Cimabue madonna enthroned
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The Ognissanti Madonna by Giotto
This large altarpiece, painted by Giotto in 1310 circa, is a very important landmark in art history. It was painted for the Florentine Church of Ognissanti, hence the name.
Before Giotto, painting was still tied to the schematic Byzantine style and its archaisms. The figures were often stiff, two-dimensional and did not evoke emotional involvement with the viewer. Giotto broke with that tradition revolutionizing painting and the representation of the human figure. Without Giotto, the cultural, philosophical and artistic movement we all call the Renaissance would never have been born.
For the first time in the history of western painting, both the Madonna and the Child appear to be inserted in a real, well-defined space (not floating off in space). Mary is sitting on a throne that seems to have been designed with perspective in mind, conveying the idea of a real environment. The folds of the garments outline the volume of the bodies. The figures are more plausible, more human, they are no longer flat as if they were puppets on a flat
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Giotto di Bondone, Ognissanti Madonna (Madonna in Maestà), c. 1310, tempera on wood, 325 x 204 cm, Galleria degli Uffizi, Florence |
"Credette Cimabue nella pittura / Tener lo campo, ed ora ha Giotto il grido/ sì, che la fama di colui oscura " |
Giotto di Bondone | Ognissanti Madonna (Madonna in Maestà) |
In Florence, where documents from 1314–1327 attest to his financial activities, Giotto painted an altarpiece known as the Ognissanti Madonna and now in the Uffizi where it is exhibited beside Cimabue's Santa Trinita Madonna and Duccio's Rucellai Madonna. [1]
Ognissanti MadonnaThe name "Madonna di Ognissanti" means that this huge altarpiece was painted by Giotto for the Church of Ognissanti in Florence. This "Maestà" - "Majesty", which indicates the Virgin Mary sitting on a throne with Jesus on her lap - was painted around 1310 and it is amazing to compare Giotto's Maestà to the other two Majesties by Duccio di Buoninsegna and Cimabue present in this same room of the Uffizi Gallery and painted just a few years before. The comparison of the three Majesties in fact soon reveals how revolutionary was Giotto's use of volume through which he succeeded in painting a religious subject no more cast in a distant and perfect dimension, but moving slowly and respectfully towards a certain kind of realism. It is absolutely new the way the angels are disposed all around the throne: it is not yet a perfect rendering of the perspective, of course, but no doubt Giotto was moving fast towards the great "celebration" of perspective which would then be possible thanks to the great Renaissance artists Author: GiottoWant sCopyright ©spyalley.pages.dev 2025 |