“THE HISTORY OF CHRISTIAN ART” 221

51. This is all as admirably felt as expressed, and to those acquainted with and accustomed to love the works of the painter, it leaves nothing to be asked for; but we must again remind Lord Lindsay, that he has throughout left the artistical orbit of Giotto undefined, and the offence of his manner unremoved, as far as regards the uninitiated spectator. We question whether from all that he has written, the untravelled reader could form any distinct idea of the painter’s peculiar merits or methods, or that the estimate, if formed, might not afterwards expose him to severe disappointment. It ought especially to have been stated, that the Giottesque system of chiaroscuro is one of pure, quiet, pervading daylight. No cast shadows ever occur, and this remains a marked characteristic of all the works of the Giotteschi. Of course, all subtleties of reflected light or raised colour are unthought of. Shade is only given as far as it is necessary to the articulation of simple forms, nor even then is it rightly adapted to the colour of the light; the folds of the draperies are well drawn, but the entire rounding of them always missed-the general forms appearing flat, and terminated by equal and severe outlines, while the masses of ungradated colour often seem to divide the figure into fragments. Thus, the Madonna in the small tempera series of the Academy of Florence,¹ is usually divided exactly in half by the dark mass of her blue robe, falling in a vertical line. In consequence of this defect, the grace of Giotto’s composition can hardly be felt until it is put into outline. The colours themselves are of good quality, never glaring, always gladdening, the reds inclining to orange more than purple, yellow frequent, the prevalent tone of the colour groups warm; the sky always blue, the whole effect somewhat resembling that of the Northern painted glass of the same century-and chastened in the same manner by noble neutral tints or greens; yet all somewhat unconsidered and unsystematic, painful discords not unfrequent. The material

¹ [See above, § 45, p. 214.]

[Version 0.04: March 2008]