Giotto Di Bondone

Giotto di Bondone
Mark Sandona, Anne Derbes
LAST REVIEWED: 10 MAY 2017

LAST MODIFIED: 30 JANUARY 2014
DOI: 10.1093/OBO/9780199920105-0011
Introduction
Giotto di Bondone is universally acknowledged to be an artist of surpassing genius, celebrated for his extraordinary ability to
reimagine familiar narratives and to render them afresh, and to imbue his protagonists with moral gravity and psychological
complexity, capturing the inner lives of his figures with stunning acuity. But he stands apart from his contemporaries in late medieval
Italian painting in several respects, not merely artistic. One is the hyperbolic claims made for him by his admirers in subsequent
generations, as early as the mid-trecento and intensifying with Vasari: Giotto as the single-handed reviver of a moribund artistic
tradition. This depiction of Giotto as a kind of aesthetic thaumaturge clouds our understanding of the artist’s contributions and does
an injustice to the painters of the 1280s and 1290s, sometimes anonymous, whose works provide an important context for Giotto’s.
Still more vexing are the sharp, at times polemical, scholarly debates about his artistic production, which still inflame academic
discourse today. Though he and his assistants worked all over the Italian peninsula, from Milan to Naples, both in fresco and panel
painting, two fresco cycles dominate the vast scholarly literature on the artist and are thus represented by the greatest number of
entries in this article. The first is a relatively early work, the cycle in the Arena Chapel in Padua, one of the few works universally
ascribed to him and his uncontested masterpiece; the literature on the chapel is most extensive. The second is the St. Francis cycle
in the Upper Church of S. Francesco, Assisi, where Giotto’s participation has been the focus of heated debate for a century. Though
these two fresco cycles have most fully engaged scholarly attention, important analyses of other works by the artist and his
workshop are included as well, listed alphabetically by site (panel paintings are listed by their original location, not the museum that
houses them today). This article attempts to provide a map both through the artist’s critical fortunes and through the thicket of
attributional controversies, as well as providing a guide to the wealth of studies that address other aspects of the artist’s production,
ranging from technical analyses to interpretative works.
General Overviews
A range of studies—monographs and exhibition catalogues on the artist, as well as works of broader scope on trecento painting—
offer assessments of Giotto and his oeuvre, though there is little consistency in defining it. Generally, Italian scholars (Previtali
1993, Flores d’Arcais 2012, and the authors whose work appears in Tartuferi 2000 and Tomei 2009, both of which are exhibition
catalogues) take an expansive view of the artist’s work, assigning more to him and his workshop than do more-cautious British and
American scholars. Maginnis 1997 is not a monograph on Giotto but is an important reassessment of trecento painting and Giotto’s
place within it, by an eminent scholar. Poeschke 2003 includes a thoughtful discussion of Giotto and photos of reproduces all the
fresco cycles associated with him as well as others by leading painters. The first volume of Schwarz, et al. 2004–2008 offers the
most thorough study of the artist’s life to date (including archival records, inventories, wills, chronicles, and letters); the second
volume is equally thorough on Giotto’s oeuvre, though some of the positions taken by the authors are controversial; it includes an
extensive compilation of documents related to the Arena Chapel.
Flores d’Arcais, Francesca. Giotto. 2d ed. Translated by Raymond Rosenthal. New York and London: Abbeville, 2012.
Richly illustrated compendium of Giotto’s oeuvre, broadly defined. The second edition includes a new preface in which the author
considers Zanardi’s Cantiere di Giotto and discusses the efforts to restore the Assisi frescoes following the earthquake of 1997. The
text is otherwise unchanged from the first edition of 1995. Second edition in Italian was published in 2011 (Milan: Federico Motta
Editore).
Maginnis, Hayden B. J. Painting in the Age of Giotto: A Historical Reevaluation. University Park: Pennsylvania State
University Press, 1997.
Acute historiographic and historical study, reconsidering the leading masters of the early and mid-trecento; includes a trenchant
critique of the Vasarian tradition of Giotto as the dominant innovator of the period, and a fresh approach to the complexities
surrounding issues of attribution.
Poeschke, Joachim. Wandmalerei der Giottozeit in Italien, 1280–1400. Munich: Hirmer, 2003.
Superb photographic coverage of major fresco cycles by Giotto, his predecessors, and his contemporaries, as well as painters of
the later trecento; sites include Assisi, Rome, Padua, Florence, Siena, San Gimignano, and Pisa. A thoughtful introduction is
followed by succinct but useful analyses of each cycle, diagrams of the programs, and texts of inscriptions. English edition titled
Italian Frescoes, the Age of Giotto, 1280–1400 (New York: Abbeville, 2005).
Previtali, Giovanni. Giotto e la sua bottega. 3d ed. Revised by Alessandro Conti. Milan: Fabbri Editori, 1993.
Comprehensive monograph on the painter’s life and oeuvre, long a standard reference; though dated in some respects, still worth
consulting for its photographic coverage, its catalogue (with helpful diagrams of fresco programs), and its compilation of early
sources and documents.
Schwarz, Michael Viktor, Pia Theis, and Michaela Zöschg, eds. Giottus pictor.2 vols. Vienna: Böhlau, 2004–2008.
Vol. 1 (Giottos Leben, edited by Schwarz and Theis) of this two-volume work opens with an assessment of Ghiberti and Vasari’s
accounts of Giotto, then turns to a detailed account of the painter’s life and work. Vol. 2 (Giottos Werke, edited by Schwarz and
Zöschg) is a thorough consideration of Giotto’s oeuvre and the works variously ascribed to the artist. While some will question
certain positions taken here regarding dating and interpretation of works, this is a major study, worth careful attention.
Tartuferi, Angelo, ed. Giotto: Bilancio critico di sessant’anni di studi e ricerche. Florence: Giunti, 2000.
The focus in this exhibition catalogue is on issues of attribution, with much attention to Giotto’s workshop; includes essays by
leading scholars and detailed catalogue entries. An accompanying guide to the exhibition includes briefer entries in Italian and
English (Tartuferi, Guida alla mostra e itinerario fiorentino / Guide to the Exhibition; Florentine Itinerary).
Tomei, Alessandro, ed. Giotto e il Trecento: Il più sovrano maestro stato in dipintura.2 vols. Milan: Skira, 2009.
Catalogue with beautiful photographs of the 145 works in the exhibition: panel paintings, mosaics, stained glass, detached
frescoes, sculpture, miniatures, and liturgical objects (by Giotto, his workshop, and related artists). Twenty-eight essays by leading
scholars, addressing a wide range of topics: Giotto’s activity in Assisi, Umbria, Rome, Padua, Rimini, Bologna, Naples, and Milan,
as well as miniature painting, sculpture, and architecture related to Giotto.
Reference Works
Tomei 1995 and Gilbert 2000, both online, provide considerable detail; both are particularly strong on historiography, though both
bibliographies need updating. Tomei 1995 includes a lengthy discussion of Giotto’s oeuvre, while Gilbert 2000 includes some color
images. Boskovits 2000 offers an exhaustive portrait of the artist and a thorough account of the works ascribed to him. Readers
seeking a succinct account of Giotto would be well served by consulting Richards 2001, which is available online, or Medicus 2004.
Boskovits, Miklós. “Giotto di Bondone.” In Dizionario biografico degli Italiani. Vol. 55. Edited by Mario Caravale and
Michele Di Sivo, 401–423. Rome: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana, 2000.
In keeping with the overall quality of this biographical dictionary, this lengthy article by a leading scholar offers an impressively
detailed account of Giotto’s life and work; includes a list of sources and bibliography, chronologically arranged (1310 to 2000).
Gilbert, Creighton. “Giotto”. In Oxford Art Online: Grove Art Online. 2000.
Printed in The Dictionary of Art, Vol. 12, edited by Jane Turner (New York: Grove, 1996), pp. 681–696. Thorough article organized
as follows: I, “Life and Work”; II, “Working Methods and Techniques”; and III, “Critical Reception and Posthumous Reputation.” The
discussion of early written sources is particularly strong, with a lengthy discussion of Ghiberti’s Commentari. The bibliography is
well organized, but dated, with very few works published after the 1980s.
Medicus, Gustav. “Giotto di Bondone.” In Medieval Italy: An Encyclopedia. Vol. 1. Edited by Christopher Kleinhenz, 421–
423. Routledge Encyclopedias of the Middle Ages. New York and London: Routledge, 2004.
Balanced introduction to the artist and his oeuvre, with bibliography.
Richards, John. “Giotto di Bondone.” Oxford Art Online: The Oxford Companion to Western Art. 2001.
Succinct but authoritative account of the artist’s life and works. Printed in The Oxford Companion to Western Art, edited by Hugh
Brigstocke (Oxford and New York: Oxford University Press, 2001).
Tomei, Alessandro. “Giotto di Bondone.” In Treccani.it: L’Enciclopedia Italiana. 1995.

Detailed essay that provides a long discussion of early sources and documents and a full account of Giotto’s oeuvre, broadly
defined. The bibliography is lengthy but includes nothing written after 1989. In Enciclopedia dell’arte medievale, Vol. 6, edited by
Angiola Maria Romanini (Rome: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana, 1995), pp. 650 ff.).
Textbooks and Anthologies
These categories have been combined because most of the books listed here would work well in a college or university course on
late medieval Italian painting, or in one focusing on Giotto. All but Ladis 1998, which is not a textbook but a library resource, have
been published in paperback, though availability may vary. White 1993 and Norman 1995 include useful and detailed accounts of
Giotto’s work, in volumes devoted to late medieval Italian art. White 1993 is a balanced and comprehensive study by a preeminent
scholar; Norman 1995 is a generously illustrated two-volume compilation of essays by art historians at the Open University, London.
The other works included here are dedicated to Giotto. Bellosi 1981 and Wolf 2006 offer overviews of the artist and his oeuvre; both
include numerous color photographs. Derbes and Sandona 2004, Schneider 1974, and Stubblebine 1969 are collections of essays
on Giotto that are intended for classroom use; Stubblebine treats only the Arena Chapel. Ladis 1998 is a four-volume set reprinting
eighty-seven articles and book extracts covering every aspect of the artist’s life and work—a goldmine for the specialist and an
essential acquisition for college and university libraries.
Bellosi, Luciano. Giotto. Florence: Scala, 1981.
Most useful for its thorough photographic coverage, all in color; the text takes an expansive view of Giotto’s oeuvre, assigning him a
leading role in the Upper Church of S. Francesco, Assisi—a controversial position among English and American scholars, which is
not acknowledged by the author.
Derbes, Anne, and Mark Sandona, eds. The Cambridge Companion to Giotto. Cambridge Companions to the History of
Art. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 2004.
The collection contains a broad spectrum of approaches to the life, cultural context, and works of Giotto, from current critical
perspectives: historiography, workshop methods, influences, patronage, architecture, and iconography; except for Ladis’s classic
essay on Giotto’s wit, all were commissioned for this volume.
Ladis, Andrew, ed. Giotto and the World of Early Italian Art: An Anthology of Literature. 4 vols. New York and London:
Garland, 1998.
Reprints of some of the most important writing on the life, work, and reputation of Giotto, a total of eight-seven articles and
excerpts. Vol. 1 is titled Giotto as a Historical and Literary Figure; Vol. 2, The Arena Chapel and the Genius of Giotto; Vol. 3, Giotto,
Master Painter and Architect; and Vol. 4, Franciscanism, the Papacy, and Art in the Age of Giotto.
