As a result, Cavallini's early stab at naturalism has frequently been glossed over by art historians. Studies on Giotto have long been divided between Italians and Anglo-Saxons, with the latter being far more skeptical of Vasari's vaunting of all things Florentine. Several art historians have wondered aloud if it were really plausible for Giotto, born around 1270, to have been granted a grand papal commission in his mid-twenties. In fact, he believes Giotto consciously broke away from the naturalistic mode developed at Assisi. Compared to the scrupulously detailed architecture of the Assisi cycle, Giotto's frescoes are radically spare in design, with compositions that are less mimetic than symbolic.
Pure naturalism takes second place.
In Giotto's Padua frescoes, he observes, stark blue backgrounds and a flattened perspective focus attention on the expressions of the figures. It just makes sense that the Renaissance began there. Inc. All rights reserved.