Giotto di Bondone’s Lamentation: Subject and Symbolism
Giotto Di Bondone’s Lamentation depicts the mourning of the crucifixion of Jesus Christ. The Virgin Mary is pictured holding her son’s body, mourning his death. Saint John the Evangelist is seen with his arms thrown back, dramatizing his grief (Kleiner 409). Mary Magdalene is seen at his feet, in sorrow, looking at the wounds of the crucifixion. Four other disciples are seen with the golden halos above their head, two expressing outward grief, while the remaining two Surrounding the Virgin Mary, Saint John, and Mary Magdalene are several other mourners. Their bodies are slouched while their faces express their similar feelings of despair. Above the mortals mourning on Earth are several angels “darting about in hysterical grief” (409). Behind the group is a rocky background, with a barren tree perched atop the seemingly arid land. The sky, while blue, is still dark and gloomy. The representation of lamentation expressed both by the angels and humans connects both the heavens and the Earth with a shared sorrow. The
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Giotto makes use of an implied line to direct the viewer’s attention from the tree representing Adam and Eve’s original sin to the lifeless body of Jesus Christ. This diagonal line signals that Jesus Christ is the focal point of the painting. In order to portray three dimensions in his two-dimensional painting, Giotto relies on varying values of color on the clothing and bodies of the observers and angels, as well as on the rocky background. Darker shades indicate shadows and lighter shades imply light, such as the sun. A diagonal balance is seen from the dead tree, down to the seated mourner in tan, following the line of the rocks in the background. Giotto also blurs the ends of the robes worn by the angels. This technique he employs suggests the implied motion, or flight, of the angels over the mourning congregation
One of the most effective principles Paolo de Matteis uses in this painting is his use of lines and invisible lines to direct the viewer’s attention to the child in his mother’s arms. The shepherds and their animals, the Virgin Mary, and Saint Joseph are all instances of invisible lines in this painting, as their outstretched hands and lines of vision are all pointing to the baby Jesus. For example, the three women and the child kneeling to the bottom right side of the manger are all staring or pointing to the upper left, toward Jesus. Moving to the upper right corner of the painting, the ox and the donkey are directing their gaze to the bottom left, once again at Jesus. The two men to the right of the animals also point in that direction. In the top and center, Mary and Joseph watch their child, creating yet another invisible line pointing toward the point of emphasis, while the angels
The symmetrical appearance of the work was also common in Southern pieces that rooted back to the Greek’s advances in mathematics, while the realistic human anatomy roots to the newly acquired humanistic values in art. There is a clear focal point of Mary, with the addition of a subtle triangular composition created by the Mary, Jesus, and St. John. This composition creates order, which is more appealing than a painting with chaos and no clear focus. The trees and pathways in the background also seem to be proportional to the sizes of the three characters, diminishing in size as the picture recedes. This creates a visually appealing tone to the work of art, as for the brain does not have to atone for the abstract and surreal. The bodies are realistically portrayed, which again, adds to the curiosity of Southern artists had of true human anatomy. Mary has a figure, a popping bosom and stomach are not typically seen in a depiction of her. Jesus and St. John both have noticeable baby fat around their arms, legs, and stomach, which is unappealing for a piece of art, but is still
Giotto di Bondonne created “Lamentation” circa 1305. This piece depicts Jesus Christ removed from the cross as Mary the Virgin embraces Him. There are two figures in the foreground with their backs facing the audience. Dawning a new style of artwork creating a sense of depth. John the Baptist is seen flailing his arms backwards. Body gestures were stiff and stern in comparison to previous works. Bondonne is an early artist in “the revival of the visual arts” by painting a scene to suggest a story (Richards). For example, angels are captured flying in the distance watching the people care for the deceased Jesus Christ. They grieve in unison with the crowd down below. Bondonne successfully creates a feeling of three dimensions by including a cluster of people on the far left tucked away in the corner. The mass of people gathered around to offer praise for His ultimate sacrifice.
As indicated by the shape in the foreground, the lines that signify the contour of the rocks and freestanding structure merge. The lines lead the eye vertically as it meets the center. When looking at the painting as a whole, the viewer can see how the artist uses straight
perspective is used very well to make the mountains in the far distance appear quite a bit hazier than the church that is supposed to be a little closer to the viewer, and that is even slightly hazier than the brick wall, shrubs, and trees that are right outside of that archway. David also makes the objects that are meant to be closer much larger. That mountain, of course, would be massive. But, because of the perspective he uses, it appears to be only about the size of the top of the church. Additionally, almost all of the figures in the painting lead the viewer's eye right to the baby Jesus. Each of the angels, except the one playing the guitar, are looking directly at him so that when the viewer looks at them, they immediately look over to Jesus. Even Mary, who is also the subject of the composition, is looking down at the baby. Renaissance paintings often used tricks like that to draw the viewer's eye to the main subject, which was usually Jesus.
