Preview

Comparison between the Crucifixes’ of Cimabue and Giotto

Good Essays
Open Document
Open Document
716 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
Comparison between the Crucifixes’ of Cimabue and Giotto
Comparison between the Crucifixes’ of Cimabue and Giotto
HU 200: Humanities
Chris Wright
May 4, 2014
Brookline College

Comparison between the Crucifixes’ of Cimabue and Giotto
I come from a Roman Catholic household in which we had a crucifix in every room. I asked my mother why one day and she told me that having a wall crucifix in every room where your family gathers, as well as in every bedroom just above the doorway, was a great visual reminder of God's love for us. Even as a child I remember looking at the crucifix and always was filled with lots of emotions; from anger to sadness. I believe that was the same emotions the artists who created the famous crucifix at Basilica Santa Croce, in Florence and the crucifix at Santa Maria Novella, in Florence wanted people to feel. The crucifix at Basilica Santa Croce was made by Cimabue, AKA Bencivieni Di Pepo, who was a Florentine painter in the Byzantine Style. His devotion to the Byzantine style of his figures of the Christus patiens (suffering Christ) is bordered by the Virgin and St. John the Evangelist. “The faces are very expressive and Christ sways dramatically. His outwardly stretched arms create more tension than the sagging arms of most Byzantine crucifixes. His blood flows downward from his hands, pooling the gold border of the cross.” (Hartt, 1949, pp. 49-51) Cimabue is known for being well adept in both his technical knowledge and his move towards more humanistic interpretations of religious figures and saints. This painting is a mix of the traditional guiding (applying the layer of the gold leaf) and the wooden structure, with a Jesus who is clearly in pain (the most natural side to Cimabue’s work), unlike older interpretations. The Jesus on the this Crucifix is clearly in anguish shown noticeably by the position of his body and the details in his face – closed eyes, tilted head, open mouth. This interpretation of Christ looks lifeless,

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Good Essays

    We know that the subject matter of both Cimabue’s Madonna and Child Enthroned and Giotto’s Madonna Enthroned depicts the Virgin mother holding her son Jesus Christ upon a golden throne with angels at either shoulder. After looking at Cimabue’s work, it is debatable whether his apprentice Giottos surpassed the man. In manners of skill, Giotto’s more classical and naturalist style took on other stylistic components that very well exhibited a 3-dimensional space upon a 2-dimensional plane. In personal opinion, if the goal was to surpass Cimabue, then Giotto definitely showed prowess by giving his figure of the virgin a more assertive and realistic presence. Both Cimabue and Giotto use the ever-common gold background to unify their pieces. The…

    • 271 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    The Entombment

    • 432 Words
    • 2 Pages

    This painting is from Alessandro Bonvicino, which is be printed before his death. This painting is painted in high Renaissance time. The Christ is in the center of the painting, and hold by 3 others figures. The composition of this painting is central composition, which is popular in Renaissance time. This painting is a religion painting, which is, comes from the religion’s story. The store of this painting is about the members would have meditated on the moments following Christ’s death, when he was still surrounded by his followers, and thought of the meaning of the inscription, “Christ became obedient even unto death.” But the clothes on the figures is contemporary clothes of that time. The background in the painting is landscape, which is not in the city. And there are three crosses in the far away hilltop. The color and light of the landscape is dark and during the sunset, which match the sad emotion of the time the painting want to show, and also gives the viewer the feeling. But in the front, there is a light on the Christ’s body. It makes the main figure has more contest and different from others. Even the body of the Christ is white and grey, head falling forward awkwardly, and right foot displayed with its wound, which shows he already dead. The lightness gives us the different from the main figures to landscape and the people on the back of the 4 figure in the from and under the light. The color of this painting is dark and shows the sad feeling Christ’s death. The color of the clothes on the figures in the painting is bright and colorful compare to Christ grey. During the Renaissance in Italy there was a law that all prostitutes, or harlots, were to wear the color yellow. The color red was associated with high social status and royalty. Which are specially be showed in the Renaissance time. Also the draper of the…

    • 432 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    The Crucifixion Analysis

