Part 4 (1/2)

You are, therefore--instructed reader--called upon to admire a piece of art which no painter ever produced the equal of except Raphael; but it is unhappily deficient, according to Crowe, in the ”nor Cavalcasella, ”no opinion can be given as to its colour”

Warned thus of the extensive places where the ice is dangerous, and forbidden to look here either for form or colour, you are to admire ”the variety of character and expression in the heads” I do not iven without form or colour; but there appears to me, in my innocence, to be only one head in the whole picture, drawn up and down in different positions

The ”unity and harmony” of the whole--which make this an exceptional work of its kind-- been painted out of a scavenger's cart; and so we are reduced to the last article of our creed according to Crowe,--

”In the composition of this scene Giotto produced a masterpiece”

Well, possibly The question is, What youmodern criticism now out of our way, I will ask the reader to think, in front of this wreck of Giotto, with some care

Was it, in the first place, to Giotto, think you, the ”composition of a scene,” or the conception of a fact? You probably, if a fashi+onable person, have seen the apotheosis of Margaret in Faust? You knohat care is taken, nightly, in the coed for it; the lights turned off, and on; the fiddlestrings taxed for their utrievous solemnity

You don't believe, however, that any real soul of a Margaret ever appeared to any mortal in that manner?

_Here_ is an apotheosis also Coht and left, low in the middle, etc, etc, etc

But the important questions seem to me, Was there ever a St

Francis?--_did_ he ever receive stigo up to heaven--did any --and did Giotto h to settle these few small points in your mind first, the ”composition” will take a wholly different aspect to you, according to your answer

Nor does it seeation made, must be

There assuredly was a St Francis, whose life and works you had better study than either to-day's Galignani, or whatever, this year, may supply the place of the Tichborne case, in public interest

His reception of the stigination over physical conditions; perhaps an equally e of metaphor into tradition; but assuredly, and beyond dispute, one of the nificant, and instructive traditions possessed by the Church of Christ And, that, if ever soul rose to heaven from the dead body, his soul did so rise, is equally sure

And, finally, Giotto believed that all he was called on to represent, concerning St Francis, really had taken place, just as surely as you, if you are a Christian, believe that Christ died and rose again; and he represents it with all fidelity and passion: but, as I just now said, he is a man of supreht as Chaucer, and as y, or in professedly pious people: and in his gravest moments he will still see and say truly that what is fat, is fat--and what is lean, lean--and what is hollow, ereat point, however, in this fresco, is the assertion of the reality of the stigainst all question There is not only one St

Thomas to be convinced; there are five;--one to each wound Of these, four are intent only on satisfying their curiosity, and are peering or probing; one only kisses the hand he has lifted The rest of the picture never wasof a noble burial service; of all concerned in which, one monk, only, is worthy to see the soul taken up to heaven; and he is evidently just theof (His face is all repainted; but one can gather this much, or little, out of it, yet)

Of the composition, or ”unity and hare after we have looked at the brighter picture of St Francis's Birth--birth spiritual, that is to say, to his native heaven; the uppermost, namely, of the three subjects on this side of the chapel It is entirely characteristic of Giotto; much of it by his hand--all of it beautiful All important matters to be known of Giotto you may know from this fresco

'But we can't see it, even with our opera-glasses, but all foreshortened and spoiled What is the use of lecturing us on this?'

That is precisely the first point which is essentially Giottesque in it; its being so out of the way! It is this which makes it a perfect speci about a work of his which you can see perfectly, just behind you on the opposite side of the wall; but that you have half to break your neck to look at this one, is the very first thing I want you to feel

It is a characteristic--(as far as I know, quite a universal one)--of the greatest masters, that they never expect you to look at them; seem always rather surprised if you want to; and not overpleased Tell the their picture at the upper end of the table at the next great City dinner, and that Mr So and So will make a speech about it; you produce no impression upon them whatever, or an unfavourable one The chances are ten to one they send you thethey can find in their lumber-room But send for one of thenawed a nasty hole behind the parlor door, and you want it plastered and painted over;--and he does you a masterpiece which the world will peep behind your door to look at for ever

I have no tiether; but so it is

Giotto, then, is sent for, to paint this high chapel: I am not sure if he chose his own subjects from the life of St Francis: I think so,--but of course can't reason on the guess securely At all events, he would have much of his oay in thea Gothic chapel rightly is just the sahtly The chapel is merely the vase turned upside-down, and outside-in The principles of decoration are exactly the same Your decoration is to be proportioned to the size of your vase; to be together delightful when you look at the cup, or chapel, as a whole; to be various and entertaining when you turn the cup round; (you turn _yourself_ round in the chapel;) and to bend its heads and necks of figures about, as it best can, over the hollows, and ins and outs, so that anyhohether too long or too short-possible or irace You will also please take it onwalk you shall have proof of it--that Giotto was a pure Etruscan-Greek of the thirteenth century: converted indeed to worshi+p St Francis instead of Heracles; but as far as vase-painting goes, precisely the Etruscan he was before This is nothing else than a large, beautiful, coloured Etruscan vase you have got, inverted over your heads like a diving-bell' [Footnote: I observe that recent criticis all Etruscan vases to be of late manufacture, in imitation of archaic Greek And I therefore must briefly anticipate a state letters Etruscan art remains in its own Italian valleys, of the Arno and upper Tiber, in one unbroken series of work, from the seventh century before Christ, to this hour, when the country asher still scratches his plaster in Etruscan patterns All Florentine work of the finest kind--Luca della Robbia's, Ghiberti's, Donatello's, Filippo Lippi's, Botticelli's, Fra Angelico's--is absolutely pure Etruscan, in instead of Athena, and Christ instead of Jupiter Every line of the Florentine chisel in the fifteenth century is based on national principles of art which existed in the seventh century before Christ; and Angelico, in his convent of St Dominic, at the foot of the hill of Fesole, is as true an Etruscan as the builder who laid the rude stones of the wall along its crest--of which modern civilization has used the only arch that re stone Luckily, I sketched it in 1845 but alas, too carelessly,--never conceiving of the brutalities of ly, after the quatrefoil ornaet two spaces at the sides under arches, very difficult to cramp one's picture into, if it is to be a picture only; but entirely provocative of our old Etruscan instinct of ornament And, spurred by the difficulty, and pleased by the national character of it, we put our best work into these arches, utterly neglectful of the public beloill see the white and red and blue spaces, at any rate, which is all they ant to see, thinks Giotto, if he ever looks down frohest co towards theIt holly iures, unless they stood on each other's heads; so Giotto ekes it out with a piece of fine architecture Raphael, in the Sposalizio, does the same, for pleasure

Then he puts two dainty little white figures, bending, on each flank, to stop up his corners But he puts the taller inside on the right, and outside on the left And he puts his Greek chorus of observant andpersons on each side of his us--or leader of chorus, supporting the main action--on each side Then he puts the main action in the middle--which is a quarrel about that white bone of contention in the centre Choragus on the right, who sees that the bishop is going to have the best of it, backs hius on the left, who sees that his i hi to keep him quiet The subject of the picture, which, after you are quite sure it is good as a decoration, but not till then, youOne of St Francis's three great virtues being Obedience, he begins his spiritual life by quarreling with his father He, I suppose in modern teroods in charity His father objects to that invest what he can find about the house along with him His father follows to claione, already; and that St Francis has made friends with the Bishop of assisi His father flies into an indecent passion, and declares he will disinherit him; on which St Francis then and there takes all his clothes off, throws the ood Bishop, in tears of admiration, embraces St Francis, and covers him with his own eon knew anything about art, Mr Spurgeon would read it,--that is to say, from the plain, common sense, Protestant side If you are content with that view of it, you may leave the chapel, and, as far as any study of history is concerned, Florence also; for you can never know anything either about Giotto, or her