Part 1 (1/2)

Mornings in Florence

by John Ruskin

THE FIRST MORNING

SANTA CROCE

If there is one artist, more than another, whose work it is desirable that you should exa that you care for old art at all, it is Giotto You can, indeed, also see work of his at assisi; but it is not likely you will stop there, to any purpose At Padua there is much; but only of one period At Florence, which is his birthplace, you can see pictures by him of every date, and every kind But you had surely better see, first, what is of his best time and of the best kind

He painted very se of twelve to sixty--painted some subjects carelessly which he had little interest in--some carefully with all his heart You would surely like, and it would certainly be wise, to see hi by hiht with his full strength, and of a subject pleasing to hi to yourself,--better still

Now, if indeed you are interested in old art, you cannot but know the power of the thirteenth century You know that the character of it was concentrated in, and to the full expressed by, its best king, St Louis

You know St Louis was a Franciscan, and that the Franciscans, for who under Dante's advice, were prouder of him than of any other of their royal brethren or sisters If Giotto ever would iht, it would be St Louis, if it chanced that anywhere he had St Louis to paint

Also, you know that he was appointed to build the Campanile of the Duo, and architecture in Florence, and supposed to be without superior in the world [Footnote: ”cum in universe orbe non reperiri dicatur quenquaistro Giotto Bondonis de Florentia, pictore, et accipiendus sit in patria, velut ister”--(Decree of his appointment, quoted by Lord Lindsay, vol ii, p 247)]

And that this coiven hined the Campanile when he was a boy;) so therefore, if you find any of his figures painted under pure campanile architecture, and the architecture by his hand, you knoithout other evidence, that the painting est tiin with, especially, and could choose what it should be, one would say, ”A fresco, life size, with campanile architecture behind it, painted in an iht choose one's subject, perhaps thesaint of all saints--for him to do for us--would be St Louis”

Wait then for an entirely bright ood opera-glass in your pocket, hich you shall for once, at any rate, see an opus; and, if you have tiht of the choir (”k” in your Murray's guide) When you first get into it, you will see nothing but a lass, with a red-hot cardinal in one pane--which piece of hths of the light (little enough before) by which you et used to the gloo your eyes from the accursed lass and look to the right, at the upperures beside it It is St Louis, under campanile architecture, painted by--Giotto? or the last Florentine painter anted a job--over Giotto? That is the first question you have to determine; as you will have henceforward, in every case in which you look at a fresco

Sorey frescos at the bottoht and left, for instance, have been entirely got up for your better satisfaction, in the last year or two--over Giotto's half-effaced lines But that St Louis? Re-painted or not, it is a lovely thing,--there can be no question about that; and we ained, not inattentively

Your Murray's Guide tells you that this chapel of the Bardi della Liberta, in which you stand, is covered with frescos by Giotto; that they ashed, and only laid bare in 1853; that they were painted between 1296 and 1304; that they represent scenes in the life of St Francis; and that on each side of theare paintings of St

Louis of Toulouse, St Louis king of France, St Elizabeth, of Hungary, and St Claire,--”all much restored and repainted” Under such recoht after; and accordingly, as I was at work in the chapel this lishuard of their valet de place, passed the chapel without so er in it with radually where you are Na and perfect little Gothic chapel in all Italy--so far as I know or can hear

There is no other of the great tih far larger, is of earlier date--not pure Gothic, nor showing Giotto's full force The lower chapel at assisi is not Gothic at all, and is still only of Giotto's middle time You have here, developed Gothic, with Giotto in his consu lost, in forn

By restoration--judicious restoration, as Mr Murray usually calls it--there is no saying howthe question of restoration out of your mind, however, for a while, think where you are, and what you have got to look at

You are in the chapel next the high altar of the great Franciscan church of Florence A few hundred yards west of you, within ten minutes' walk, is the Baptistery of Florence And five reat Dominican church of Florence, Santa Maria Novella

Get this little bit of geography, and architectural fact, well into your on Baptistery in the middle; here, ten minutes' walk east of it, the Franciscan church of the Holy Cross; there, five minutes est of it, the Doon Baptistery stood where it now stands (and was finished, though the roof has been altered since) in the eighth century

It is the central building of Etrurian Christianity,--of European Christianity

Fro her best, in Etruria and elsewhere, for four hundred years,--and her best seemed to have come to very little,--when there rose up two men who vowed to God it should come to more And they n in Florence was that she resolved to have a fine new cross-shaped cathedral instead of her quaint old little octagon one; and a tower beside it that should beat Babel:--which two buildings you have also within sight

But your business is not at present with them; but with these two earlier churches of Holy Cross and St Mary The two reat religious Powers and Reforht Christian ht Christian men what they should think In brief, one the Apostle of Works; the other of Faith Each sent his little company of disciples to teach and to preach in Florence: St Francis in 1212; St Dominic in 1220

The little companies were settled--one, ten minutes' walk east of the old Baptistery; the other five minutes' est of it And after they had stayed quietly in such lodgings as were given theh ot Florence, as it were, heated through, she burst out into Christian poetry and architecture, of which you have heard na, and the like persons, whose works you profess to have come to Florence that you may see and understand

Florence then, thus heated through, first helped her teachers to build finer churches The Doan their church of St Mary's in 1279 The Franciscans, or Black Friars, the teachers of Works, laid the first stone of this church of the Holy Cross in 1294 And the whole city laid the foundations of its new cathedral in 1298 The Do; but for the Franciscans and the toorked the first great master of Gothic art, Arnolfo; with Giotto at his side, and Dante looking on, and whispering sometih altar of the Franciscans' church, under a vault of Arnolfo's building, with at least some of Giotto's colour on it still fresh; and in front of you, over the little altar, is the only reportedly authentic portrait of St Francis, taken frolish friends for never looking in Except in the early ht, not one touch of all this art can be seen And in any light, unless you understand the relations of Giotto to St Francis, and of St Francis to humanity, it will be of little interest

Observe, then, the special character of Giotto a a practical person Whatever other men dreamed of, he did He could work in mosaic; he could work in hly: a ly, he ranges hi the disciples of the Apostle of Works, and spends ospel of Works, according to St Francis, lay in three things You must ithout money, and be poor You must ithout pleasure, and be chaste Youto orders, and be obedient