Западноевропейское искусство от Джотто до Рембрандта

Giotto's Madonna and Child Enthroned, of about 1310, is a ceremonial representation of the Virgin as Queen of Heaven. The distant space is ruled out by the traditional background. Giotto introduced light and inward extension in a direct and convincing manner. He placed the throne above a marble step and the Virgin sits firmly within it. The angels kneeling in the foreground are solid. The angels and saints firmly stand on either side of the throne. Light without indication of source, models the forms so heavily that they resemble sculptural masses. Giotto's miracle lay in his ability to produce for the first time on a flat surface three-dimensional forms. Giotto's facial types and drapery motives recall Gothic sculptures.

In the Raising of Lazarus the composition divides into two groups: one centred around Lazarus, who has just risen from the tomb and is still wrapped in graveclothes is read together with the rock; the other beginning with prostrate Mary and Martha, culminates in Christ, who calls the dead man forth by a single gesture of his right hand against the blue. The calm authority is contrasted with the astonishment of the surrounding figures.

In the Lamentation Giotto has enriched the dialogue between life and death. Instead of burst of grief he has staged a tragedy. The figures grieve in the manner possible to their individual personalities. Giotto added to the scene mourners who turn their backs to the spectators; one upholds Christ's head, the other – his right hand. Mary with one arm around Christ's shoulder searches his countenance. Only the angels can cry in pure grief, each half-hidden in clouds to show that they are supernatural. In this scene Giotto's brushwork is as calm as in the other. He achieved this effect not only by the arrangement of figures but also by the diagonal line of the rock, descending toward the faces of Mary and Christ. At the upper right, as if to typify the desolation of the scene a bare tree stands against the blue. Giotto expected his observers to remember that in accordance with the medieval legend, the Tree of Knowledge was withered after the sin of Adam and Eve and made fruitful again after the sacrifice of Christ.

Make sure you know how to pronounce thefallowing words:

Giotto; Jesus Christ; Mary; Madonna; Virgin; Martha; fresco ['freskou]; Adam; Eve; Arena Chapel;

Byzantine; Padua; Florentine; Lazarus; Redemption; recognise; layer; contemporaries; shepherd;

masterpiece; perspective; accomplish; medieval; wilderness; sacrifice; expulsion; angels; surface.

Notes

Joachim among the Shepherds – «Встреча Иоакима с пастухами»

Raising of Lazarus – «Воскрешение Лазаря»

Lamentation – «Оплакивание»

Madonna and Child Enthroned – «Величание» («Маеста» из Оньиссанти)

Redemption – Искупление Грехов

The Vices and the Virtues – Грехи и Добродетели

protagonist – главный герой

Joachim – Иоаким

Tasks

I. Read the text. Mark the following statements true or false.

1. Giotto's greatness is recognized only today.

2. Giotto produced cubic forms on a flat surface.

3. Jesus and Mary are the protagonists of Giotto's frescoes.

4. In Giotto's frescoes the figures float through the heavens.

5. The composition is centred around Lazarus.

6. In the Lamentation to typify the desolation of the scene Giotto depicted a bare tree against the blue background.

II. How well have you read? Can you answer the following questions?

1. How was Giotto characterized by his contemporaries?

2. What did Giotto represent in the frescoes that line the interior of the Arena Chapel in Padua? What is the subject of these frecoes?

3. What did Giotto introduce in his works of art?

4. What is depicted in one of Giotto's earliest frescoes? What device did Giotto use to emphasize the three-dimensionality of Joackim's figure? What scale did he recognize for the figures and for the surroundings?

5. How did Giotto represent the figures in the Madonna and Child Enthroned? How did Giotto depict the throne? How is the background painted? What models the form in the Madonna andChild Enthroned? What do Giotto's figures resemble?

6. What is represented in the Raising of Lazarus? What groups are distinguished in the fresco? How are they arranged? How did Giotto show the perspective in this fresco?

7. What does the Lamentation depict? How did Giotto group the grieving figures? What medieval legend is connected with the Tree of Knowledge?

III. I Give Russian equivalents of the following phrases: