DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.61542#0054
3°
GIOTTO
[1276-
closing scenes of Christ’s life upon earth. All the
grief and sorrow of the world seem gathered up in
this great Pieta, where the Virgin bends over her
Son in a last embrace, and St. John throws back
his arms in despair, while angels hide their eyes
and rend the air with their wailing voices. In the
Resurrection Giotto has combined two subjects. On
one side we have the white-robed Angels seated on
the red porphyry tomb, with the soldiers, sunk in deep
slumber, at their feet. On the other, the risen Lord,
bearing the flag of victory in his hand, is in the act
of uttering the words “ Noli me tangere ” to the
Magdalen, who, wrapt in her crimson mantle, falls at
his feet, exclaiming, “ Rabboni !"—Master. No artist
before Giotto had ever tried to represent this touching
incident, and no master of later times ever painted
so touching and beautiful a Magdalen as this one
with the yearning eyes and the passion of love and
rapture in her outstretched arms. And while the
trees behind the sepulchre are bare and withered,
here the fig and olive of the garden have burst into
leaf, and the little birds carol on the grassy slopes.
“ The winter is past, the rain over and gone; the
flowers appear on the earth, the time of the singing
of birds is come.” The Ascension is more formal in
arrangement; two choirs of seraphs in the sky corres-
pond with two groups of disciples kneeling on
the ground, while between them are two white-robed
angels, pointing upwards as they repeat the heavenly
message. But Giotto’s power of expression is nobly
seen in the upturned face of the Virgin-Mother, who,
strong in faith and love, follows her Son with straining
eyes ; and there is a wonderful sense of movement
GIOTTO
[1276-
closing scenes of Christ’s life upon earth. All the
grief and sorrow of the world seem gathered up in
this great Pieta, where the Virgin bends over her
Son in a last embrace, and St. John throws back
his arms in despair, while angels hide their eyes
and rend the air with their wailing voices. In the
Resurrection Giotto has combined two subjects. On
one side we have the white-robed Angels seated on
the red porphyry tomb, with the soldiers, sunk in deep
slumber, at their feet. On the other, the risen Lord,
bearing the flag of victory in his hand, is in the act
of uttering the words “ Noli me tangere ” to the
Magdalen, who, wrapt in her crimson mantle, falls at
his feet, exclaiming, “ Rabboni !"—Master. No artist
before Giotto had ever tried to represent this touching
incident, and no master of later times ever painted
so touching and beautiful a Magdalen as this one
with the yearning eyes and the passion of love and
rapture in her outstretched arms. And while the
trees behind the sepulchre are bare and withered,
here the fig and olive of the garden have burst into
leaf, and the little birds carol on the grassy slopes.
“ The winter is past, the rain over and gone; the
flowers appear on the earth, the time of the singing
of birds is come.” The Ascension is more formal in
arrangement; two choirs of seraphs in the sky corres-
pond with two groups of disciples kneeling on
the ground, while between them are two white-robed
angels, pointing upwards as they repeat the heavenly
message. But Giotto’s power of expression is nobly
seen in the upturned face of the Virgin-Mother, who,
strong in faith and love, follows her Son with straining
eyes ; and there is a wonderful sense of movement