ART SUNDAY, BACK TO THE CLASSICS
Giotto di Bondone (c. 1267–January 8, 1337),
Giotto
di Bondone, better known as Giotto, was an Italian painter and
architect. He is generally considered the first in a line of great
artists who contributed to and developed the Italian Renaissance. I have
chosen Giotto because with out him we would have none of the great
masterpieces of the renaissance. His art was extremely innovative, and
is commonly considered as a precursor to the explosion of the Italian
renaissance. He is the link, the first artist to break with the
prescriptive, formulative, and two dimensional styles of the middle
ages. He stands as the key link between the Byzantine art of the late
middle ages, and the more realistic art, the art we have come to accept
as ‘Classical’ , which flowered in the Renaissance. He
took the first tentative steps toward realism. The flat, symbolic
figures typical of his time, grouped in decorative space gave way to
modelled, individualized figures interacting in perspectival space. He
used and understood perspective, he modelled his figures, they were
individuals, occupying their own place in time and space. Today we take
the accomplishments of the great renaissance classical painters so much
for grantage we fail to recognise the enormity of what Giotto did. We
seem to have totally forgotten the difference between the ‘before Giotto and after Giotto’ He managed to adopt the visual language of the sculptors but in two dimensional work. This was unheard of in his time.
Giotto's master work is the Arena Chapel cycle of the Cappella degli Scrovegni in Padua’ depicting the life of the Virgin and the passion of Christ and completed around 1305. He gave us over has 100 major scenes with the beautifully sculptural
figures set in realistic settings. This is much too small a space to
describe all of these wonderful wall paintings, besides it has been done
much better than I could ever do by very learned people, but just check
out a couple of the web sites about his work and you will see how
amasing this man was. Giotto's work was one of the direct influences in Michelangelo’s scheme for the Sistine Chapel, possibly pinnacle of classical painting.
jayaramanms wrote on Jun 17, '08
Giotto
di Bondone's works are really classical and all his paintings are very
good. The paintings posted by you here are also very good. A great blog
by you. Thank you for sharing. My entry for Art Sunday back to Classics
on Mona Lisa is at -http://jayaramanms.multiply.com/journal/item/200
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millimusings wrote on Jun 15, '08
We
can never take any of these painters for granted. Talented and
sometimes beyond belief was their aptitude and dedication to create such
beautiful dedications at that time.
Thank you for the great explanation. |
vickiecollins wrote on Jun 15, '08
As
you might have picked up from other comments I have made, I love
vibrant colors in paintings...the kind of color that makes it almost
seem to be right in front of you physically rather than represented via a
painting. These have vibrant colors but also a bit more.
Great and thanks for visiting me. http://vickiecollins.multiply.com/journal/item/368 |
starfishred wrote on Jun 15, '08
very nicely done wasn't he good
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