XV

THE SALUTATION

THIS picture, placed beneath the figure of the Virgin Annunciate at the east end of the chapel, and necessarily small (as will be seen by the plan) in consequence of the space occupied by the arch which it flanks, begins the second or lower series of frescoes; being, at the same time, the first of the great chain of more familiar subjects, in which we have the power of comparing the conceptions of Giotto not only with the designs of earlier ages, but with the efforts which subsequent masters have made to exalt or vary the ideas of the principal scenes in the life of the Virgin and of Christ. The two paintings of the Angel Gabriel and the Virgin Annunciate hardly provoke such a comparison, being almost statue-like in the calm subjection of all dramatic interest to the symmetrical dignity and beauty of the two figures, leading, as they do, the whole system of the decoration of the chapel; but this of the Salutation is treated with no such reference to the architecture, and at once challenges comparison with the works of later masters.

Nor is the challenge feebly maintained. I have no hesitation in saying, that, among all the renderings of this scene which now exist, I remember none which gives the pure depth and plain facts of it so perfectly as this of Giotto’s. Of majestic women bowing themselves to beautiful and meek girls, both wearing gorgeous robes, in the midst of lovely scenery, or at the doors of Palladian palaces, we have enough;¹ but I do not know any picture which

¹ [Compare the contrast which Ruskin draws between Ghirlandajo’s “Salutation” and Giotto’s in S. Maria Novella: Mornings in Florence, §§ 18 seq. (Vol. XXIII. p. 313, and Plate XXVII.).]

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[Version 0.04: March 2008]