Giotto di Bondone was born in the year of 1276 in Vespignano, near Florence, Italy. He is known as the as the most important Italian painter of the 14th century. His work plays a part to the famous Renaissance developed a century later. For almost seven centuries, Giotto has been known as the father of European painting and one of the first of the great masters of art. Unfortunately, Giotto died on January 8, 1337. However, he lived a full artistic life: he painted frescoes in the Upper Church at Assisi, in the Lower Church of the Basilica of St. Francis, and across Italy's historic churches. He primarily worked with frescoes and the theme of his art is focused on events from the bible. His art style is has very dark and earthy tones and he doesn't shy away from using intense imagery like blood and death.
Above is The Lamentation by Giotto and can be seen in the Arena Chapel in Padua. This painting is known for the dark tones and the overwhelming sadness. It showcases the body of Christ and his followers weeping at his death. However, this painting is not your average depiction of a Bible story. Giotto wanted to make certain that beholders of the piece would understand that Christ was surrounded by his followers, so he painted the backs of two people in the front of the painting, giving a three-dimensional feel to the piece. This is revolutionary because most frescos such as this were two-dimensional.
A diptych is a painting or artwork that is two flat pieces hinged or attached together. Below is a diptych that has a blend of the principles of art: balance, harmony, and gradation. The balance comes from the use of the same colors, brush strokes, and intense disproportion of the characters. The harmony is that they are clearly from the same universe and they compliment each other. The painting plays around with gradation: small eyes to large ones, warped head shapes, light colors on the face compared to the dark background. Triptychs are the same as diptychs, but instead of two pieces of artwork, it's three. Below is a triptych that follows the same principles of art. The fact that the three pieces are connected by universe and interact with each other means that the artist is using harmony. The painting has balance because of the way the artist set up the two adults to be beside each other. It also has gradation because of the use of dark and light colors surrounding the peo
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ReplyDeletethe dimension theory is interesting to hear, I did not know and noticed the painting of the backs of the two figures and its meaning before. Your intro of Giotto is clear and easy to follow and the information content of the painting is rich. It would be even more awesome if you put in more original thoughts when you are writing about this lamentation painting.
ReplyDeleteI like your post, it is really intriguing and I like the fact that you did a lot of research on this.
ReplyDeleteit looks like you spent more then 30 seconds on this blog which is more than the rest of us can say; this is great! reflects the research you put into it with interesting facts
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