DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.51584#0051
GIOTTO.
47
returned to his native city with great increase of
riches and fame. He continued his works with
unabated application, assisted by his pupils, for his
school was now the most famous in Italy. Like
most of the early Italian artists, he was an architect
and sculptor, as well as a painter; and his last
public work was the famous Campanile or Bell-
tower at Florence, founded in 1334, for which he
made all the designs, and even executed with his
own hand the models for the sculpture on the three
lower divisions. According to Kugler, they form
a regular series of subjects illustrating the develop-
ment of human culture, through religion and laws,
“ conceived,” says the same authority, “ with pro-
found wisdom.” When the emperor Charles V.
saw this elegant structure, he exclaimed that it
ought to be “ kept under glass.” In the same al-
legorical taste Giotto painted many pictures of the
Virtues and Vices, ingeniously invented and ren-
dered with great attention to natural and appro-
priate expression. In these and similar represen-
tations we trace distinctly the influence of the
genius of Dante. A short time before his death
he was invited to Milan by Azzo Visconti. He
executed some admirable frescoes in the ancient
palace of the dukes of Milan ; but these have pe-
rished. Finally, having returned to Florence, he
soon afterwards died—“ yielding up his soul to
God in the year 1336; and having been,” adds
47
returned to his native city with great increase of
riches and fame. He continued his works with
unabated application, assisted by his pupils, for his
school was now the most famous in Italy. Like
most of the early Italian artists, he was an architect
and sculptor, as well as a painter; and his last
public work was the famous Campanile or Bell-
tower at Florence, founded in 1334, for which he
made all the designs, and even executed with his
own hand the models for the sculpture on the three
lower divisions. According to Kugler, they form
a regular series of subjects illustrating the develop-
ment of human culture, through religion and laws,
“ conceived,” says the same authority, “ with pro-
found wisdom.” When the emperor Charles V.
saw this elegant structure, he exclaimed that it
ought to be “ kept under glass.” In the same al-
legorical taste Giotto painted many pictures of the
Virtues and Vices, ingeniously invented and ren-
dered with great attention to natural and appro-
priate expression. In these and similar represen-
tations we trace distinctly the influence of the
genius of Dante. A short time before his death
he was invited to Milan by Azzo Visconti. He
executed some admirable frescoes in the ancient
palace of the dukes of Milan ; but these have pe-
rished. Finally, having returned to Florence, he
soon afterwards died—“ yielding up his soul to
God in the year 1336; and having been,” adds