Norman, Diana, ed. Siena, Florence and Padua: Art, Society and Religion 1280–1400. 2 vols. New Haven, CT: Yale
Vol. 1 is titled Interpretive Essays; Vol. 2, Case Studies. Excellent essays offering thorough discussions of the cultural, political, and
religious contexts of late medieval Italian art, as well as focused consideration of specific issues and major monuments. One essay
offers an overview of Giotto; a second is a study of the Arena Chapel. Vol. 1 includes well-researched accounts of two cities,
Florence and Padua, where Giotto produced his most important surviving work.
Schneider, Laurie, ed. Giotto in Perspective. Artists in Perspective. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall, 1974.
A chronological arrangement of writing on Giotto. Part 1 contains trecento writers (from Dante to Cennini); Part 2, the Renaissance
(from Villani to Vasari); Parts 3 and 4, the 18th and 19th centuries, from Lanzi to Berenson; and Part 5, modern criticism, from
Wöfflin to Smart.
Stubblebine, James H., ed. Giotto: The Arena Chapel Frescoes. Norton Critical Studies in Art History. New York and
London: W. W. Norton, 1969.
Though dated, this anthology, focusing on the Arena Chapel, is still useful for its documents and early sources, all translated into
English, and for its reprinting of several classic essays by Richard Offner, Michel Alpatoff, Dorothy Shorr, Ursula Schlegel, and
Leonetto Tintori and Millard Meiss. Reissued in 1995.
White, John. Art and Architecture in Italy, 1250–1400. 3d ed. Pelican History of Art. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press,
1993.
Fundamental survey of later duecento and trecento art, with thorough discussion of Giotto (chapter 24, pp. 309–343) and a second
chapter (25, pp. 344–348) devoted to “The Assisi Problem.” An earlier chapter (13, pp. 199–224), “The Legend of St. Francis and
the Completion of the Decoration of the Upper Church of S. Francesco at Assisi,” is also useful. The diagrams of S. Francesco, the
Arena Chapel, Padua, and the Bardi and Peruzzi Chapels in Sta. Croce, Florence, are particularly helpful. First published in 1966
(Harmondsworth, UK: Penguin).
Wolf, Norbert. Giotto di Bondone, 1267–1337: The Renewal of Painting. Cologne: Taschen, 2006.
Excellent photographic coverage, all in color; the discussion of Assisi acknowledges the debates over attribution and assigns Giotto
the dominant role in the Upper Church. Thorough discussion of panel painting as well as fresco programs.
Early Assessments and Critical Reception
His contemporaries in literature recognized Giotto’s importance as an artist: Dante, in the Purgatorio of La Divina Commedia (early
14th century; Dante 1994), briefly refers to Giotto as an example of transitory fame; Boccaccio, in one of the tales of his Decameron
(1350; Boccaccio 1991), contrasts the less-than-handsome appearance of the man Giotto with his revolutionary accomplishments
as an artist; and Petrarch, in his will (Petrarch’s Testament, April 1370; Petrarca 1978), praises a panel painting by Giotto he owned
during his retirement at Arquà. With the advent of humanism from the 14th century to the High Renaissance, the legend of Giotto’s
unique genius grew. The chronicler Filippo Villani (see Baxandall 2006, first published in 1971), in his De origine civitiatis Florentiae
(c. 1382), perpetuated the idea (established by Boccaccio) of Giotto as the single-handed restorer of painting to its former worth;
Franco Sacchetti, in his Il Trecentonovelle (mid-14th century; Sacchetti 2004), includes Giotto in two of his short stories; and
Lorenzo Ghiberti’s autobiographical Commentarii (mid-15th century; Ghiberti 1998) and Giorgio Vasari’s encyclopedic Le vite de’
più eccellenti pittori scultori e architettori (mid-16th century; Vasari 1966–1976) represent the beginnings of critical commentary and
questions of attribution. See Maginnis 1997 (cited under General Overviews) for an account of the early development of Giotto’s
reputation; see in particular pp. 59–63 for Bernard Berenson’s opinions of Giotto’s talent (ranging from 1894 to 1907). The most-
extensive modern assessments in belles-lettres are John Ruskin’s 1854 essay (Ruskin 2005) and Marcel Proust’s meditations in A
la recherche du temps perdus (Proust 1987–1989, originally published in 1913–1927).
Baxandall, Michael. Giotto and the Orators: Humanist Observers of Painting in Italy and the Discovery of Pictorial
Composition, 1350–1450. Oxford-Warburg Studies. Oxford: Clarendon, 2006.
A study of the relationship between pictorial composition and humanist rhetoric. Particularly useful is the section titled “Filippo Villani
and the Pattern of Progress” (pp. 66–78), which contains an English translation from a part of Filippo Villani’s De origine civitatis
Florentiae et eiusdem famosis civibus (composed 1381–1382), which relates directly to Giotto’s having “restored painting to its
former worth and great reputation” (pp. 70–72). First published in 1971.
Boccaccio, Giovanni. Decameron. 6th ed. Edited by Vittore Branca. Nuova Universale Einaudi 169. Turin, Italy: Einaudi,
1991.
Republished as recently as 2012 (New York: Vintage). In the fifth tale of the sixth day, Panfilo tells the comical story of two ugly
men: Forese da Rabatta (a Florentine civic leader) and “Giotto dipintore” (pp. 736–740). The opening description speaks of Giotto’s
fidelity to Nature in his art; the narrator refers to him as having restored painting to the light of its former greatness. See also Ladis
1986, cited under Narrative Cycle.
Dante, Alighieri. La Divina Commedia: La commedia seconda l’antica vulgata. 4 vols. Edited by Giorgio Petrocchi.
