Giotteschi

"Gli affreschi dell’oratorio della Ss. Annunziata di Riofreddo (circa 1422) sono oggetto del presente studio ove è tratteggiato il contesto politico e artistico durante il quale sono stati realizzati; sono esaminate le singole rappresentazioni dipinte rintracciandone le fonti letterarie, iconografiche e stilistiche ed illustrando l’intero programma iconografico dell’oratorio. È, inoltre, analizzato lo stile dei pittori che lo hanno affrescato, ricostruendo gli influssi da loro subiti e gettando uno sguardo anche sugli esiti successivi di ricezione da parte degli artisti più giovani.
Per la prima volta, è individuata la fonte della rappresentazione dei cori angelici, giungendo all’identificazione dei gruppi di ciascun angelo, proposta l’identificazione del committente in una delle figure dipinte nell’oratorio ed è ipotizzato l’intento dello stesso, attraverso una nuova identificazione dei Dottori della Chiesa ivi raffigurati."

The iconography of the Crucifixion is one of the cardinal symbols of the christian religion and from the beginning it has a fundamental role in the production of holy art. Always present in these images are the figures of the Sorrowful: the Virgin Mary and Saint John the Evangelist. Since the most remote Byzantine icons, both externalize their pain in a manner rather restrained, bringing his hands to his face or intertwining his fingers, however in some cases the son of Zebedee is represented in the rare act of pain of tearing off his garments. Emblematic case is that frescoed at the beginning of the fifteenth century in the church of Santa Lucia in Barletta, inside the Chapel of the Crucifix. Aim of the study is to clarify the meaning that revolves around this unusual iconographic variant, starting from theological reflections and many semantic declensions, found in the Bible and in the thought of the Doctors of the Church. In such artistic productions this extreme action was introduced for the first time by Giotto, to whom we owe the merit of having given a whole pathos human to visual representations. Angels, allegories and mothers carry this message of despair, anger and denunciation crystallizing what was preached by the Mendicant Orders, through a politics for images linked to the humanity of the Savior and his suffering. Through the sacred representations and the tables that were likely to circulate, the gesture extreme of tearing off clothes spread among the centers of the peninsula until it characterized St. John the Evangelist, as it is possible to observe in the frescoed examples in the churches of Southern Italy under study. The research will show how the disciple that "Jesus loved" becomes in Barletta at the same time emblem and synthesis of every possible meaning linked to a such a dramatic and theatrical gesture.

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L’iconografia della Crocifissione rappresenta uno dei simboli cardine della religione cristiana e sin dalle origini essa occupa un posto fondamentale nella produzione dell’arte sacra. Immancabili in tali immagini sono le figure dei dolenti: la Vergine Maria e san Giovanni Evangelista. Sin dalle più remote icone bizantine, entrambi esternano il proprio dolore in maniera piuttosto contenuta, portandosi le mani al volto o intrecciando le dita, tuttavia in alcuni casi il figlio di Zebedeo è rappresentato nel raro atto di dolore di strapparsi le vesti. Caso emblematico è quello affrescato all’inizio del XV secolo nella chiesa di Santa Lucia a Barletta, all’interno della Cappella del Crocifisso. Scopo dello studio è quello di chiarire il significato che ruota attorno a questa inusuale variante iconografica, partendo da riflessioni teologiche e dalle molteplici declinazioni semantiche, riscontrabili nella Bibbia e nel pensiero dei Dottori della Chiesa. Nelle produzioni artistiche tale atto estremo è stato introdotto per la prima volta da Giotto, al quale si deve il merito di aver conferito un pathos tutto umano alle rappresentazioni visive. Angeli, allegorie e madri veicolano tale messaggio di disperazione, rabbia e denuncia cristallizzando quanto predicato dagli Ordini Mendicanti, attraverso una politica per immagini legata all’umanità del Salvatore e alla sua sofferenza. Attraverso le rappresentazioni sacre e le tavole che dovevano verosimilmente circolare, il gesto estremo di lacerarsi le vesti si diffuse tra i centri della penisola sino a caratterizzare san Giovanni Evangelista, come è possibile osservare negli esempi affrescati nelle chiese dell’Italia Meridionale oggetto di studio. La ricerca dimostrerà come il discepolo che “Gesù amava” diventi in Barletta allo stesso tempo emblema e sintesi di ogni possibile significato legato a un gesto così drammatico e teatrale.

This paper briefly discusses the rise and consequent development and diffusion of the quadrilobe in the Paduan context. The quadrilobe is an ornamental motif strictly connected to the fourteenth-century fresco painting and nowadays it is used as a symbol to promote the serial site of  ‘Padua Urbs picta’, a site consisting of the fourteenth-century fresco cycles inscribed in the UNESCO World Heritage List.

The present contribution focuses on a distinctive enamelled decoration attested in Veneto goldsmiths’ art. Starting from the second quarter of the 14th century, giotteschi enamels are found in reliquaries, chalices and other liturgical vessels: their rise is related to the widespread circulation of the translucent enamels in north-western Italy. The earliest evidence for this decoration can be found in some artefacts produced between Venice and Padua, the most important of which is the Serpentine chalice belonging to the Treasury of San Marco in Venice. A study carried out by Mariani Canova (1984) showed how the chalice’s foot presents a series of enamelled plaques with figures, whose style can be directly related to that of Giotto’s works in the Scrovegni Chapel in Padua. Apart from Mariani Canova’s research, which represents the first investigation on giotteschi enamels, over the years no further studies were produced. With the aim of broadening the picture on this particular enamel style, the present contribution provides an overall view of several liturgical artefacts preserved in the Veneto region dating back at least until the end of the 14th century. The analysis of these works shows how the enamelled decoration was gradually influenced by artists such as Guariento, Giusto de’ Menabuoi, Altichiero da Zevio, Jacopo Avanzi and Jacopo da Verona, all of whom have consciously assimilated in an original way the artistic language developed by the Tuscan master. Furthermore, this study proposes a discussion on the formal typology of plaques, as well as some observations on their inner frames. Some of the plaques’ ornamental solutions, such as quadrilobes, reveal a direct comparison to those painted by Giotto in the Arena Chapel (in the vertical lateral bands of the left wall).

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This article examines the ancient chapel of Saints Magdalene and Magno in
Monza Cathedral, which for centuries has performed the function of sacristy.
Erected before June 1346, when the altar was consecrated and completed
with its frescoes during the years when the Milanese noble Jacopo Archinto
was archpriest, one would say that this space was created – in the intentions
of a very illustrious patron close to the Visconti family – to fulfil the role of
safeguarding, like a precious coffer, the treasure and relics of the Cathedral.
Originally the chapel represented a small room opening onto the sacristy of
the canons, full of paintings of a very refined quality level, enhanced with
gold, lacquered silverware, lapis lazuli, and lacquered finishings, positioning
itself at the time at the highest level of mural paintings in Lombardy in
the late style of Giotto, attributable to workers from Tuscany and probably
already underway in the summer of 1346.