Early Italian Art 1250–1400: Florence, Giotto and the roots of the Renaissance


Fascinating study day organised by the London Art History Society and held at Friends House focusing on the role of Sienna in Early Italian Art.

This was the fifth day in a series on this early period of Italian art and this time focused on the art of Florence and in particular at the role of Giotto.   John Renner, the lecturer, started by looking art in Florence before Giotto including going thought the art and architecture of the Baptistery in some detail and works by Cimabue. We then spent a delightful hour looking at Giotto’s masterpiece, the Arena Chapel in Padua, in detail. As ever John had wonderful, high quality images which were almost better than being there! I loved the section where he went through the sequence of images of Joachim and Anna which included the beautiful detail used for this article.

In the afternoon we went on to look at the work of that Giotto did in Florence from Virgin and Child pictures to the Bardi and Peruzzi Chapels in Santa Croce and the influence this had on later artists. Finally we discussed the old Vasari idea that there was a lull in art following Giotto until Masacio however John pointed out some beautiful work in other chapels at Santa Croce by Taddeo Gaddi and Bernardo Daddi which I love and also the wonderful Spanish Chapel at Santa Maria Novello by Andrea Bonaiuti.


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