Part 3 (1/2)

VI

THE MEETING AT THE GOLDEN GATE

”And Joachiate, and saw Joachi about his neck, said, 'Now I know that the Lord hath greatly blessed elion, iv 8, 9)

This is one of the most celebrated of Giotto's corace and tenderness The face of St Anna, half seen, isin its depth of expression; and it is very interesting to observe how Giotto has enhanced its sweetness, by giving a harder and grosser character than is usual with hiures (not but that this cast of feature is found frequently in the figures of soh and weather-beaten countenance of the entering shepherd In like reat part of their value to the abrupt and ugly oblongs of the horizontal masonry which adjoins them

VII

THE BIRTH OF THE VIRGIN

”And Joachim said, 'Now I know that the Lord is propitious to me, and hath taken away all my sins' And he went down from the temple of the Lord justified, and went to his own house

”And when nine ht forth, and said to the irl

”Then Anna said, 'The Lord hath this day elion, v 4-8)

The composition is very characteristic of Giotto in two respects: first, in its natural hons of the saolden crown on her head); and secondly, in the sure on the right,--a fault of proportion often observable in Giotto's figures of children or young girls

For the first time, also, in this series, we have here two successive periods of the scene represented si painted twice This practice was frequent a the early painters, andundertakes the task of lengthened narrative Much absurd discussion has taken place respecting its propriety; the whole question being simply whether the human mind can or cannot pass from the conte itself on an interilt frame

VIII

THE PRESENTATION OF THE VIRGIN

”And when three years were expired, and the tiin to the tes

”And there were about the terees, fifteen stairs to ascend

”The parents of the blessed Virgin and infant Mary put her upon one of these stairs; but while they were putting off their clothes in which they had travelled, in the in of the Lord in such a manner went up all the stairs, one after another, without the help of any one to lead her or lift her, that any one would have judged froe” (Gospel of St Mary, iv 1-6)

There see up stairs at three years old; but this incident is a favourite one aenerally, however, representing the child as older than in the legend, and dwelling rather on the soleh-priest, than on theable to walk alone

Giotto has clearly regarded the incident entirely in this light; for St Anna touches the child's arm as if to support her; so that the so-calledis not even hinted at

Lord Lindsay particularly notices that the Virgin is ”a doman instead of a child; the delineation of childhood was one of the latest triumphs of art” Even in the time of those latest triumphs, however, the saht or ten was commonly represented--even by Raffaelle hiladiatorial muscles already visible in stunted rotundity Giotto probably felt he had not power enough to give dignity to a child of three years old, and intended the woin's advanced mind, than an actual representation of her person

IX

THE RODS ARE BROUGHT TO THE HIGH-PRIEST