Florence: La Lettere, 1994.
This edition was originally published in 1966–1967 (Milan: Mondadori). See Purgatorio XI, 94–95 (Petrocchi 3:184). Oderisi da
Gubbio (manuscript illuminator, d. 1299) speaks to Dante Pilgrim about the evanescence of earthly fame; in one of two examples,
he points to the succession of Giotto to the place of prominence formerly held by Cimabue. An early commentator on Purgatorio
(Benevento da Imola) confirms Dante’s assessment; the commentary is available online.
Ghiberti, Lorenzo. Commentarii. Edited by Lorenzo Bartoli. Biblioteca della Scienza Italiana 17. Florence: Giunti, 1998.
The autobiography by Ghiberti (b. c. 1378–d. 1455) includes an account of Giotto, with a list of forty works ascribed to him,
sometimes considered “a catalogue raisonnée in completeness and reliability” (quoted in Gilbert 2000, cited under Reference
Works; also reprinted in The Dictionary of Art, Vol. 12, edited by Jane Turner [New York: Grove, 1996], p. 685).
Petrarca, Francesco. Petrarch’s Testament. Edited and translated by Theodor Mommsen. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University
Press, 1978.
This edition was first published in 1957. In his will (1370), Petrarch (b. 1304–d. 1374) praises a Madonna and Child panel painting
of Giotto’s, which he owned when at Arquà, near Padova (p. 78).
Proust, Marcel. À la recherche du temps perdus. Edited by Jean-Yves Tadié, et al. 4 vols. Bibliothèque de la Pléiade. Paris:
Gallimard, 1987–1989.
This work was first published in 1987–1989. In Proust’s autobiographical novel, the young Marcel is given photographs of Giotto’s
Vices and Virtues from the Arena Chapel. Comparisons with the novel’s characters follow: to Caritas (Vol. 1. p. 80, pp. 119–121), to
Iniustitia (Vol. 1. p. 322), and to Infidelitas (Vol. 2. p. 241); the allegorical figures appear in his dreams (Vol. 2. p. 444). Later in life
Marcel visits Padua (Vol. 4. pp. 226–227). Having previously understood Giotto through the photographs of the allegorical figures,
the vibrancy of the narrative cycle is a revelation.
Ruskin, John. Giotto and His Works in Padua: Being an Explanatory Notice of the Frescoes in the Arena Chapel.
Whitefish, MT: Kessinger, 2005.
First published in 1854 (London: Anne Arundel Society). Perhaps the most prominent art critic in England during the mid-19th
century, John Ruskin commissioned prints of the Arena Chapel and wrote an account of Giotto’s life and works to accompany them.
The publication later inspired Marcel Proust (see above).
Sacchetti, Franco. Il trecentonovelle. Edited by Davide Puccini. Classici Italiani. Turin, Italy: UTET, 2004.
Sacchetti (b. c. 1330–d. c. 1400), a minor figure in Italian literature, offers two short stories featuring Giotto (Nov. 63 and Nov. 75)
and two brief references to him (Nov. 136 and Nov. 161). See Ladis 1986, cited under Narrative Cycle.
Vasari, Giorgio. Le vite de’ più eccellenti pittori, scultori e architettori. Edited by Rosanna Bettarini and Paola Barocchi. 7
vols. Florence: Sansoni, 1966–1976.
Giotto’s life (II.1, 95–123) is followed by 171 references to Giotto (according to a frequency list compiled by Barocchi). The Bettarini
and Barocchi index (II.1, 526–530) and commentary (II.2, 346–411) are invaluable resources. See Maginnis 1997 (cited under
General Overviews) for an account of Vasari’s “vision” of Giotto. For an English translation, see Lives of the Painters, Sculptors and
Architects, Vol. 1 (New York: Knopf, 1996), pp. 97–118, for the life of Giotto.
Thematic Studies
The works listed here examine a number of works by Giotto thematically, focusing on a particular facet or phase of his artistic
production. Gardner 1991 analyzes Giotto’s multiple debts to ancient Rome, as well as his turn to the modern. Both Cannon 2004
and Gardner 2011 address Giotto’s work in mendicant churches; Cannon offers an overview that was intended for students but is
equally valuable for scholars, while Gardner provides a detailed examination of Giotto’s work at three Franciscan sites. Romano
2008 examines Giotto’s early work, with a somewhat polemical treatment of the Assisi controversy and the Arena Chapel. Barasch
1987, though problematic, is worth consulting for Giotto’s use of gesture. Castelnuovo 2009 offers a useful discussion of Giotto as a
portraitist. Giotto’s treatment of architecture is discussed in Architecture.
Barasch, Moshe. Giotto and the Language of Gesture. Cambridge Studies in the History of Art. New York and Cambridge,
UK: Cambridge University Press, 1987.
This provocative study has found a mixed reception, and its arguments are at times forced, but it includes some interesting
analyses; use with caution.
Cannon, Joanna. “Giotto and Art for the Friars: Revolutions Spiritual and Artistic.” In The Cambridge Companion to
Giotto. Edited by Anne Derbes and Mark Sandona, 103–134. Cambridge Companions to the History of Art. Cambridge, UK:
Cambridge University Press, 2004.
Important analysis of Giotto’s work for the major mendicant orders. First offers an incisive overview of the Franciscan and
Dominican orders—their early history, their institutional structures, their architecture, and the great crosses that dominated church
interiors—then turns to Giotto’s work, both panel painting and frescoes, for the friars.
Castelnuovo, Enrico. “Les portraits individuels de Giotto.” In Le portrait individuel: Réflexions autour d‘une forme de
représentation XIIIe–XVe siècles. Edited by Dominic Olariu, 153–166. Bern, Switzerland: Peter Lang, 2009.
