"Like a Virgin": Madonna Enthroned

"Like a Virgin?" More like THE virgin.

Giotto's "Madonna Enthroned," also know as "Ognissanti Madonna," is a great example of his artistic mastery and revolutionary emotive, naturalist style. This particular posing of the Virgin Mary with the Christ Child, surrounded by angels and saints (aka Maestà) was common during the early Renaissance era (c. 1300) and became an archetype in sacred art. The Maestà became popular due to the works of Duccio, and other frescos in Sienna during the early 14th century. This pose has a relatively wide guidelines, and interpretation was left to the artist (ex: saints looking away from Mary and Christ).  Originally, this depiction was created as an alter piece for the high alter of the Ognissanti Franciscan Church in Florence- today, it resides in the Ulfizzi Gallery of Florence. While some aspects of this piece represent the traditional Byzantine style of the era (gold embossing, hierarchy of scale-Mary is significantly bigger than the saints/angels-, general stiffness of emotion), "Madonna Enthroned" is a model of Giotto's step out of said style and into the new style of naturalism.

       Giotto di Bondone                                                                                               Cimabue 

             c. 1330                                                                                                          c.1280-90

Giotto did away with the flat expressionless style of the Byzantine era, as we discussed in class, and revolutionized art by adding in emotion and natural posing into his art work.  The Maestà on the right was done by Cimabue c. 1280-90. As you can see the Cimabue holds quite a bit more of the Byzantine style. The expressions are flat, the angels and saints are looking out, there is relatively little proportioning of poses and again there is hierarchal scaling.  You can see by comparison just how drastically Giotto's naturalistic style varied from the artists before him. Here you can find a video comparing the two Maestà in further detail.  

Lastly...

These exist, and I move to make them mandatory for this class: http://www.yizzam.com/giotto-di-bondone-ognissanti-madonna.html 

They are "great for school or a night out with family." 

Sources: 

Zophy , Jonathan. A Short History of Renaissance and Reformation Europe: Dances Over Fire and   Water. 3rd ed. Upper Saddle River: Pearson Prentice Hall, 2003. 87-9. Print.

http://www.wga.hu/frames-e.html?/bio/g/giotto/biograph.html

http://www.casasantapia.com/art/giotto/ognissantimadonna.htm

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ognissanti_Madonna

JRC

The Meeting at the Golden Gate

In this painting by Giotto Joachim and Anne are depicted meeting and embracing outside the golden gates of heaven. Joachim and Anne are the parents of the Virgin Mary. This painting is an example of Giotto's ability to bring his paintings to life. The image of the two saints embracing and kissing one another is realistic not only in their image but in their body carriage as well. How the two saints stand and hold each other is almost life like.  

  I chose this painting not only for the beautiful artwork , but because I have never seen a painting of saints showing affection in this form before. It stuck out to me immediately and I became intrigued by the story it told. To me not only are the two saints embracing in front of the golden gates of heaven, it appears to me that Saint Anne was already there and waiting for him. And this thought makes the painting even more beautiful to me. 

http://www.artunframed.com/giotto.htm

                                             

St. Francis of Assisi Stigmatization

Completed in 1300 by Giotto di Bondone, the Stigmatization of St. Francis covers a variety of points we talked about in class. First, it is not hard to tell that this painting is a religious painting, as were many of Giotto's paintings. This painting in particular is directed to St. Francis of Assisi. We mentioned in class that Giotto was a supporter of the Franciscans. It was originally painted for the Church of San Francesco, but today can be found in the Musée du Louvre.

Stigmatization of St. Francis shows a great deal of intensity, detail, and feeling. The detail of the painting allows us to see the intensity on the face of St. Francis. When I look at his face, I see a stern but sort of confused look. To me it seems like he is confused as to was is happening, but is letting it go because of his faith and trust in God. In the painting, a six-winged angel is stigmatizing St. Francis. As we talked about in class stigmata is when a person gets the same crucifixion wounds as Jesus did. St. Francis was the first saint to receive stigmata. Also in the painting, Giotto uses his technique in order to create three-dimensional figures on a flat surface. This is something we talked a lot about in class, that Giotto was the first artist to have emotion and three-dimensional.

On the bottom of this piece there are three of Giotto's paintings in smaller proportion. I am not exactly sure as to why those are there. I would guess that the three pictures in the bottom show us glimpses of St. Francis's life before the stigmatization. They show his importance to the church, his group of Franciscans going to the Pope, and also his love for nature in the bottom right.

http://www.artble.com/artists/giotto_di_bondone/paintings/stigmatization_of_st_francis_(louvre)

St. Catherine of Bologna

             Briefly touched on in our reading was Catherine of Bologna.  She was a Saint that came from a noble family and was very well educated.  Later in her life she joined an order of the Franciscans and was eventually located in Bologna (CP 32).  During her life, Catherine wrote The Seven Spiritual Weapons,  a "guide to novices and a record of her own spiritual journey" (CP 33).  Her book, which she only became public near her death, had a small influence on the Christian faith and is still being used today.  What I find interesting is the evolution of the Christian faith.  With each new saint, and new order being founded the understanding of Christian faith was changing.  However, most of the change did not come from huge movements like the reformation, like we typically think. The evolution of it came from small changes over time, such as Catherine's book or the founding of the Dominican order.  With each small change brought a new idea, and a new way of viewing Christianity.  

