This use of light and shade by Giotto, while it marks a distinct advance from the flat, pattern-like painting of the Byzantine school, is still very crudely managed, and, as if conscious of the fact, the artist has selected the most simple arrangements of drapery. The picture was painted probably during the years of his apprenticeship to Cimabue, and shows much less freedom and practised skill than the works of Giotto’s later years. Giotto was the first
“The Madonna Enthroned” by Giotto.
artist to introduce the faces of living people of his own time into pictures, and the “Paradise” on the walls of the Bargello in Florence contains the famous portrait of Dante, the great Italian poet, in his early manhood. It had remained covered with whitewash for two hundred years, until once more brought to light in 1840.
All Giotto’s paintings were executed in fresco, that is to say, were painted on the plaster before