Assessment of Giotto as a portraitist, with a discussion of earlier literature; also includes a briefer consideration of portraiture in the
early trecento.
Gardner, Julian. “Giotto, ‘First of the Moderns’ or Last of the Ancients?” Wiener Jahrbuch für Kunstgeschichte 44 (1991):
63–78.
Gardner maintains that Giotto employs schemata, organizational methods, and even painting techniques from Antiquity, while
offering a dynamic “modern” shift in the adaptation of iconography. Analyses include the Arena Chapel, the Bardi Chapel, the
Navicella mosaic, and the Ognissanti Madonna.
Gardner, Julian. Giotto and His Publics: Three Paradigms of Patronage. Bernard Berenson Lectures on the Italian
Renaissance. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2011.
A focused consideration of three works from Franciscan contexts: The Stigmatization of Saint Francis from S. Francesco, Pisa; the
Bardi Chapel, Sta. Croce, Florence; and the crossing-vault frescoes (Vele) of the Lower Church, S. Francesco, Assisi; also includes
an authoritative introduction to the artist.
Romano, Serena. La “O” di Giotto. Milan: Electa, 2008.

Ascribes the Isaac Master frescoes in the Upper Church and many of the Life of St. Francis frescoes to Giotto; argues that Giotto’s
work at Assisi and Padua reveals his careful study of Roman monuments, both ancient and contemporaneous.
Assisi, S. Francesco, Upper Church
The study of Giotto’s work is inextricably tangled with the debates over the authorship of the frescoes in the Upper Church of S.
Francesco, Assisi—particularly the cycle depicting the life of St. Francis, which has generated a vast literature. Because of
limitations of space, we include only the most influential and most recent studies, which provide a guide to earlier scholarship. The
controversy over the attribution of this cycle has traditionally been drawn along national lines, with Italian scholars ascribing major
responsibility for the cycle to the young painter and with Anglo-German scholars arguing for a far more circumscribed role—if any;
those divisions are now less sharply etched than in the past, however (see Zanardi 1996, Zanardi 2002, Binski 2009). While Offner
1939 was once extremely influential among English and American art historians, among them Smart 1971, and and though Offner’s
work still stands as an exemplar of connoisseurship, more-recent scholarship, in particular the technical analyses by the Italian
conservator Bruno Zanardi (Zanardi 1996, Zanardi 2002), has resulted in a more nuanced view of the cycle as a collaborative
venture. Though the dating of the cycle has long been contested, evidence marshaled by the British art historians Donal Cooper
and Janet Robson (Cooper and Robson 2003, Cooper and Robson 2009) points to the Franciscan pope, Nicholas IV (reigned
1288–1292), as the instigator of the commission. Binski 2009 introduces an argument for 1295 as a terminus ante quem. For the
basilica as a whole, Bonsanti 2002 is an essential resource, with superb photographs and exhaustive coverage. For a contextual
study of the Upper Church frescoes, Belting 1977 remains fundamental.
Belting, Hans. Die Oberkirche von San Francesco in Assisi: Ihre Dekoration als Aufgabe und die Genese einer neuen
Wandmalerei. Berlin: Mann, 1977.
Major study focusing on the history and circumstances of the frescoes’ production and on the thematic coherence of the program.
Demonstrates that the basilica was at once the church of the Franciscan order and a papal chapel, and that both affiliations inform
the program. Nuanced consideration of generally neglected decorative elements, and thoughtful discussion of Giotto’s probable role
at Assisi.
Binski, Paul. “The Patronage and Date of the Legend of St Francis in the Upper Church of S. Francesco at Assisi.”
Burlington Magazine 151.1279 (2009): 663–665.
Identifying the column on the prison in St. Francis Releases the Heretic as a rebus of the Colonna family, and noting the disgrace of
the Colonna in 1297, the author proposes that the frescoes must have been executed before that date, c. 1290–1295; he suggests
that this narrative, in depicting the Colonna bishop gazing reverently at the column itself, may be an example of Giotto’s wit.
Available online for purchase or by subscription.
Bonsanti, Giorgio, ed. La Basilica di San Francesco ad Assisi / The Basilica of St. Francis in Assisi. Mirabilia Italiae 11. 4
vols. Modena, Italy: Franco Cosimo Panini, 2002.
Four volumes constituting an encyclopedic account of the basilica. Beautiful, detailed photographs—over twenty-four hundred in all
—of every aspect of the Upper and Lower Church (before and after the earthquake of 1997), with accompanying diagrams. One
text volume provides overviews of the architecture, frescoes, sculpture, and glass, and a discussion of the post-trecento decoration
at the site. A second provides detailed commentary for each of the works photographed.
Cooper, Donal, and Janet Robson. “Pope Nicholas IV and the Upper Church at Assisi.” Apollo 157.492 (2003): 31–35.
Important study calling attention to a previously overlooked passage in a Franciscan text of c. 1312, which credits the Franciscan
pontiff Nicholas IV (reigned 1288–1292) with commissioning sumptuositatem magnam picturarum (literally, “a great sumptuousness
of paintings”) in the church of Assisi—likely the St. Francis cycle in the Upper Church.
Cooper, Donal, and Janet Robson. “‘A Great Sumptuousness of Paintings’: Frescos and Franciscan Poverty at Assisi in
1288 and 1312.” Burlington Magazine 151.1279 (2009): 656–662.
The authors return to the text that they recently brought to scholarly attention (Cooper and Robson 2003), firmly linking paintings in
the basilica to the Franciscan pope. They consider scholarly response to the article and buttress their position that the document
refers to the St. Francis cycle in the Upper Church, with a nuanced account of contemporaneous debates between Spirituals and
Conventuals.
Offner, Richard. “Giotto, Non-Giotto.” Burlington Magazine 74.435 (1939): 259–268.
