Memoirs of the early Italian painters / by Anna Jameson; thoroughly revised and in part rewritten by Estelle M. Hurll.
- Anna Brownell Jameson
- Date:
- 1899
Licence: Public Domain Mark
Credit: Memoirs of the early Italian painters / by Anna Jameson; thoroughly revised and in part rewritten by Estelle M. Hurll. Source: Wellcome Collection.
54/335 page 20
![In Padua Giotto painted the chapel of the Arena with fres- coes from the history of Christ and the Virgin, in fifty square compartments. Of this chapel the late Lady Callcott pub- lished an interesting account, illustrated from drawings made by Sir Augustus Callcott. These, however, are superseded by the set of drawings engraved on wood and published by the Arundel Society, which, besides their beauty and conscientious accuracy, have the advantage of being described and commented on by Mr. Luskin. At Padua Giotto met his friend Dante;1 2 and the influence of one great genius on another is strongly exemplified in some of his succeeding works, and particularly in his next grand performance, the frescoes in the church of Assisi. In the under church, and immediately over the tomb of St. Francis, the painter represented the three vows of the Order — Poverty, Chastity, and Obedience; and in the fourth compart- ment, the Saint enthroned and glorified amidst the host of Heaven. The invention of the allegories under which Giotto has represented the vows of the Saint, — his Marriage with Poverty — Chastity seated in her rocky fortress — and Obedi- ence with the curb and yoke, — are ascribed by a tradition to Dante. Bv the time Giotto had attained his thirtieth year he had reached such hitherto unknown excellence in Art, and his celebrity was so universal, that every city and every petty sovereign in Italy contended for the honor of his presence and his pencil, and tempted him with the promise of rich rewards. For the lords of Arezzo, of Limini, and Bavenna, and for the Duke of Milan, he executed many works, now almost wholly perished. Castruccio Castricani, the warlike tyrant of Lucca, also employed him ; but how Giotto was induced to listen to the offers of this enemy of his country is not explained. Per- haps Castruccio, as the head of the Ghibelline party, in which Giotto had apparently enrolled himself, appeared in the light of a friend rather than an enemy ; however this may be, a picture which Giotto is said to have painted for Castruccio, and in which he introduced the portrait of the tyrant, with a falcon on his fist, was long preserved at Lucca.^ For Guido da Polente, the father of that hapless Francesca di Limini whose story is so 1 [Vasari relates that Giotto first made Dante’s acquaintance in Rome.] 2 It is no longer there. It viay have been a copy of the portrait of Castruccio in the Campo Santo at Pisa.](https://iiif.wellcomecollection.org/image/b24877888_0054.jp2/full/800%2C/0/default.jpg)
