Hall 2 – Giotto & the 13th Century
This big and important room is crucial to understand the revolution occurred to the traditional figurative schemes of Tuscan and Italian painting at the end of the 13th century.
The majority of the works of art displayed still show the influence of Bizantine art: bodies are two-dimensional and highly stylized with sharp outlines.
Three are the masterpieces worth to linger on: three colossal temperas on wood panels also called Maestà (depiction of the Virgin Mary Enthroned). Their authors are three masters of 13th century Italian painting: Duccio di Buoninsegna, Cimabue and Giotto.
At that time Duccio was the most important representative of the Sienese painting that focused on the importance of color and decoration over drawing. His Maestà, also called Madonna Rucellai was painted in 1285. The Virgin sits on a marvellous inlaid throne and her face, still enigmatic like that of a Byzantine icon, is softened by the hint of a smile. Sienese decorativism is visible in the golden border of Holy Mary’s garments.
Cimabue is considered the last Italian artist to be influenced by Byzantine art. In his tempera on wood known as Maestà of Santa Trinita, painted between 1280 and 1290, something is changing. The throne with its wide base where are the four prophets and a mighty Madonna resting her leg on the upper step of the throne, foreshadow the spatial experimentation his apprentice, Giotto, will become famous for.
Giotto is the true originator of modern painting. He paved the way to the Renaissance. His Maestà, or Madonna di Ognissanti, painted around 1310, is completely different from Duccio’s or Cimabue’s. The Virgin sits on a throne that gives space a shape and create a “perspective box” where figures are physical, finally humanized. People are human beings, with a real body and soul and they live in a real space: they live in this world.