Continued in Burlington Magazine 75.436 (1939): 96–113. The “discerning eye” of the connoisseur, trained on the frescoes of the
Arena Chapel and those of the St. Francis cycle at Assisi; a classic study, still worth reading for its penetrating assessment of
Giotto. Reprinted in Schneider 1974, pp. 86–106; Stubblebine 1969, pp. 135–155; and Ladis 1998, Vol. 4, pp. 33–52, all cited under
Textbooks and Anthologies. Available online for purchase or by subscription.
Smart, Alistair. The Assisi Problem and the Art of Giotto: A Study of the Legend of St. Francis in the Upper Church of San
Francesco, Assisi. Oxford: Clarendon, 1971.
After an extensive discussion of the attribution of the cycle, Smart analyzes the frescoes in the context of Bonaventure’s Legenda
maior; the inscriptions below each fresco and the relevant portions of the Legenda maior are helpfully included, in translation, in the
appendix. Republished in 1983 (New York: Hacker Art Books).
Zanardi, Bruno. Il cantiere di Giotto: Le storie di San Francesco ad Assisi. Grandi Libri Skira. Milan: Skira, 1996.
Analytical account of the workshop process involved in the Upper Church of the Assisi basilica. Argues that the organization of the
workshop can be traced through comparison of “patroni” (templates). In a break with Italian scholarship, Zanardi argues for several
workshops and therefore several painters for the program. For abbreviated and updated versions of the argument, see Zanardi
2002 and Zanardi’s chapter in Derbes and Sandona 2004 (cited under Textbooks and Anthologies).
Zanardi, Bruno. Giotto e Pietro Cavallini: La questione di Assisi e il cantiere medievale della pittura a fresco. Biblioteca
d’Arte Skira 5. Milan: Skira, 2002.
Richly illustrated and important study by a conservator whose earlier work (Zanardi 1996) analyzes the workshop practices of the
teams of painters responsible for the St. Francis cycle; ascribes a significant portion of the cycle to the Roman painter Pietro
Cavallini and his associates. Also discusses the frescoes in the Lower Church by Giotto and his workshop.
Assisi, S. Francesco, Lower Church
The attribution of several fresco cycles in the Lower Church of S. Francesco—the St. Nicholas Chapel, the Infancy cycle, Miracles
of St. Francis and Crucifixion in the right transept, the Franciscan Allegories in the crossing vaults (the Vele), and the Magdalen
Chapel—to Giotto and his assistants is less controversial than the identity of the painters responsible for the Life of St. Francis in
the Upper Church. The studies here thus focus less on matters of authorship than on dating, patronage, and readings of the
frescoes. Hueck 1983 focuses on the St. Nicholas Chapel; Schwartz 1980 and Schwartz 1991, on the Magdalen Chapel; Robson
2005, on the thematic linkages of the Lower Church frescoes; and Gardner 2011, on the Vele. For comprehensive coverage of the
Lower Church, see also Bonsanti 2002 (cited under Assisi, S. Francesco, Upper Church).
Gardner, Julian. “The Lull before the Storm: The Vele in the Lower Church at Assisi.” In Giotto and His Publics: Three
Paradigms of Patronage. By Julian Gardner, 81–112. Bernard Berenson Lectures on the Italian Renaissance. Cambridge,
MA: Harvard University Press, 2011.
Situates the frescoes in the context of the struggle between the Conventuals and the Spirituals, arguing that this sophisticated
program was intended for learned friars rather than the laity. While the focus here is on the Franciscan Allegories, Gardner also
comments on other cycles in the Lower Church. An appendix provides the Latin inscriptions accompanying the allegories, along
with English translations.
Hueck, Irene. “Il cardinale Napoleone Orsini e la cappella di S. Nicola nella basilica francescana ad Assisi.” In Roma Anno
1300: Atti della IV Settimana di Studi di Storia dell’Arte Medievale dell’Università di Roma “La Sapienza,” (19–24 maggio
1980). Edited by Angiola Maria Romanini, 187–198. Mediaevalia 1. Rome: L’Erma di Bretschneider, 1983.
Careful study of the St. Nicholas Chapel, commissioned by Cardinal Napoleone Orsini, arguing for a date of c. 1296–1301.
Robson, Janet. “The Pilgrim’s Progress: Reinterpreting the Trecento Fresco Programme in the Lower Church at Assisi.” In
The Art of the Franciscan Order in Italy. Edited by William R. Cook, 39–70. Medieval Franciscans 1. Leiden, The
Netherlands: Brill, 2005.
Nuanced argument, proposing that the frescoes in the Lower Church, including the Passion and Resurrection cycle by Pietro
Lorenzetti as well as the frescoes by Giotto’s workshop in the Magdalen Chapel, north transept, and vaults, were intended to be
viewed by visitors to the church, in a particular route tailored to their visual experience.
Schwartz, Lorraine C. “The Fresco Decoration of the Magdalen Chapel in the Basilica of St. Francis at Assisi.” PhD diss.,
Indiana University, 1980.
Thorough discussion of the style, iconography, and patronage of the frescoes, arguing that they were designed by Giotto but were
executed by his workshop.
Schwartz, Lorraine C. “Patronage and Franciscan Iconography in the Magdalen Chapel at Assisi.” Burlington Magazine
133.1054 (1991): 32–36.
Stresses the importance of Mary Magdalen to the Franciscan order and considers the two portraits of the patron, Bishop Teobaldo
Pontano, as an expression of Conventual ideology. Available online for purchase or by subscription.
