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The Entombment of Mary

Giotto1310

Gemäldegalerie, Staatliche Museen zu Berlin

Gemäldegalerie, Staatliche Museen zu Berlin
Berlin, Germany

This piece was Bode’s last acquisition in the fi eld of Trecento painting, which added to the already rich holdings from the Solly collection. It is one of four panels described by Lorenzo Ghiberti in 1445/55 as being in the possession of the Frati Umiliati, who owned the church and monastery of Ognisanti. Giorgio Vasari praised the piece in 1568, and quoted Michelangelo, who said “that the particular quality of this history could not have been represented more naturally or more faithfully”. The horizontal format with gable top is similar to late 13th-century Tuscan dossals, replaced after 1300 by polyptychs and vertical-format altar-pieces. Research has revealed that this panel was primarily painted by Giotto himself. By comparison to his Maestà in the Uffizi Gallery this work is dated c. 1310. HN Maso di Banco (2nd quarter of the 14th century) 166 Mary with the Child, c. 1335/36 Poplar, 81.5 x 49.2 cm Acquired 1821 This centre panel from a five-part altarpiece was possibly painted for the Franciscan Order; scholars have considered the church of S. Croce in Florence, where there are still some of the master’s works today. He came from the school of Giotto, but combined compact forms and strict outlines with a subtle linearity of detail, refined tonality and decorative harmony of colour areas, ornaments and a chased gold ground. Scholars see the representation of three-quarter figures as the transition to altars with full figures.

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  • Title: The Entombment of Mary
  • Creator: Giotto di Bondone
  • Date Created: 1310
  • Physical Dimensions: w179.0 x h75.0 cm
  • Type: Painting
  • External Link: Gemäldegalerie, Staatliche Museen zu Berlin
  • Medium: Tempera on poplar wood
  • Style: Italian
  • Copyright Text: Text: © http://www.prestel.com, Prestel Verlag / Hannelore Nützmann // Photo: © http://www.bpk-images.de, b p k - Photo Agency / Kaiser Friedrich-Museums-Verein / Jörg P. Anders
  • Collection: Gemäldegalerie, Staatliche Museen zu Berlin
  • Artist information: Giotto was an Italian painter and architect from Florence in the late Middle Ages. Vasari mentions that Giotto was an apprentice of the famous Florentine painter Cimatone and that he went with him to Rome to paint large frescoes at the basilica of St. Francis of Assisi. But there are sources which put this into question. It is a fact that Giotto worked in Rome from 1297-1300, where he achieved fame as a sculptor and architect. After 1320 he returned to Florence and opened his own successful workshop. In 1334 he became the leading architect of the Florentine cathedral, designing the new bell tower. Every work of Giotto dealt with religious subjects and his figures were painted with great naturalness and vivacity. He is considered the pioneer of perspective painting because he overcame the iconographic bonds of Byzantine painting. His greatest masterpiece is the decoration of the Scrovegni Chapel in Padua, which he completed around 1305.
  • Artist Place of Death: Florence, Italy
  • Artist Place of Birth: Florence, Italy
  • Artist Gender: male
  • Artist Dates: 1267/1337-01-08
Gemäldegalerie, Staatliche Museen zu Berlin

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