    • 1337 Words
    • 6 Pages

    On May 8th, 1373, an anchoress named Julian of Norwich asked God for a sickness that would bring her close to death in order to gain a “more trew minde” of Christ’s crucifixion (Julian of Norwich 53). Through bodily visions of the Passion, Julian yearns to gain a better understanding of Christ’s “bodily peynes” and thus to “suffer with Him” (48-49, 50). In these visions, Julian witnesses several grotesque events during Christ’s crucifixion: the crown of thorns piercing Christ’s skin and causing him to bleed, the copious outpouring of Christ’s blood, and the bleeding, gaping wound on his side. While each of these scenes focus on the movement of blood out of Christ’s body, they also pay particular attention to the openings through which the blood…

    • 1337 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Philadelphia Art Museum

    • 642 Words
    • 3 Pages

    As I walked into the first gallery, I saw a wood sculpture that stood in the center of the room. This carving depicted "the crucified Christ, flanked by the Virgin Mary and St. John the Evangelist with Angels holding instruments of the Passion". It was painted oak and very appealing to the eye. It stood approximately 15 feet in the air. The origin of this sculpture is unknown, but it was found in a Belgium church. This kind of sculpture usually stood at the entrance or at the center of the alter in the church facing the congregation. This image of the suffering Christ relates to the Christian ideas of suffering and Christ's salvation of all mankind.…

    • 642 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    The figures in this painting are portrayed as perfect, it is seen in Jesus body as it looks realistic because of how his body is formed and how his clothing sits.…

    • 479 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Light and Saint Luke

    • 851 Words
    • 4 Pages

    Perhaps the most noticeable part of this painting is Saint Luke’s piercing gaze. I believe this to be the focal point of the painting. His large gray eyes seem to looking to the right, not right at the viewer, his stare is slightly eerie. He is an older man; the signs of age can be seen on his forehead and the graying in his facial hair. Saint Luke’s beard is long, like you would expect of the time. It is very wavy and seems to curl in places. His head seems to be large which during the time this piece was painted was a common style toward the end of that century was. Saint Luke is wearing a vibrant blue robe like the types you would see in religious artworks. The detail in the color of his robe stands out. For instance, darker shades were used in parts of the folds of the material. The lighter parts are the outside, it gives the illusion that there may be a light facing the painting and the light is reflecting off his robe. Another important detail is in front of his heart is a cross painted in the lighter shade of blue of the robe. The placement of the cross is situated over his heart. Under the cross his hand is extend out of the robe. His hand has long boney fingers with blue veins on the top of his hand. It doesn’t give the impression of someone that is elderly…

    • 851 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    Adoration of Magi

    • 466 Words
    • 2 Pages

    The bright vivid colors attracted me to this work; I found it interesting how the artist played off of mostly reds and blues and I liked how my attention was immediately drawn to the center of the painting. All of the people seemed to be involved in the miraculous birth of the Jesus. The greatest aesthetic strength of this painting is its use of vivid color, the aesthetic weakness I found was the lack of the artistic use of shadow. I…

    • 466 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    Both painting share the same biblical subject yet differ in a significant ways that show their respective embodiments of the 12th and 16th century styles. Byzantine painter presented their work on the wall painting style in the church, which is one of the oldest in Macedonia and was built and painted in 1164 under the patronage of Byzantine prince Alexios Komnenos. The church is most famous for it's exceptional fresco paintings, which convey dramatic facial expressions and emotions not commonly found in Byzantine art. It was dedicated to saint Panteleimon. Byzantine painters embellished the church of saint Pantaleimon with murals of great emotional power. One of these, Lamentation, is a paint of passionate grief over the dead Christ. This scene actually represents a novelty in Byzantine wall painting because of its dramatic realism.…

    • 931 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Better Essays

    Upon walking into Gallery 250 of Boston's Museum of Fine Arts, one will find on the wall a particularly eye-catching piece of art. The piece, set high on the corner of the wall encompassed by pictures depicting scenes from the life of Jesus Christ, is Giulio Cesare Procaccini's The Scourging of Christ. In this piece, Procaccini's masterful use of light and shadows in a technique called chiaroscuro dramatically portray the torturing of Christ, and it is this very application of chiaroscuro that immediately caught my eye. Through his masterful rendition of value, Procaccini successfully evoked within me a crushing sensation of agony. While I did not initially realize that the piece was one of Christ, research enabled me to witness how daring and bold Procaccini was in being one of the few to depict the agony of Christ. Procaccini's The Scourging of Christ is important in its excellent display of the evocative powers of art, and also in its depiction of the seldom-explored topic of the agony of Christ.…