Bologna
The polyptych signed by Giotto, now in the Pinacoteca Nazionale, Bologna, has been the subject of debate: its date, the degree of
Giotto’s involvement in its execution, the place of execution, and its original location all have been called into question. Skaug 1971
argues persuasively that the polyptych postdates Giotto’s stay in Naples. Though its provenance was long taken to be the church of
Sta. Maria degli Angeli, Bologna, Medica 2005 proposes that it came instead from a chapel in the Porta Galliera, a chapel
constructed as a papal residence by the papal legate Bertrando del Poggetto. Caglioti 2005 argues that Giotto traveled from Naples
to Bologna to Florence. Schmidt 2006 offers additional evidence in support of Medica 2005. Cauzzi and Seccaroni 2009 discusses
the technical investigation of the polyptych. The essays in Medica 2010 offer further consideration of the polyptych as well as of
local artists whose work reveals the influence of Giotto.
Caglioti, Francesco. “Giovanni di Balduccio a Bologna: L’‘Annunciazione’ per la rocca papale di Porta Galliera (con una
digressione sulla cronologia napoletana e bolognese di Giotto).” Prospettiva 117–118 (2005): 21–62.
Though this article focuses on the marble polyptych from the chapel of the castle at Porta Galliera, it includes a discussion of
Giotto’s work in the 1330s, proposing that the painter may have moved from Bologna to Florence after the expulsion of the papal
legate in 1334.
Cauzzi, Diego, and Claudio Seccaroni, eds. Il polittico di Giotto nella Pinacoteca Nazionale di Bologna: Nuove letture.
Florence: Centro Di, 2009.
Focusing on the polyptych, the volume includes an introductory essay by Julian Gardner, and other essays on technical matters.
Medica, Massimo, ed. Giotto e le arti a Bologna: Al tempo di Bertrando del Poggetto. Milan: Silvana, 2005.
Discussion of Giotto’s presumed activity in Bologna late in his career. Most interesting for the discussion of a castle at Porta
Galliera, built c. 1330 as a papal residence, said to have been frescoed by Giotto, as well as for the discussion of Giotto’s
polyptych, proposing that it was intended for a chapel in the castle—arguments amplified in Schmidt 2006.
Medica, Massimo, ed. Giotto e Bologna. Papers presented at a conference held in Bologna, Italy, in May 2006. Biblioteca
d’Arte 28. Milan: Silvana, 2010.
Eleven essays on topics ranging from aspects of the polyptych’s iconography to the activity of Giottesque artists at work in Bologna.
Schmidt, Victor M. “Giotto. Bologna.” Burlington Magazine 148.1236 (2006): 222–223.

Review of Giotto e le arti a Bologna: Al tempo di Bertrando del Poggetto (Medica 2005). Examines the evidence given by Medica
that the Bologna polyptych was executed for a chapel in the castle at Porta Galliera, and offers new observations that strengthen
the case. Available online for purchase or by subscription.
Skaug, Erling. “Contributions to Giotto’s Workshop.” Mitteilungen des Kunsthistorischen Institutes in Florenz 15.2 (1971):
141–160.
Dates the altarpiece in Bologna (Pinacoteca Nazionale) and the related Baroncelli altarpiece (Florence, Sta. Croce) after April 1334,
because Giotto refers to himself as magister in signing both works; also includes a close analysis of the patterns in punch work in
these and other works, arguing that Giotto’s exposure to Simone Martini’s work during his sojourn in Naples (1328–1332/33)
prompted the inclusion of punched decoration in his late panels. Reprinted in Ladis 1998 (cited under Textbooks and Anthologies),
Vol. 3, pp. 265–284. Available online for purchase or by subscription.
Florence
Some of the most important panel paintings and frescoes ascribed to Giotto and his assistants were produced for patrons in his
native Florence. Robson 2012 provides an overview of Giotto’s Florentine work in both media, as well as a brief consideration of the
campanile of the cathedral. Gardner 2002 focuses on two altarpieces for Florentine churches and also considers other panel
paintings likely intended for sites there. The Opificio delle Pietre Dure in Florence, a leading conservation institute, has produced
several important studies of Giotto’s Florentine panels and is currently working on the frescoes of Sta. Croce. For further discussion
of Giotto’s work in Florence, see Flores d’Arcais 2012; Maginnis 1997; Previtali 1993; Schwarz, et al. 2004–2008; and Tartuferi
2000, all cited under General Overviews, as well as the books and articles on individual Florentine works cited in the subsections.
Gardner, Julian. “Giotto in America (and Elsewhere).” Paper among those presented at symposiums held in Florence on
5–6 June 1998 and in Washington, DC, on 16 October 1998. In Italian Panel Painting of the Duecento and Trecento. Edited
by Victor M. Schmidt, 160–181. Studies in the History of Art 61. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 2002.
Analysis of two Florentine altarpieces: the polyptych from the Badia (Florence, Uffizi; c. 1302–1303) and the Sta. Reparata
altarpiece (c. 1310–1312), with a useful discussion of iconographic matters as well as style, patronage, and architectural context.
Argues that the two help date two other works by Giotto: the altarpiece sometimes called the “Peruzzi Polyptych” (North Carolina
Museum of Art; c. 1312–1315) and the Goldman Madonna (National Gallery, Washington, DC; c. 1315–1320).
Robson, Janet. “Florence before the Black Death.” In Florence. Edited by Francis Ames-Lewis, 35–78. Artistic Centers of
the Italian Renaissance. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 2012.
Thoughtful discussion of Florentine artistic production in the decades in which Giotto was the dominant figure; consideration of the
Sta. Reparata altarpiece, the Ognissanti Madonna, the Bardi Chapel and Peruzzi Chapel in Sta. Croce, and the Duomo campanile.
Sciacca, Christine, ed. Florence at the Dawn of the Renaissance: Painting and Illumination, 1300–1350. Los Angeles: J.
Paul Getty Museum, 2012.
