DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.61542#0070
44
GIOTTO
[1276-
and beauty, should surpass all that the Greeks and
Romans had accomplished in the days of their
greatest pride. “ For this purpose,” the decree
runs, “ we have chosen Giotto di Bondone, painter,
our great and dear master, since neither in the city
nor in the whole world is there any other to be found
as well fitted for this and similar tasks.” Giotto lost
no time in preparing designs for the beautiful Cam-
panile which bears his name, and on the Sth of July
the foundations of the new Tower were laid with
great solemnity. Villani describes the imposing
processions that were held, and the immense multi-
tudes which attended the ceremony, and adds that
the Superintendent of Works was Maestro Giotto,
our own citizen, the most sovereign master of
painting in his time, and the one who drew figures,
and represented action in the most life-like manner.”
Giotto received a salary of 100 golden florins from the
State “ for his excellence and goodness,” and was
strictly enjoined not to leave Florence again without
the permission of the Signory. The contemporary
chronicler Pucci describes the ceremony in verse,
and adds that Giotto not only designed the Cam-
panile, but also executed the first tier of bas-
reliefs, a statement confirmed by Ghiberti, who says
that Giotto, being a skilled sculptor, himself designed
and carved the first story of reliefs on his own Tower.
There seems to be little doubt that these noble
sculptures, forming as they do a grand poem of
the life of humanity and the progress of civiliza-
tion, were originally designed by Giotto, but probably
executed by his assistant, Andrea Pisano, to whom the
building of the Campanile was entrusted after the
GIOTTO
[1276-
and beauty, should surpass all that the Greeks and
Romans had accomplished in the days of their
greatest pride. “ For this purpose,” the decree
runs, “ we have chosen Giotto di Bondone, painter,
our great and dear master, since neither in the city
nor in the whole world is there any other to be found
as well fitted for this and similar tasks.” Giotto lost
no time in preparing designs for the beautiful Cam-
panile which bears his name, and on the Sth of July
the foundations of the new Tower were laid with
great solemnity. Villani describes the imposing
processions that were held, and the immense multi-
tudes which attended the ceremony, and adds that
the Superintendent of Works was Maestro Giotto,
our own citizen, the most sovereign master of
painting in his time, and the one who drew figures,
and represented action in the most life-like manner.”
Giotto received a salary of 100 golden florins from the
State “ for his excellence and goodness,” and was
strictly enjoined not to leave Florence again without
the permission of the Signory. The contemporary
chronicler Pucci describes the ceremony in verse,
and adds that Giotto not only designed the Cam-
panile, but also executed the first tier of bas-
reliefs, a statement confirmed by Ghiberti, who says
that Giotto, being a skilled sculptor, himself designed
and carved the first story of reliefs on his own Tower.
There seems to be little doubt that these noble
sculptures, forming as they do a grand poem of
the life of humanity and the progress of civiliza-
tion, were originally designed by Giotto, but probably
executed by his assistant, Andrea Pisano, to whom the
building of the Campanile was entrusted after the