Text I The Santa Crose Frescoes

Giotto's style reached its full development in the frescoes of the Bardi and Peruzzi chapels in Santa Croce, Florence.He had also decorated two other chapels here, the Tosinghi and .the Giun gi, but those frescoes have disappeared as the result of renovations. In the Bardi chapel the frescoes represent episodes from the life of St. Francis painted in three superimposed rows on the right and left walls. In a similar disposition of three levels in the Peruzzi chapel we see scenes from the life of St. John the Baptist. on the left wall and from the life of St. John the Evangelist on the right wall. Santa Croce being the Franciscan church of Florence, it was fitting to commemorate⁷ St. Francis in the frescoes of the Bardi chapel. It was also fitting to choose stories from the life of John the Baptist in the Peruzzi chapel, John being the patron saint of Florence.

Although the frescoes of both chapels were gone over and re­touched in the nineteenth century — most of this retouching has recently been removed from the Bardi chapel frescoes—enough is at hand from which to judge Giotto's late style. We note a much less rugged treatment of the human forms than had been the case at Padua.⁸ The proportions are more slender and incline toward elegance; and the emotions are more muted. Although the scene of St. Francis' death in the Bardi chapel recalls the Pieta⁹ in Padua, these changes in form and emotion are patent. The figures in the Santa Croce fresooes in general are much more related to and contained by the architecture ¹⁰ in which they are set. There is an obvious insistencqj on a symmetrically balanced architectu­ral background even when the figure groups may be asymmetri­cally arranged. In the famous fresco in the Peruzzi chapel of the Feast of Herod, the architecture stretched across the background

Hike a folding screen with re-entrant angles may suggest a sense of recession in space,¹¹ a problem that was to be attacked with surprising results by Giotto's forward-looking pupils Maso and Taddeo Gaddi. But Giotto in this and other frescoes in Santa Croce maintains a compositional control between the forms and the architectural backgrounds.

Notes to the text

¹in до uncertain terms — четко, определенно

² at the hands of ... Giotto —зд. в творчестве Джотто, букв, в руках Джотто

³ are in line with (амер.) — соответствуют

⁴ in terms of Gothic sculpture — в традиции, в манере готической скульп­туры

⁵ physical thereness — материальность

⁶ is scarcely adequate — едва ли соответствует

⁷ it was fitting to commemorate — подобало чтить память

⁸ than had been the case at Padua—чем в работах, выполненных в Па­дуе; чем это было в Падуе

⁹ Pieta — оплакивание

¹⁰ contained by the architecture — подчинены архитектуре ¹¹ recession in space— перспектива

Expressions to be memorized

to bring in contact (with) — приводить к знакомству to come into closer contact — ближе познакомиться

just as —точно так же, как

to add to the effect — увеличивать впечатление

to be familiar (with)— быть хорошо знакомым

to go over— восстанавливать, подновлять

at hand — в. наличии, под рукой

to suggest a sense ... — создавать ощущение

to attack a problem — подходить к проблеме, пытаться разрешить проблему