44 GIOTTO AND HIS WORKS IN PADUA

to pause in satisfied meditation upon any single incident. And it can hardly be doubted that Giotto had also a peculiar pleasure in dwelling on the circumstances of the shepherd life of the father of the Virgin, owing to its resemblance to that of his own early years.

26. The incidents represented in these first twelve paintings are recorded in the two apocryphal gospels known as the “Protevangelion” and “Gospel of St. Mary.”* But on comparing the statements in these writings (which, by-the-bye, are in nowise consistent with each other) with the paintings in the Arena Chapel, it appeared to me that Giotto must occasionally have followed some more detailed traditions than are furnished by either of them; seeing that of one or two subjects the apocryphal gospels gave no distinct or sufficient explanation. Fortunately, however, in the course of some other researches,¹ I met with a manuscript in the British Museum (Harl. 3571),² containing a

* It has always appeared strange to me, that ecclesiastical history should possess no more authentic records of the life of the Virgin, before the period at which the narrative of St. Luke commences, than these apocryphal gospels,³ which are as wretched in style as untrustworthy in matter; and are evidently nothing more than a collection, in rude imitation of the style of the Evangelists, of such floating traditions as became current among the weak Christians of the earlier ages, when their inquiries respecting the history of Mary were met by the obscurity under which the Divine will had veiled her humble person and character. There must always be something painful, to those who are familiar with the Scriptures, in reading these feeble and foolish mockeries of the manner of the inspired writers; but it will be proper, nevertheless, to give the exact words in which the scenes represented by Giotto were recorded to him.

¹ [Ruskin was at this time making a close study of illuminated MSS. in the Museum: see Vol. XII. p. lxviii.]

² [Thus described in the Catalogue of MSS.: “La vita de Joachy, e Anna, e Maria, e Yesu Christo. An Italian Legendary History of the Holy Family, illuminated throughout, but in a very coarse style. On vellum.”]

³ [The “Protevangel of James” was a narrative extending from the Conception of the Virgin to the Death of Zacharias; it is supposed to belong to the first decade of the second century. The critics distinguish between (a) an original Jewish Christian writing, and (b) a Gnostic recast of it. From (a) arose the Protevangel in its present form (Greek); from (b), a Latin pseudo-Matthćus, of which the Evangelium de Nativitate Marić (referred to by Ruskin as “The Gospel of St. Mary”) is a redaction. The references in notes on following pages are to the second edition (1876) of Tischendorf’s collection of Evangelia Apocrypha.]

[Version 0.04: March 2008]