Painting #012 - Giotto

Giotto di Bondone

(Italian, 1266/67-1337)

Lamentation (the Mourning of Christ)

After Jesus was crucified, his body was removed from the cross and his friends mourned over his body. 

Lamentation

 - Giotto di Bondone 

- fresco (200 x 185 cm) c.1304-1306 
- Scrovegni Chapel (aka Arena Chapel) (Padua, Italy)

Holy Mother is holding Jesus to her bosom, Magdalene is holding his feet, whilst apostle John in desperation swings his arms to the back. Others mourn in silence.

      Confer this Virgin-Child relation with that in another fresco in the same chapel:

Nativity

The Lamentations of Jeremiah  

- Thomas Tallis (c.1505-1585, English)

- 5 voice setting: ATTBB

Madonna and Child

Madonna and Child
- Giotto il Bondone
- tempera on panel (85 x 62 cm) c.1320-c.1330
- National Gallery of Art (Washington, D.C.) 

Ognissanti Madonna

Ognissanti Madonna
- Giotto di Bondone
- tempera on panel (325 × 204 cm) c.1310
- Uffizi Gallery (Florence)

Stefaneschi Triptych

* Originally an altarpiece for Old St. Peter's Basilica in Rome:

(L) Front side     (R) Back side
 

Stefaneschi Triptych

- tempera on wood

(central panel) 178 × 89 cm 

 (side panels) 168 × 83 cm

(each section of the predella) 45 × 83 cm

- Pinacoteca Vaticana (Rome)

Saint Francis Receiving the Stigmata

Saint Francis Receiving the Stigmata
- Giotto di Bondone in 1295-1300
- tempera & gold on panel (313 × 163 cm)
- Louvre (Paris)

Kiss of Judas / The Arrest of Christ 

Kiss of Judas
- Giotto di Bondone
- fresco (200 x 185 cm) c.1304-1306
- Scrovegni Chapel (Padua, Italy)

"The Kiss of Judas, also known (especially in art) as the Betrayal of Christ, is how Judas identified Jesus to the multitude with swords and clubs who had come from the chief priests and elders of the people to arrest him, according to the Synoptic Gospels."
     * Apostle Peter is raged and in his attempt to rescue Jesus he cuts off an ear of a soldier. A nearby monk poses to stop Peter.
     * "The kiss is given by Judas in the Garden of Gethsemane after the Last Supper and leads directly to the arrest of Jesus by the police force of the Sanhedrin."
     * "More broadly, a Judas kiss may refer to "an act appearing to be an act of friendship, which is in fact harmful to the recipient".

The Scrovegni Chapel 

(Padua, Italy)

Scrovegni, an affluent banker, commissioned the chapel to serve as a family worship, burial space and as a backdrop for an annually performed mystery play. 
     Inside, the chapel contains a fresco cycle by Giotto and considered to be an important masterpiece of Western art. 

     The theme of the decoration is Salvation, and the cycle is divided into 37 scenes, arranged around the lateral walls in three tiers:

Model of the interior of the chapel, towards entrance

Towards the apse and altar

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Giotto was also an architect:

Campanile di Giotto
- Giotto (architect)
-polygonal buttresses at each corner
(84.7 x 14.45 x 14.45 m, in 5 stages)
- Piazza del Duomo (Florence)

One of the showpieces of Florentine Gothic architecture, this free-standing campanile (bell tower) is part of the complex of buildings that make up the Florence Cathedral. 

Source: Wikipedia