The Project Gutenberg eBook, Giotto, by Harry Quilter

This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org

Title: Giotto

Author: Harry Quilter

Release Date: March 17, 2013 [eBook #42352]

Language: English

Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1

***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK GIOTTO***

E-text prepared by sp1nd, Melissa McDaniel,
and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team
(http://www.pgdp.net)
from page images generously made available by
Internet Archive
(http://archive.org)

MADONNA AND SAINTS, ATTRIBUTED TO GIOTTO
In the lower church of Assisi

GIOTTO

BY HARRY QUILTER

LONDON
SAMPSON LOW, MARSTON, SEARLE, & RIVINGTON
CROWN BUILDINGS. 188, FLEET STREET
1880

(All rights reserved.)

LONDON: R. CLAY, SONS, AND TAYLOR,
BREAD STREET HILL, E.C.

TO THE MEMORY

OF

ELIZABETH HARRIET QUILTER

THIS ESSAY IS LOVINGLY DEDICATED
BY

HER YOUNGEST SON.

PREFACE.

My only object in writing these few words of preface is to state plainly the share of originality which belongs to this essay. This is rendered necessary because the subject of the work has occupied the attention of many authors of far greater ability and experience than that of which the present writer can boast.

The extent, then, to which this essay is original is as follows:—The facts of Giotto's life have been taken from Vasari's Lives of the Painters and compared with those given by all later writers on the same subject. As these later authors are mentioned throughout the book, wherever their opinions are quoted, I need not give a list of them here. The descriptions of the pictures and sculptures of Giotto are, in all cases, written by myself after careful study of the originals. In no case whatever is an opinion expressed upon the merit or meaning of a work which I have not personally examined; this applies to all pictures and statues mentioned in the essay as well as to those of Giotto.

The descriptions of Padua, Assisi, and Florence were written on the spot, and the vignettes of the two former towns are reduced from sketches made by myself on purpose for the present work.

The fresco of the Unknown Madonna, formerly attributed to Giotto, and still ascribed to him by the monks of Assisi, is reproduced here, by chromo-lithography, from a watercolour drawing made by me at Assisi in the spring of last year—its only use is to show readers the kind of colouring prevalent in Giotto's work.

Lastly, for all criticisms, theories, and illustrations given in the essay, I am alone responsible, except in cases where the name of the author is subjoined in a footnote.

The White House, Chelsea,
May, 1880.

CONTENTS.

ILLUSTRATIONS.