Exploring the components of the transition from the Gothic deification to the humanization of the Renaissance with reference to the two paintings "The Sitting of Mary with Angels" by Chimabue and Giotto

Articles in Press

Document Type : Original Article

Authors

1 Department of Art, Ferdows Institute of Higher Education, Mashhed, Iran

2 professor of art reserch department Al-Zahra University Tehran Iran.

10.22051/pgr.2024.46253.1246

Abstract

Cimabue and his student Giotto, Florentine artists, both at the end of the Middle Ages, when religion and the church dominated all aspects of people's lives including art, created a piece of work that have fundamental differences, despite being concurrent, having the same theme of "Maesta", and having the definite influence of Giotto from his master. This research has been conducted via a historical method and comparative analysis. Giotto is sometimes considered a painter of the end of the Gothic period and sometimes an artist of the beginning of the Renaissance, because in his works, the first tendencies of humanization in religious themes are demonstrated; tendencies that will reach their peak later in the Renaissance. Therefore, Giotto is at a historical transition point where the painter was valued by the divine values he represented, while after him, every painting, even religious themes, is valued in the light of human values and desires it represents. This historical and cultural transition can be well understood by comparing a common theme in Giotto's drawing board with the drawing board of his master. Along with the gradual onset of political, economic and religious developments in the Renaissance, the traces of astute observation, reasoning, and simulation of nature and material objects in Giotto's works caused fundamental differences in his works. These differences include more precise proportions, appropriate distribution of light and shadow, the bulking of the figures, the vastness of the masses, the achievement of perspective and the tendency to three-dimensionality. All these features derived from his humanistic attitude.

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Main Subjects

Painting Graphic Research

Articles in Press, Accepted Manuscript
Available Online from 19 November 2024

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