    • 1081 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    It is important to point out the formal qualities of “The Crucifixion.” The piece is made of oil on canvas. However, with the delicate treatment and translucency of the paint it is not hard to imagining it watercolor or gouache. The color palette is limited and specific. The use of a very monochromatic purple tonal range sets the mood for the piece as a whole. Purple denotes a heavenly or royal handling of the subject matter. The use of purple within the Western canon, oftentimes symbolized the holy. With the piece…

    • 1339 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Good Essays

    Although, at a cursory glance, The Gero Crucifix and The Good Shepherd mosaic lunette appear to be completely disparate, in actuality, both provide poignant renderings of Christ. They were created in distant periods; The Gero Crucifix was commissioned and made around 970 CE by archbishop Gero while The Good Shepherd was thought to have been commissioned by Emperor Theodosis I’s daughter, Galla Placidia around 425 CE. Today, The Gero Crucifix remains in its original home from the Ottonian Empire in the Cologne Cathedral in Germany, while The Good Shepard is located in the Oratory of Galla Placidia in Ravenna, Italy. They allow for incredible insight into the religious beliefs and artistic styles of their respective periods.…

    • 1073 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Dreux Budé Master creates a very somber setting in his painting of The Crucifixion (1490). His painting is played in a three-dimensional perspective, with obvious emphasis directed toward the crucifixion of Christ. Christ himself is the epitome of the humanist form, his sacrifice for the people before him. His earthly inhabitance paving the way for all other humans alike, allowing them to dwell and prosper in the nature that the earth had given them. The expressions of those who surround Christ are very stoic, the natural lighting is minimal which allows the painting to further take on a very somber mood. The landscape aids in drawing attention to the focal point of the crucifixion, the winding of the hills that the city-people must surpass illustrates that, “no man 's wit can alter the nature of things, and there is no way to reach the heights by going downward” (2). This idea…

    • 727 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    The painting are both very symmetrical for the exemption of the virgin and the cild in both pieces. In the Cimabue piece all the angels have crowns and are four in each side. Also at the bottom of the piece he has four men holding scripts which are doing similar gestures.…

    • 861 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    This piece has been created by Carlo Crivelli and is called ‘The Dead Christ supported by Two Angels’. This piece shows the cycle of life, death and religion. The painting indicates that Jesus is dead by the colours that have been used in contrast with the rest of the painting. Colours that have been used on Jesus are dull colours such as grey and a washed out red, where as the angels and background have been painted in more vibrant colours such as yellow and orange. Behind the heads of Jesus and the angels, a gold halo has been painted which appears to be engraved into the picture slightly.…

    • 258 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    The artwork was destroyed by a group of anti-blasphemy group. Serrano’s artwork may have been because of anger at religion. He might have felt that Catholics had tuned the crucifix into symbol of oppression. More so, he might have felt that religion was limiting human freedom especially amidst the technology and socio-economic progress of the current world. I believe that the aspects of secularism do not mean an end of religion, but blasphemy should not be introduced to mock the believers of God. According to Glow (pg.4), Serrano justified his action claiming that he only used urine because he wanted to achieve the yellow colour. Glow (pg.4) continues to criticize the artwork and claims that modern art is a con, which rewards confidence. He believes that classical art was more authentic and timeless. In his article, he states that Serrano claimed he is not intimidated by the controversy and this continues to offend the people who did not receive it well. More so, Serrano claims that articles continue to criticize modern art as merely seeking attention and being superficial. Hillary is against this form of art and he states in his article, “The abiding idea of modern art as a kind of confidence trick is reinforced by the representation of Serrano as superficial; he privileges the aesthetic over the moral, and he treats self-publicity as his highest raison d’être” (Glow,…

    • 899 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays

Related Topics