Leseprobe

20 Giotto (Workshop) Florence c. 1270–1337 Florence Saint John the Baptist in Prison c. 1330/1335 Poplar panel; 89.5×44 cm Purchased from the Woodburn Collection, London, in 1860 Gal. no. 5 Giotto is the great innovator of painting. He lent the figures a true inner life for the first time and expressed the most varied feelings, such as joy, humility, dismay or mourning, in their gestures. His buildings demonstrate structures of spatial depth, even if these are not yet designed in accordance with the laws of central perspective, which would only be discovered a century later. The panel is one of the oldest works of the museum. It shows Saint John the Baptist, who is viewed as the last prophet. When King Herod imprisoned him, John sent two disciples to Christ to ascertain that he was the Messiah. The painting por- trays the return of the disciples, who tell him of the miracles of Christ (Matthew 11: 2–15). They, like John the Baptist, are distinguished by haloes, whereby the main figure remains clearly distinguishable by the elevated position. It is innovative how the painter makes clear in the gestures, the postures of the heads and the directions of the gazes, that the three are engaged in a dialogue. Giotto embroiders the scene as a narrative with the soldiers and the woman bringing food, and with the curious figure on the balcony. Also new is the physicality of the figures, apparent beneath the robes. Traditional, on the other hand, is the painting on gold. This was reserved for the representation of divine persons and biblical stories, because naturalistic back- grounds only asserted themselves in the 15th century.  |  ah