Course Readings: Web Gallery

Enthroned Madonna, Ognissanti ("All Saints"), Florence, Italy (ca. 1310) by Giotto di Bondone

No single artist exerted a greater influence on Italian Renaissance painting than Giotto. Almost all his contemporaries recognized him as a trendsetter. Among others, Boccaccio claimed Giotto revived the art of painting that "for many centuries had been buried under the errors of some who painted more to delight the eyes of the ignorant than to please the intellect of the wise." In the mid-sixteenth century, Giorgio Vasari, the first great art historian, described the appearance of Giotto as the great turning point in Italian art.

This piece seems very similar to Cimabue's Madonna. Madonna sits on a throne with the Christ child in her lap. Groups of angels stand on either side of the throne. In character, this painting still owes a debt to Byzantine models. Nevertheless, a number of elements make this painting very different from what came before.