              What particularly intrigued me about Catherine of Bologna was not her life, but her death.  Above is a picture of her body which is on display in the city of Bologna.  It was said that after she died miracles occurred at her grave site and "her body was exhumed eighteen days later when a heavenly perfume was noticed to come from the area" (source can be found here).  Her body  was then declared incorrupt and put on display for the people to see.   I'm a skeptical person and I am not sure whether the miracles reported at her grave site were true, but what amazes me is the ability of Catherine to affect people in great ways even after her death.  She was such an inspiring person in her real life that people believed even in her corpse, that truly speaks to what an amazing person she must have been. 

Photo credit: http://www.roman-catholic-saints.com/saint-catherine-of-bologna.html

The Unknown Giotto

There are many uncertainties about Giotto. It is said that Giotto was born in
Romignano, they have a plaque there that states this claim, but now it is believed he was born in Florence. The year he was born was calculated from a poem written at the time of his death. The poem said he was seventy years old when he died, but seventy fit the rhyme scheme of the poem. So that age may not be accurate. The artist Cimabue discovered his lifelike renderings of sheep and asked Giotto's father if Giotto could become his apprentice.

 

Then there is the controversy about Giotto actually painting the frescoes of the Basilica of St. Francis of Assisi. Cimabue went to the basilica to work on the frescoes and it is believed that Giotto went with him. Some believe that Giotto painted most of the frescoes and some believe that a collection of artists painted them. People have tried to compare the frescoes with other known frescoes and have come to the conclusion that the frescoes were done by many different artists. The only way we would have know the artists is if Napoleon had not destroyed the records of the basilica. 

St. Angela and the Ursulines

(*This is a later painting done of Saint Angela the founder of the Ursulines, but it is connected to an official Ursuline website, so I figured since it is their preferred choice it would be appropriate.)

In class, we mentioned the Franciscans today, an order for the men to join to move toward a more emotive relationship with God and Jesus. These orders offered more personal connections with God. The Franciscans also followed tradition by living simply within the poverty that reflected Jesus’s own life (CP 25). Men also could choose from other orders, including the Dominican order. Yet for women choices were more limited, either to the sisters orders, or the tertiaries of the Franciscans and Dominicans. These female offshoots of traditional male orders did not reflect the male orders completely because these orders still forced women to live in a cloister away from society. By living in a cloister, these women could not create the same relationship with the Lord that the men of their orders could.

Angela Merici broke away from tradition and created her own teaching order, named the Ursulines, after their patron saint of Ursula (CP 33). The reason Angela’s order was so special centered on her belief that there should not be any required vows or claustration. Claustration is the forced acceptance to live away from society, like in a cloister. For the Ursulines to be allowed to move through society saw a break with tradition and linked them more closely with the traveling Mendicants (CP 25). For Angela these women needed to learn the word of God, but could say at their homes and show their piety through a celibate lifestyle (St. Angela). Sadly, after Angela’s death the church forced the Ursulines to accept claustration (CP 33). This period, the mid-sixteenth century, offered very little education to most women so what Angela accomplished in teaching young women about God showed her persistence in her message.

The other site that I used to find some of my information is here:

http://stamericigh.com/index.cfm?load=page&page=152

-Jenn Kervian

Giotto's Flight into Egypt

     Previous to Giotto's naturalist paintings religious art was constructed in the Byzantine style, which incorporated two-dimentional figures with excessive use of color and pattern. Giotto's work, such as the  1304 fresco, Flight to Egypt, differed from the previous Byzantine style by incorporating three dimensional figures, drawn to scale, and more representative of the human figure. The Flight to Egypt, is based on the biblical passage Matthew 2:13-2:15, 19-20, in which an angel tells Joseph to take Mary and Jesus to Egypt to avoid the Slaughter of Innocents by King Herod.

     Similar to the included 14th century Byzantine fresco painting of Procession, from the Church of the Peribleptos in Mistra, Greece, the Flight From Egypt, incorporates vibrant use of color and the distinctive golden hallows around the head of the holy family and

their accompanying angel. This demonstrates how Giotto's fresco and painting style represents a transition from the contemporary Byzantine style into the naturalist movement which would last for the remainder of the millennia.

http://www.aug.edu/augusta/iconography/flightIntoEgypt.html
http://www.metmuseum.org/toah/hd/fwbz/hd_fwbz.htm

Remnants of the pre-modern World in SGF

Today is Labor Day and that means my annual trip to the Springfield Labor Day parade. This is a bit of  Americana, which I try to explain to my children as historically relevant, but mostly they just like the gobstoppers and tootsie rolls. On a day in which I sleep in, workers from all across SGF take to the parade and group themselves with signs, trucks, bikes, and heavy machinery to demonstrate their community and ties to a union.  What is my link to this class? We looked briefly at the concept of a guild. Remember that Burckhardt said that everyone was free in the Renaissance and man had no ties. However, we (and Brucker) critiqued that notion by suggesting that guilds continued to function in Italy, even during the Renaissance. We learned on Friday that the guilds of Florence, especially the cloth guild and the wool guild, were major patrons of art. Guilds played central roles in town governance, kept the economy stable, helped established a product, and provided important social networks and health benefits, as Zophy pointed out.

Here, in the photo above, the heavy laborers and their families march to show solidarity. Not only do they share health benefits but they demonstrate a link to a common political ideology. How would this have been similar in the historical past? One thing is that when I ask students who in their family is a member of the working class--rather than a professional class--usually smaller number of students raise their hands.