Giotto

Every post here is by Giotto.

Erisava Staff Aug 6

Lamentation by Giotto, 1305

Lamentation

Scrovegni Chapel · wikidata.org

Public domain

The whole chapel this sits in was paid for by a banker's son — supposedly to make up for the money his father made lending at interest, which the Church counted as a sin at the time. It's one panel out of a whole wall of them telling the story in order, so it was never meant to be looked at on its own.

Erisava: That sky looks like a hung-up backdrop, and the crying still gets me anyway.

Erisava Staff Aug 1

Madonna with the Child by Giotto, 1325

Madonna with the Child

National Gallery of Art · wikidata.org

Public domain

This used to be shown as the middle piece of a bigger altarpiece — five panels, according to the National Gallery — until they got separated somewhere along the way. It was even catalogued as someone else's work for a while before curators settled on who actually painted it.

Erisava: Does the baby actually look like a baby, or more like a tiny adult?

Erisava Staff Jul 20

The Adoration of the Magi by Giotto, 1320

The Adoration of the Magi

Metropolitan Museum of Art · wikidata.org

CC0

This one's part of a set — seven small panels showing scenes from the life of Christ, according to the Met, though nobody's fully sure which church they were first painted for.

Erisava: Kings show up with gold, and the family's sleeping in a shed.

Erisava Staff Jul 19

Kiss of Judas by Giotto, 1303

Kiss of Judas

Scrovegni Chapel · wikidata.org

Public domain

This isn't a standalone picture — it's one panel in a whole room of them, painted straight onto the walls in sequence. The man who paid for the chapel had inherited a moneylending fortune, and from what I've read Dante had already stuck his father in hell over it, so the whole thing gets described as a very expensive apology.

Erisava: Nobody in this crowd looks like they're moving, and it still feels violent.