DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.63447#0521
ART IN THE SOUTHERN PROVINCES.
505
From Assisi Giotto returned to Florence ; from thence,
after a lengthened stay, he made a second tour in Upper
Italy to Verona, Ravenna, Padua, and Ferrara. He
executed works in all these cities. He also went to
Avignon and to Naples.
As works of his maturest powers, we may instance the
“ Coronation of the Virgin,” in the church of Santa
Croce of Florence ; and a series of small paintings of
the lives of our Saviour and St. Francis, executed on the
panels of the wardrobes of the sacristy of that church.
These are now carefully preserved in the Academy of
Fine Arts, the colouring as fresh and brilliant as if but
laid on recently.
To this period may also be referred the great fresco of the
old refectory of the convent of Santa Croce—the “Cena-
colo,” or “Last Supper,” which has served for the proto-
type of nearly all the compositions on the same subject.1
The frescoes of the Bardi chapel in the Santa Croce are
also eminent for their display of judgment, sobriety,
taste, and dignity of feeling—-the first on the right-hand
side of the high altar, and next to the Peruzzi chapel.
These frescoes describe the life of St. Francis, and were
painted, most probably, after Giotto returned from
Assisi; he had, therefore, the traditions fresh in his
mind. In the year 18522 the whitewash was carefully
removed by the painter Bianchi, and the eloquent picture
of mediaeval religious life was restored to the admiration
of the world.
The entire restoration of the church is being effected,
and the frescoes are found to harmonize with incom-
parable solemnity, and with the stained glass of the
windows. As they are not very generally known even
yet, a brief notice may be acceptable.
The first' picture of the series represents “ The
1 Compare Lippo Lippi (in S. Pier Gattolino), Andrea del Sarto’s (at
the Badia), Leonardo’s (at Milan), and that of Ghirlandajo (in the
Refectory of St. Mark’s); also the one attributed to Raphael, in
Florence (Via Fiesolana), discovered a quarter of a century since.
2 No printed account, that we know of, has appeared descriptive of
these recently discovered frescoes.
505
From Assisi Giotto returned to Florence ; from thence,
after a lengthened stay, he made a second tour in Upper
Italy to Verona, Ravenna, Padua, and Ferrara. He
executed works in all these cities. He also went to
Avignon and to Naples.
As works of his maturest powers, we may instance the
“ Coronation of the Virgin,” in the church of Santa
Croce of Florence ; and a series of small paintings of
the lives of our Saviour and St. Francis, executed on the
panels of the wardrobes of the sacristy of that church.
These are now carefully preserved in the Academy of
Fine Arts, the colouring as fresh and brilliant as if but
laid on recently.
To this period may also be referred the great fresco of the
old refectory of the convent of Santa Croce—the “Cena-
colo,” or “Last Supper,” which has served for the proto-
type of nearly all the compositions on the same subject.1
The frescoes of the Bardi chapel in the Santa Croce are
also eminent for their display of judgment, sobriety,
taste, and dignity of feeling—-the first on the right-hand
side of the high altar, and next to the Peruzzi chapel.
These frescoes describe the life of St. Francis, and were
painted, most probably, after Giotto returned from
Assisi; he had, therefore, the traditions fresh in his
mind. In the year 18522 the whitewash was carefully
removed by the painter Bianchi, and the eloquent picture
of mediaeval religious life was restored to the admiration
of the world.
The entire restoration of the church is being effected,
and the frescoes are found to harmonize with incom-
parable solemnity, and with the stained glass of the
windows. As they are not very generally known even
yet, a brief notice may be acceptable.
The first' picture of the series represents “ The
1 Compare Lippo Lippi (in S. Pier Gattolino), Andrea del Sarto’s (at
the Badia), Leonardo’s (at Milan), and that of Ghirlandajo (in the
Refectory of St. Mark’s); also the one attributed to Raphael, in
Florence (Via Fiesolana), discovered a quarter of a century since.
2 No printed account, that we know of, has appeared descriptive of
these recently discovered frescoes.