Giotto di Bondone created many paintings of St. Francis of Assisi (WebMuseum). The largest painting in the panel to the left is called St. Francis Receiving the Stigmata. The paintings underneath (left to right) are Dream of Pope Innocent III, The Approval of the Franciscan Rule, and Sermon to the Birds. This panel was painted anywhere from 1295-1300 (Kahn Achademy). I will be focusing on St. Francis Receiving the Stigmata.
Stigmata are the marks Christ received on the cross. In this painting Christ, in the form of a seraphim, is giving the stigmata to St. Francis, who is kneeling. Compared to other artworks of the time and previously, this work conveys more human emotions and positions, specifically the kneeling (Khan Academy). The stigmata was only given to people with exceptional faith, like St. Francis, and could only be bestowed upon someone in a holy fashion, like via seraphim.
We know this is St. Francis due to his brown robe and the halo above his head, showing that he was sainted after he died. It would be square if he was sainted while he was alive (Bennett).
Now this panel can be viewed in the Louvre in Paris.
Works Cited
Bennett, Judith M. "Chapter 10." Medieval Europe: A Short History. 11th ed. New York: McGraw-Hill, 2011. Print.
Khan Academy. "Giotto, St. Francis Receiving the Stigmata." Florence, the Late Gothic. Khan Academy, n.d. Web. 03 Dec. 2016. <https://www.khanacademy.org/humanities/renaissance-reformation/late-gothic-italy/florence-late-gothic/v/giotto-st-francis-receiving-the-stigmata-c-1295-1300>.
Pioch, Nicolas. "Giotto Di Bondone." WebMuseum. BMW Foundation, 2002. Web. 03 Dec. 2016. <http://www.ibiblio.org/wm/paint/auth/giotto/>.
Nice analysis of Giotto's paintings, Morgan! I wonder why Giotto chose to give these pictures more life and human emotions.
ReplyDeleteI believe we discussed these images as representative of a new culture of focus on humanity. Making images flat also reflected culture, esp. that of the Byzantines. Now society is developing its own new outlook that is reflective of a realism. HIST 225, for instance, shows a video the link the art of Giotto to the new humanism.
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