almost every contemporary. Some of the earliest remaining biographical sources, such as Ghiberti and Riccobaldo Ferrarese, cite the fresco cycle of the life of St Francis in the Upper Church as his earliest autonomous works.[4] However, since the idea was convincingly put forward by the German art historian, Friedrich Rintelen in 1912,[5] an increasing number of scholars have expressed doubt that Giotto was in fact the author of the Upper Church frescos. There are many differences between them and the Arena Chapel frescoes which can not be accounted for by the stylistic development of an individual artist. It seems, rather, that several hands painted the frescoes and that the artists were probably from Rome. Bruno Zanardi, Giotto e Pietro Cavallini,La questione di Assisi e il cantiere medievale della pittura a fresco, Milan 2002. Zanardi provides an English synopsis of his study in Anne Derbes and Mark Sandona, The Cambridge Companion to Giotto, New York, 2004, 32-62. [2] von der Haegen, A. M. Giotto di Bondone, Konemann, Köln, 1998, p. 25 |
Related Pages Giotto di Bondone |