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It was improved upon even in
Giotto's own lifetime in the work of
the barely less important Sienese artist,
Simone Martini (c.
1280/85-1344). In comparison with
Giotto's sculptural, block-like
figures, with their often correspondingly stiff, awkward, even
clumsy gestures,
Duccio was already painting with a greater
subtlety. Where
Giotto portrays raw size,
Duccio's
figures, more heavily indebted to Byzantine tradition,
exhibit greater feeling-
Duccio's colours, often deeply shaded, shimmer
like costly enamel. Although the early works of
Simone Martini, born
barely twenty years after
Giotto, were still characterized by such
Byzantine features as the broad bridge of the nose and draperies
overlaid with gold leaf, he went on to marry
Duccio's achievements
both with the new physical type introduced by
Giotto and with
Giotto's revolutionary understanding of space and architecture.
Simone's enormous Maesta fresco in Siena's town hall, depicting the
Virgin and Child enthroned and surrounded by saints, is
distinguished by a particular elegance and beauty of line. Movements
are freer, and faces — highly sensitive and often very serious - are
more finely modelled and strongly expressive than those of
Giotto.
While the bearded heads are still largely indebted to
Duccio, the
slender youthful heads, many of them with half-length hair curling
in on itself at the bottom in line with the fashion of the day, are
often more "Gothic" than
Giotto's. Simone's draperies are again
thinner than
Giotto's, and their folds more angular. Compared with
the plainness of the Florentine master, what is striking overall is
the wealth of detail in both the costumes and the setting.
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Simone Martini
Maesta (detail) |
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Master of the Kaufmann
Crucifixion
c. 1340
Berlin, Gemaldedalerie |
Italy and Bohemia
The innovations pioneered by
Giotto and
Simone are not simply
milestones within the history of Italian art. They serve to
illustrate the interplay of mutual influences within non-Byzantine
art as a whole, as well as the phenomenon of chronologically
staggered developments. Just as
Giotto and
Simone had absorbed
influences from France, so they in turn helped steer painting north
of the Alps down entirely new avenues. Even before
Giotto's death in
1337, one of the four panels making up the altarpiece for
Klosterneuburg near Vienna, completed around 1331,
quotes literally from the frescos which
Giotto executed in 1304—1306
for the Arena Chapel in Padua — one of the first Italian cities
which travellers reached after crossing the Alps .
The remaining three Klosterneuburg panels also testify to the
influence of the great Florentine master in their angular faces,
austere gestures and in the foreshortening and decoration of their
furnishings. That their anonymous artist was nevertheless rooted in
the contemporary trends of the North is demonstrated, on the other
hand, by the greater animation and curvilinear silhouettes of his
figures, and above all by the loose draperies with their richly
undulating hems in which they are clad.
A good ten years later we encounter Italian influences again, this
time a little further north in Prague, Bohemia, which under Charles
IV (1316-1378) became the seat of the Holy Roman Emperor and thus
the political as well as the cultural capital of the entire empire.
The Bohemian Master of the Glatz
Madonna
and his
somewhat weaker follower, the
Master Hohenfurt cite Italian head types more faithfully
than the Klosterneuburg artist, while the folds of their draperies
continue to reflect the tastes of the North. As the
Kaufmann
Crucifixion demonstrates, an exquisite palette
featuring striking orange accents becomes characteristic of the
Bohemian school, although it could also be seen as a reference to
earlier Sienese paintings. The same might be true of the sumptuous
detailing of the draperies of the Christ, donor and angels in the
Glatz picture. The large panel was originally surrounded by smaller
scenes from Christ's childhood, as was the convention in Italy. This
was no coincidence: to underline his imperial status, Charles IV was
quite blatantly seeking to compete with the leading artistic centres
of his day — which meant Tuscany and Paris — and if possible even to
surpass them.
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Master of the Kaufmann
Crucifixion (detail)
c. 1340
Berlin, Gemaldedalerie |
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Italy and France
The Italian influences finding their way into the Klosterneuburg
altar were also being felt strongly in Paris, where the French court
was the most spoilt for artists of any in Europe. In 1309, under
pressure from the French king Philip the Fair, Pope Clement V
(1305-1314) moved his residence from Rome to Avignon, which was
closely allied to the French crown lands. He was followed not just
by cardinals and the papal court, but also by Italian artists,
including for a short time possibly even
Giotto himself.
Simone
Martini certainly spent time in Avignon. He was destined for
employment at court not only by the extremely sophisticated elegance
of his art, but also by the close contacts he had developed, while
still in Italy, with the Anjou family, the then rulers of Naples.
The panel paintings which
Simone executed after 1336 are now
scattered, but important fragments of his mural decorations for the
palace chapel have survived in situ. As a result of conservation
measures undertaken in this century, it is even possible to
distinguish between the various stages of their execution. The
rather damaged frescos themselves have been detached from the
detailed preparatory drawings, or sinopie, underneath and these
separated in turn from the original sketch, which remains in its old
place. The sinopie, hidden for six hundred years, thereby reveal the
delicacy and freedom of Simone's drawing more directly than the
finished painting.
From Avignon, the exquisite linearity and powerful, delicate colours
of the Sienese artists exerted their influence not only upon the
Paris court, where
Pucelle Jean
(active c. 1319—1335) drew upon them
to arrive at a new plasticity and sought to achieve a uniform
perspective, but also upon nearby Aragon across the
Pyrenees. Even the Sienese elements of Bohemian
court art may have reached Prague via Avignon rather than a more
direct source - men such as the bishop who commissioned the Glatz
Madonna were bound to have spent time at the papal court. Nor should
we underestimate, in this context, the extent of the artistic
exchanges taking place in Avignon itself. According to records, the
Italians were working alongside English, Catalan and, in particular
of course, French artists.
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