Aside from linear perspective, Calabrese incorporates other geometrical forms throughout the composition. One is the circle at the foreground of the painting, which Calabrese offers the audience to complete. More outstanding is the triangle that occupies the majority of the space. John’s body, parallel to his staff, begs the viewer to trace the triangle from his eyes, across the woman and the lamb in the foreground, up the staff, and through to his hand. This triangle is significant in its symbolism of the Holy Trinity: God the Father, God the Holy Spirit, and God the Son. The message here is clear; through Jesus, the lamb, one will be saved. It is also interesting that Calabrese places John between the lamb and his hand. It coincides with the paintings’ function as an altar piece in that John serves as an intercessor to the Divine. Through him, one has access to Jesus, and therefore God. The geometrical lines and shapes add to the painting’s dynamism and contribute to the optimistic promise the painting conveys.
The initial focus of the painting is Mary as a whole, or perhaps specifically her face and outstretched arms. El Greco, however, uses a Cartesian grid to relocate the focus to the geometric center of the canvas, a clearly intentional move necessary to create the basis of Mary’s upward motion. “Assumption” is strongly divided into four quadrants. The heavens, occupying the upper-half of the canvas, are divided in half vertically by Mary’s body, while the Earth is split by a clear part in the crowd that extends directly downward from that same line. The divine and mortal realms are separated fittingly by a line of clouds vertically centered on the canvas. The result is a crosshairs locked in on the area just below the Virgin’s feet—the area that will become the most important part of the canvas. The
Cimabue’s piece shows a linear formation of the surrounding figures, with both the angels and prophets placed in straight lines. This opposes the realistically situated figures in Giotto’s. Though Cimabue’s formation is linear, the postures and gestures of the figures in his piece are much more fluid and graceful then those in Giotto’s who are much more vertical. This absence of verticality in figures shows the influence Gothic sculpture had on Cimabue’s work. The figures in both show isometric perspective, staying the same size regardless of depth into the imagery. The figures in Giotto’s also seem more grounded and have none of the floating qualities Cimabue’s embodies in his angels. This differentiates the stylistic and realistic natures of the pieces.
The subject matter of this piece is the Virgin Mary, the baby Jesus, the young Saint John the Baptist and the angels who are up in the clouds. The Virgin Mary is looking at baby Jesus with the love of a mother. We see her dressed in a long white dress and a long blue robe for cover. We see the baby Jesus wrapped in warm blankets seeming to be enjoying the closeness of his mother. We see the young Saint John the Baptist sitting off to the right wearing a sheepskin, with his hands together, most likely praying to the baby Jesus and the Lord himself. The young Saint John the Baptist is also followed by a young lamb. The angels are watching over the group on earth but enjoying each other’s company as well. We see the angel on the far right kissing the angel to the left of them on the head. The two angels to the far
In general, both Giotto’s Lamentation and Caravaggio’s Entombment are idealistic paintings for their times. They both show the artistical achievements for their era by their use of detail and new techniques that are available for them to use within their perspective paintings. These
Line of Sight—one important kinds of implied line is a function of line of sigh, the direction the figures in a given composition are looking. Titian artwork together the three separate horizontal area of the piece; God the father above, the Virgin Mary in the middle and the Apostles below. The lines that are create are simple, interlocking, symmetrical triangles. The lines are to serve to unify the worlds of the divine and the mortal.
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John the Baptist is also allowed to stand near the holy mother and child, and an angel is present. Because of this, the viewer contends with a literal story rather than a simple image as in “Madonna Enthroned”. Also in Puligo’s image, where the central figures are larger and better seen, there are religious symbols used. The same might be true in Giotto’s work but the details are harder to distinguish.
Vittore Carpaccio’s symmetrical input truly served it’s purpose. Focusing on the center third of the painting, there’s a mere perfect symmetrical contrast of life and death top to bottom. Most impacting is the symmetrical division of the malnourished and tortured body of Jesus Christ, The left side of his body is in a lively sitting posture on the throne. While his right side is the embodiment of death, his punctured ribs and dangling arm. From the ground up, Carpaccio illustrates the contrast of life and death with minimal details in the painting. The supporting stones of the throne, directly below the arm rests, are divided by breakage, the left stone is cracked and falling apart, while the opposing stone appears to be intact. Vittore Carpaccio managed to capture the cycle of life with many elements one wouldn’t think of comparing life and death with. The top left portion of the throne is a half broken, followed by Jesus’s deadly posture to the falling apart ground stone of the throne, Death is captured in a very recognizable minimalistic form.
El Greco’s Lamentation of Christ is “a translation in paint of Michelangelo's late sculptured group of the Pietà in Florence Cathedral, at the time in Rome. The pattern and the feeling are the same. The figures of the Dead Christ, His Mother, Saint Mary Magdalene and Joseph of Arimathea make one compact group. Michelangelo achieved this by his new treatment of form; El Greco by paint, by employing broader, more continuous passages of color. The more vivid colors of Rome combine with the richer palette of Venice to convey the intensity of expression demanded by the subject. The horizontal composition of Venice, more suited to a narrative type of subject than to the single image, is given up and is only very rarely found appropriate in Spain. Michelangelo's Pietà group was not the only source on which El Greco drew: the arrangement of Christ's legs and his outspread arms, no less than the idea of viewing one of the two bearers of his body from the side and the other from behind, derive from Michelangelo's drawing for Vittoria Colonna, in which, as in El Greco's painting, the Virgin is placed behind and above Christ.” (Web Gallery of