118 GIOTTO AND HIS WORKS IN PADUA

CHARITY

(Frontispiece to Fors Clavigera, Letter 7)

“She is distinguished from all the other virtues by having a circular glory round her head and a cross of fire;¹ she is crowned with flowers, presents with her right hand a vase of corn and fruit, and with her left receives treasure from Christ, who appears above her, to provide her with the means of continual offices of beneficence, while she tramples under foot the treasures of the earth.”-Stones of Venice, vol. ii. ch. viii. § 82 (Vol. X. p. 397).

This account agrees with that of Lord Lindsay, who says:-

“A middle-aged woman, dressed in a single robe, crowned with a wreath of flowers, three flames of fire lambent round her head, holding a dish of fruit with one hand, and receiving with the other a purse from the hand of God, and standing on bags of money” (vol. ii. p. 196).

In giving this design, however, as a frontispiece to a number of Fors in July 1871, Ruskin describes the object in the left hand of the figure not as a purse or bag but as a heart:-

“... I give you with this letter the ‘Charity’ of Giotto-the Red Queen of Dante, and ours also-how different his thought of her is from the common one. Usually she is nursing children or giving money. Giotto thinks there is little charity in nursing children-bears and wolves do that for their little ones-and less still in giving money. His Charity tramples upon bags of gold-has no use for them. She gives only corn and flowers; and God’s angel gives her not even these-but a Heart. ... Giotto is quite literal in his meaning as well as figurative. Your love is to give food and flowers, and to labour for them only.”-Fors Clavigera, Letter 7.

Later on, in indexing this Fors, Ruskin adds, “I doubt not I read the action wrong; she is giving her heart to God while she gives gifts to men.”²

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HOPE

(Frontispiece to Fors Clavigera, Letter 5)

The description of this figure, both by Ruskin and by Lord Lindsay, is very brief. The former only says, “Winged, rising in the air, while an

¹ [These are not seen in the illustration, for this part of the fresco is now faded. But the cross of fire is still discernible in the original).]

² [Compare the description of Giotto’s “Charity” at Assisi in Mornings in Florence, § 94 (Vol. XXIII. p. 388), and Fors Clavigera, Letter 45. It is to the “Charity” at Assisi (in “The Marriage of St. Francis and Poverty”) that Ruskin refers in Modern Painters, vol. iii. (Vol. V. p. 136). Much of the inscription is legible, and shows that Ruskin’s interpretation is correct. It reads: “Hec figura Karitatis | sue sic proprietatis | gerit formam. | Cor quod latet id secreto | Xto dat; hanc pro decreto | servat normam. | Set terrene facultatis | est contemptrix; vanitatis | color aret. | Cuncta cunctis liberali | offert manu; spetiali | gelo caret.”]

[Version 0.04: March 2008]