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Giotto and his works in Padua An Explanatory Notice of the Series of Woodcuts Executed for the Arundel Society After the Frescoes in the Arena Chapel By: John Ruskin (1819-1900) |
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THE COMPLETE WORKS OF JOHN RUSKIN
STONES OF VENICE
VOLUME III GIOTTO LECTURES ON ARCHITECTURE HARBOURS OF ENGLAND A JOY FOREVER
NATIONAL LIBRARY ASSOCIATION
NEW YORK CHICAGO
THE COMPLETE WORKS OF JOHN RUSKIN
VOLUME X
GIOTTO AND HIS WORKS
LECTURES ON ARCHITECTURE
THE HARBORS OF ENGLAND
POLITICAL ECONOMY OF ART (A JOY FOREVER)
GIOTTO AND HIS WORKS IN PADUA BEING AN EXPLANATORY NOTICE OF THE SERIES OF
WOODCUTS EXECUTED FOR THE ARUNDEL
SOCIETY AFTER THE FRESCOS IN
THE ARENA CHAPEL
ADVERTISEMENT.
The following notice of Giotto has not been drawn up with any idea of
attempting a history of his life. That history could only be written
after a careful search through the libraries of Italy for all
documents relating to the years during which he worked. I have no time
for such search, or even for the examination of well known and
published materials; and have therefore merely collected, from the
sources nearest at hand, such information as appeared absolutely
necessary to render the series of Plates now published by the Arundel
Society intelligible and interesting to those among its Members who
have not devoted much time to the examination of mediƦval works. I
have prefixed a few remarks on the relation of the art of Giotto to
former and subsequent efforts; which I hope may be useful in
preventing the general reader from either looking for what the painter
never intended to give, or missing the points to which his endeavours
were really directed. J.R.
GIOTTO AND HIS WORKS IN PADUA.
Towards the close of the thirteenth century, Enrico Scrovegno, a noble
Paduan, purchased, in his native city, the remains of the Roman
Amphitheatre or Arena from the family of the Delesmanini, to whom
those remains had been granted by the Emperor Henry III. of Germany in
1090. For the power of making this purchase, Scrovegno was in all
probability indebted to his father, Reginald, who, for his avarice, is
placed by Dante in the seventh circle of the Inferno , and regarded
apparently as the chief of the usurers there, since he is the only one
who addresses Dante.[1] The son, having possessed himself of the
Roman ruin, or of the site which it had occupied, built himself a
fortified palace upon the ground, and a chapel dedicated to the
Annunciate Virgin. [Footnote 1: "Noting the visages of some who lay
Beneath the pelting of that dolorous fire,
One of them all I knew not; but perceived
That pendent from his neck each bore a pouch,
With colours and with emblems various marked,
On which it seemed as if their eye did feed.
And when amongst them looking round I came,
A yellow purse I saw, with azure wrought,
That wore a lion's countenance and port.
Then, still my sight pursuing its career,
Another I beheld, than blood more red,
A goose display of whiter wing than curd.
And one who bore a fat and azure swine
Pictured on his white scrip, addressed me thus:
What dost thou in this deep? Go now and know,
Since yet thou livest, that my neighbour here,
Vitaliano, on my left shall sit.
A Paduan with these Florentines am I.
Ofttimes they thunder in mine ears, exclaiming,
Oh! haste that noble knight, he who the pouch
With the three goats will bring. This said, he writhed
The mouth, and lolled the tongue out, like an ox
That licks his nostrils." Canto xvii. This passage of Cary's Dante is not quite so clear as that
translator's work usually is. "One of them all I knew not" is an
awkward periphrasis for "I knew none of them." Dante's indignant
expression of the effect of avarice in withering away distinctions of
character, and the prophecy of Scrovegno, that his neighbor Vitaliano,
then living, should soon be with him, to sit on his left hand, is
rendered a little obscure by the transposition of the word "here."
Cary has also been afraid of the excessive homeliness of Dante's
imagery; "whiter wing than curd" being in the original "whiter than
butter... Continue reading book >>
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