Duecento are infused with a similar pursuit of monu-
mentality, a natural outcome in the medium of sculpture.
But the works of Nicola Pisano and, especially, Giovanni
Pisano also indicate an interest in narrative legibility,
dramatic focus, and distinct psychological states that
presage Giotto’s narrative studies. Certain painters of
the Roman school, particularly Pietro Cavallini, point
toward the volumetric buildup of forms in Giotto’s
painting. In addition, Giotto was infl uenced by artists
who had previously absorbed his lessons. The complex
architectural skyline that serves as the backdrop for the
Raising of Drusiana in the Peruzzi Chapel, for example,
is preceded by the intricate cityscape of the Entry into
Jerusalem from the rear of Duccio’s Maestà. The leg-
end of Giotto’s tutelage under Cimabue, fi rst set down
in a late Trecento commentary on the Divine Comedy
and picked up by Lorenzo Ghiberti (Commentarii, c.
1450), is diffi cult to comprehend as a logical stylistic
progression. Especially controversial is Giotto’s pre-
sumed authorship as a young master of a great portion
of the frescoes in the nave of the upper basilica at As-
sisi, particularly two well-preserved Old Testament
scenes—Isaac Blessing Jacob and Isaac Rejecting
Esau—and the bulk of Scenes of the Life of Saints
Francis, probably painted in the 1280s–1290s. Through
the nineteenth century, these frescoes were considered
Giotto’s, virtually without question; but later a growing
coterie of scholars, including Richard Offner and Mil-
lard Meiss, found it diffi cult to see them as congruent
with the body of Giotto’s work—although it should be
noted that other scholars (such as Cesare Gnudi and
Luciano Bellosi) believe that no comprehension of
Giotto’s style is possible without them. The frescoes
in Assisi serve as a fascinating test case for paradigms
of artistic formation and development, since different
attributions and chronologies lead naturally to wholly
different conclusions about the artist.
Giotto’s style was so persuasive that, once it had been
introduced, it spread like wildfi re in any center which
was exposed to his idiom. Thus Padua, Rimini, Rome,
Naples, and especially Florence had successive genera-
tions of Giottesque painters. Despite the popularity of
his approach, however, only a few artists, including
Maso di Banco and the Lorenzetti brothers, understood
the profound implications of his spatial narratives. Partly
as a result of a change in outlook and patronage brought
about by the black death, it took the greater part of a
century for another artist to appear who comprehended
the real potential of Giotto’s vision. It was Masaccio, in
the 1420s in Florence, who effected a return once and
for all to the grave and monumental sobriety of Giotto’s
approach in painting.
See also Arnolfo di Cambio; Cimabue;
Dante Alighieri; Duccio di Buoninsegna
Further Reading
Baccheschi, Edi, and Andrew Martindale. The Complete Paintings
of Giotto. New York: Abrams, 1966.
Basile, Giuseppe, ed. Giotto: La cappella degli Scrovegni. Milan:
Electa, 1992.
Battisri, Eugenio. Giotto: Biographical and Critical Study, trans.
J. Emmons. Lausanne: Skira, 1966.
Bellosi, Luciano. La pecora di Giotto. Turin: Giulio Enaudi,
1985.
——. Giotto at Assisi. Assisi: DACA, 1989.
Bistoletti, Sandrina Bandera. Giotto: Catalogo completo dei
dipinti. Florence: Cantini, 1989.
Brandi, Cesare. Giotto. Milan: Mondadori, 1983.
Cole, Bruce. Giotto and Florentine Painting, 1280–1375. New
York: Harper and Row, 1976.
Gnudi, Cesare. Giotto. Milan: Martello, 1959.
Ladis, Andrew, ed. Franciscanism, the Papacy, and Art in the Age
of Giotto: Assisi and Rome. Giotto and the World of Early
Italian Art, 4. New York: Garland, 1998a.
——. Giotto as a Historical and Literary Figure: Miscellaneous
Specialized Studies. Giotto and the World of Early Italian Art,- New York: Garland, 1998b.
——. Giotto, Master Painter and Architect: Florence. Giotto
and the World of Early Italian Art, 3. New York: Garland,
1998c.
——. ed. The Arena Chapel and the Genius of Giotto: Padua.
Giotto and the World of Early Italian Art, 2. New York:
Garland, 1998.
Offner, Richard. “Giotto, Non-Giotto.” Burlington Magazine, 74,
1939, pp. 259–268; 75, 1939, pp. 96–113.
Previtali, Giovanni. Giotto e la sua bottega. Milan: Fabbri,
Salvini, Roberto. Giotto: Bibliografi a. Rome: Palombi, 1938.
Sirén, Osvald. Giotto and Some of His Followers, trans. F.
Schenck. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press,
Smart, Alastair. The Assisi Problem and the Art of Giotto. New
York: Hacker Art, 1983.
Stubblebine, James. Assisi and the Rise of Vernacular Art. New
York: Harper and Row, 1985.
Gustav Medicus
GIOVANNI DEL VIRGILIO
(fourteenth century)
Giovanni del Virgilio became famous as a professor of
classical poetry at Bologna in the 1320s. His life and
career were connected with those of two of his contem-
poraries, the Paduan protohumanist Albertino Mussato
(1261–1329) and the Florentine poet Dante Alighieri
(1265–1321). Giovanni was given the name Virgilio in
reference to his pedagogical and scholarly devotion to
the Roman poet Virgil. He was formally hired by the
University of Bologna in 1321 to lecture on Virgil, Sta-
tius, Ovid, and Lucan, but he had already been teaching
there in some capacity before that date. He appears to
have spent the years 1324–1325 in Cesena, where he
probably composed an eclogue to Mussato. After 1327
we lose all record of him.
Giovanni’s fame rests primarily on his correspon-
dence in Latin hexameters with Dante in 1319–1320GIOVANNI DEL VIRGILIO