A New Way of Painting
 |
| The Lamentation (1305-06, Giotto, Fresco, Arena Chapel, Padua) |
Giotto restored to light this art which has been buried for many centuries...~ Boccaccio (Decameron)
A single glance at Giotto's Lamentation will convince us that we are faced with a truly revolutionary development... a work of such intense dramatic power...
The tragic mood of The Lamentation is brought home to us by the formal rhythm of the design as much as by the gestures and expressions of the participants. The very low center of gravity and the hunched, bending figures communicate the somber quality of the scene and arouse our compassion even before we have grasped the specific meaning of the event depicted. With extraordinary boldness, Giotto sets off the frozen grief of the human mourners against the frantic movement of the weeping angels among the clouds, as if the figures on the ground were restrained by their collective duty to maintain the stability of the composition while the angels, small and weightless as birds, do not share this burden. Let us note, too, how the impact of the drama is heightened by the severely simple setting; the descending slope of the hill acts as a unifying element and at the same time directs our glance toward the heads of Christ and the Virgin, which are the focal point of the scene. Even the tree has a twin function. Its barrenness and isolation suggest that all of nature somehow shares in the Saviour's death, yet it also invites us to ponder a more precise symbolic message. For it alludes—as does Dante in a passage in the Divine Comedy—to the Tree of Knowledge, which the sin of Adam and Eve had caused to wither and which was to be restored to life through the sacrificial death of Christ.
“Gothic Art”
in History of Art
Comments
Post a Comment