DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.51584#0072
68
EARLY ITALIAN PAINTERS.
teenth and in the very beginning of the fourteenth
century, have perished wholly ; the earliest in date
which still exist represent the Passion of our
Saviour in a rude but solemn style. We find here
the accompaniments usual in this subject from the
earliest time, and which, from their perpetual re-
petition down to a late period, appear to be tra-
ditional; the lamenting angels, the sorrowing
women, the Virgin fainting at the foot of the cross.
Two angels at the head of the repentant thief pre-
pare to carry his soul into Paradise; two demons
perched on the cross of the reprobate thief are ready
to seize his spirit the moment it is released, and
bear it to the regions below. This fresco and an-
other have been traditionally attributed to the
Buffalmacco of facetious memory, already men-
tioned ; but this is now supposed to be an error.
A series of subjects from the Book of Job was
painted by Giotto; of these only fragments remain.
Then followed Andrea Orcagna ; and the sub-
jects selected by him were such as harmonized
peculiarly with the destination of these sacred
precincts: they were to represent in four great
compartments what the Italians call “ I quattro
novissimi,” i. e. the four last or latest things—Death,
Judgment, Hell or Purgatory, and Paradise; but
only three were completed.
The first is styled the Triumph of Death (ZZ
Trionfo della Morte'). It is full of poetry, and
EARLY ITALIAN PAINTERS.
teenth and in the very beginning of the fourteenth
century, have perished wholly ; the earliest in date
which still exist represent the Passion of our
Saviour in a rude but solemn style. We find here
the accompaniments usual in this subject from the
earliest time, and which, from their perpetual re-
petition down to a late period, appear to be tra-
ditional; the lamenting angels, the sorrowing
women, the Virgin fainting at the foot of the cross.
Two angels at the head of the repentant thief pre-
pare to carry his soul into Paradise; two demons
perched on the cross of the reprobate thief are ready
to seize his spirit the moment it is released, and
bear it to the regions below. This fresco and an-
other have been traditionally attributed to the
Buffalmacco of facetious memory, already men-
tioned ; but this is now supposed to be an error.
A series of subjects from the Book of Job was
painted by Giotto; of these only fragments remain.
Then followed Andrea Orcagna ; and the sub-
jects selected by him were such as harmonized
peculiarly with the destination of these sacred
precincts: they were to represent in four great
compartments what the Italians call “ I quattro
novissimi,” i. e. the four last or latest things—Death,
Judgment, Hell or Purgatory, and Paradise; but
only three were completed.
The first is styled the Triumph of Death (ZZ
Trionfo della Morte'). It is full of poetry, and