The architecture in Giotto's paintings / Francesco Benelli
Imprint
Cambridge : Cambridge University Press, 2012
Descript
xv, 276 p. : ill. (some col.) ; 26 cm
SUMMARY
"This book offers an analysis of Giotto's painted architecture, focusing on issues of structural logic, clarity of composition, and its role within the narrative of the painting. Giotto was the first artist since antiquity to feature highly detailed architecture in a primary role in his paintings. Francesco Benelli demonstrates how architecture was used to create pictorial space, one of Giotto's key inventions. He argues that Giotto's innovation was driven by a new attention to classical sources, including low reliefs, mosaics, mural paintings, coins and Roman ruins. The book shows how Giotto's images of fictive buildings, as well as portraits of well-known monuments, both ancient and contemporary, play an important role in the overall narrative, iconography and meaning of his works. The conventions established by Giotto remained at the heart of early modern Italian painting until the sixteenth century"-- Provided by publisher
CONTENT
The Assisi cycle of the legend -- The architecture in the chaple of Enrico Scrovegni in Padua -- The Peruzzi and Bardi chapels in Santa Croce in Florence -- The lower church of Assisi -- Giotto's legacy in the lower church of San Francesco in Assisi -- Excursus: Giotto's legacy at Santa Croce in Florence