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From:
Laura Jacobus <[log in to unmask]>
Date: 13 November 2012 10:48
Subject: Re: MEDIEVAL-RELIGION: approval required (7201277A)
To: "JISCMAIL LISTSERV Server (16.0)" <
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Sorry- someone (I can't now remember who) asked me to 'get started' on the subject of the Devil in the 'Death of St. Francis' at Assisi. I haven't been fuming about it all this time, I just forgot! Actually I had quite a fun session with my students discussing the evidence a the time (
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/art/art-news/8872780/Smirking-face-of-the-Devil-discovered-in-Giotto-fresco.html ... and load so other coverage if you google 'Devil Giotto'). Some reasons for discounting it:
Iconographically, it's nonsense. This is the apotheosis of a saint! There is a tradition of showing a devil and an angel tussling over the soul of a deceased person, usually to illustrate the importance of the last rites (in fact there's an example in another of the Assisi scenes), but these are shown as whole figures, not faces. There's also a much later, Northern European, tradition of showing a devil understandably fleeing at the birth of Christ. But there is no reason for a devil's face to be shown, smiling, as a saint's soul is lifted to Heaven by angels.
Devils in medieval art don't look like this. They usually take the form of a sort of human-animal mutant. This looks more like a Punchinello.
It is difficult to be sure that the configuration of brush-strokes and blotches which forms the 'face' is intentional. The clouds as a whole is formed of very similar combinations of fine diagonal lines in whites and greys over a darker ground, with more solid areas of whites, terminating at the edges in more horizontal or rounded forms. There are a great many losses and deteriorations in this area, and the dark blotches which appear to define the nostril and lower lip may be quite random, as are several similar blotches in the area. So it's possible that the assistants painting this area were larking around and deliberately formed a face, but my guess is that it's fortuitous.
While I'm on my hobby horse, I may as well state my objections to the idea that 'GB' is Giotto's signature..
As with the 'devil's face' it's difficult to be sure that anything is painted there at all. I could only see random marks in the tiny image on the web. One journalist reports that the B is easier to see. Even if 'GB' is there, it's improbable that Giotto would have signed himself in this way
a) because artists didn't sign with their initials
b) Giotto wouldn't have had the initials GB (which stands for Giotto son of Bondone), but would have signed himself Giottus Pictor or Giottus de Florentia
c) Medieval Italian artists didn't 'sign' their works in the way we understand the term. They inscribed them, usually with a phrase which included their name, but never (as far as I'm aware) just with a name.
OK, got that off my chest!
Laura
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Great that it might reopen- but I do despair if they are seriously
suggesting that Giotto signed his intials 'GB'! The photo is too small to
see anything, but it's simply not credible. There was a similar attempt to
see a Giotto 'signature' on a panel of the Madonna and Child a few years
ago- and as for the 'devil' in the the 'Death of St. Francis'- don't get me
started!
Laura
On 6 November 2012 21:45, George FERZOCO <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
> medieval-religion: Scholarly discussions of medieval religion and culture
>
>
> http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2012/nov/06/italy-art-restorers-giotto-frescoes
>
> Along with Bristol PhD student Gaie Burnet, I've tried to access this
> scaffolding-filled chapel for the past couple of years; I hope it will be
> open for visits soon.
>
> George
>
> --
> George FERZOCO
> [log in to unmask]
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--
Dr. Laura Jacobus
Senior Lecturer in History of Art
Birkbeck College, University of London
For details of my book on Giotto and the Arena Chapel see
http://www.brepols.net/Pages/ShowProduct.aspx?prod_id=IS-9781905375127-1
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---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Laura Jacobus <[log in to unmask]>
To: medieval-religion - Scholarly discussions of medieval religious culture <[log in to unmask]>
Cc:
Date: Wed, 7 Nov 2012 16:15:58 +0000
Subject: Re: [M-R] big medieval religious art news
medieval-religion: Scholarly discussions of medieval religion and culture
Great that it might reopen- but I do despair if they are seriously suggesting that Giotto signed his intials 'GB'! The photo is too small to see anything, but it's simply not credible. There was a similar attempt to see a Giotto 'signature' on a panel of the Madonna and Child a few years ago- and as for the 'devil' in the the 'Death of St. Francis'- don't get me started!
Laura
--
Dr. Laura JacobusSenior Lecturer in History of Art
Birkbeck College, University of London
--
Dr. Laura JacobusSenior Lecturer in History of Art
Birkbeck College, University of London
