Giotto's Lamentation

If there is one Giotto piece that I am bemoaning not getting to see in person it would be his Lamentation. I am going to analyze it here from pictures on the internet and according to his previous style. This piece exudes the emotion of those who were closest to Jesus Christ after his crucifixion. The Virgin Mary is the woman that is cradling his head. Her face is looking into the eyes of her son. Mary Magdalene is at Jesus’s feet. This is symbolic of when she anointed his feet. She is also the figure with the long red hair that is unkempt and free-flowing. There are two disciples behind her who seem expressionless in this mourning scene. The disciple John is also depicted here. The characteristics of John are that he was young and had a page-boy haircut. His face and body language has the most emotion in them. The hidden meaning in this, I think, is that the female figures and John are all distraught with emotions. However, the two disciples in the background seem to have the appearance of comprehension that this mourning will only last a short time. The angels in the background rival John for the most passionate bereavement. I understand why this fresco is called the Lamentation. All of the figures are lamenting the death of Jesus. There is so much emotion in this piece that it favors Masaccio’s The Expulsion from the Garden of Eden. The difference between the two is that the grief shown in Giotto’s work is because of the loss of the man who was the salvation for all of the people in the painting. Masaccio’s woe was because of the loss of the garden from their own accord. This piece shows how Giotto has evolved from the art of the Middle Ages yet it also shows how he is in the “teenager” stage that our tour guide in Assisi suggested. There is depth suggested in the mountains in the background. The figures to the left that are inseparable are not stacked like the works of Buoninsegna or Cimabue. They are still grouped together, but unlike with the gold background, the viewer has the capacity to differentiate when one head starts and another begins in the background. I think the thing that shows the most depth and innovation in his work is the way he showed the angels coming from the heavens. He blurred the ends of the angels’ dresses for the purpose of making them look like they are sprinting through the clouds. What makes this piece not as developed as the later Renaissance works is the detail in proportion. Jesus’s body is very disfigured if you remove the other people who are in the way. The idea was to let the body hover above the earth, to symbolize how he is not a part of the earthly realm anymore. However, the legs are not as large as they are supposed to be in comparison to the torso and arms. It is the reason that Giotto is the teenager instead of the adult in the Renaissance art perspective.