Beautifully illustrated exhibition catalogue with discussion of many works produced by Giotto and his workshop for churches in
Florence: the Sta. Reparata altarpiece, the altarpiece now in Raleigh, North Carolina, possibly for the Peruzzi Chapel, Sta. Croce;
the Goldman Madonna (Washington, DC, National Gallery of Art); the Badia altarpiece; and the Baroncelli altarpiece. Also includes
an entry for the seven panels from a Franciscan church (see Rimini, S. Francesco).
Badia
Giotto and his assistants were responsible for the polyptych from the high altar of the Benedictine abbey in Florence as well as a
narrative cycle of frescoes there, now largely destroyed. Procacci 1962 is the first to recognize the altarpiece, now in the Uffizi, as
the altar of the abbey. Gardner 2002 considers the altarpiece in the context of other panel painting for sites in Florence. Tartuferi
2012 is a postconservation volume with thorough discussion of matters stylistic and scientific, and with excellent photographs. See
also the entry in Tartuferi 2000 (cited under General Overviews), catalogue number 6.
Analysis of Florentine altarpieces, among them the polyptych from the Badia (Florence, Uffizi; c. 1302–1303). The Sta. Reparata
altarpiece (c. 1310–1312) is discussed as well; briefer consideration of other works.
Procacci, Ugo. “La tavola di Giotto dell’altar maggiore della chiesa della Badia fiorentina.” In Scritti di storia dell’arte in
onore di Mario Salmi. Vol. 2. Edited by Filippa M. Aliberti, 9–45. Rome: De Luca, 1962.
Lengthy analysis persuasively tracing the polyptych to the Florentine Badia, a provenance now widely accepted.
Tartuferi, Angelo, ed. Giotto: Il restauro del Polittico di Badia / Giotto: The Restoration of the Badia Polyptych. Il Pomario
Nuovo 1. Florence: Mandragora, 2012.
Text in Italian and English. Ascribes the polyptych to Giotto, dating it to c. 1295–1300, and discusses the debate over its attribution.
Excellent photographs and detailed analysis of the conservation.
Ognissanti Church
According to Lorenzo Ghiberti, Giotto produced a chapel, a crucifix, and four panel paintings for the Ognissanti Church, which
housed the little-known Humiliati rder. Today, three works from the Ognissanti are associated with Giotto and his workshop. Most
important is the great Madonna and Child, now in the Uffizi, whose attribution to Giotto has never been seriously questioned.
Debate has recently centered on its location in the church. Though the panel was traditionally considered the high altarpiece, Irene
Hueck in La “Madonna d’Ognissanti” di Giotto restaurata (Galleria degli Uffizi 1992, pp. 37–50) argues that it was intended for the
tramezzo (choir screen). Miller and Taylor-Mitchell 2004 discusses that issue but focuses on the Humiliati order that commissioned
the panel, offering an incisive portrait of the order and persuasively interpreting the painting in the context of Humiliati ideology; the
authors also briefly discuss the Dormition of the Virgin (now in Berlin), also from the Ognissanti. The third extant panel is the
Crucifix, still in situ, which was recently conserved by the Opificio delle Pietre Dure, Florence; it is discussed at length in Ciatti 2010.
Ciatti, Marco, ed. L’officina di Giotto: Il restauro della Croce di Ognissanti. Problemi di Conservazione e Restauro 28.
Florence: Edifir, 2010.
Published in conjunction with the recent conservation of the Ognissanti crucifix, these essays include an informative discussion of
underdrawing in early panel paintings by Giotto, as well as technical analyses of the crucifix, and superb color photos.
Galleria degli Uffizi. La “Madonna d’Ognissanti” di Giotto restaurata. Gli Uffizi, Studi e Ricerche 8. Florence: Centro Di,
1992.
Published on the occasion of the panel’s conservation in 1992, this collection includes excellent photographs as well as essays by
leading scholars, addressing issues such as its original placement (“Le opere di Giotto per la chiesa di Ognissanti,” by Irene Hueck,
pp. 37–50) and Giotto’s use of color to convey meaning (“Significati e iconografia del colore nella ‘Madonna d’Ognissanti,’” by
Margrit Lisner, pp. 57–68).
Miller, Julia I., and Laurie Taylor-Mitchell. “The Ognissanti Madonna and the Humiliati Order in Florence.” In The
Cambridge Companion to Giotto. Edited by Anne Derbes and Mark Sandona, 157–175. Cambridge Companions to the
History of Art. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 2004.
Important study that breaks new ground by contextualizing the celebrated Madonna by Giotto, illuminating the ways in which it is
informed by the ideology of the Humiliati order that commissioned it; also includes a briefer discussion of the Dormition of the Virgin
for the same church.
Sta. Croce
According to Lorenzo Ghiberti, Giotto painted “quattro capelle e quattro tavole” (four chapels and four panels; i.e., altarpieces) in
the Franciscan church in Florence, Sta. Croce. While the work that survives—chapels for the Bardi and Peruzzi families, the
altarpiece of the Baroncelli Chapel, and scattered panels that may have constituted other altarpieces—has not generated the vast
scholarly outpouring that the Arena Chapel in Padua or S. Francesco, Assisi, have spawned, substantive contributions have shed
much light on these commissions. On the Bardi Chapel, Goffen 1988 provides a detailed history of the church and the Bardi family
as well as an interpretation of the frescoes. Long 1992 overlaps in certain ways with Goffen 1988 but shifts the emphasis from the
Bardi to the friars, to whom she ascribes the choice of program. Cook 2004 offers a discussion of the Bardi frescoes, in an essay on
Giotto’s work for Franciscan patrons that is intended for an undergraduate audience. Gardner 2011 provides the most extensive
analysis of the Bardi Chapel to date, concurring with Long 1992 that the friars rather than the Bardi shaped the program, but
probing the circumstances of the commission in considerable depth. For the poorly preserved Peruzzi Chapel, Tintori and Borsook
1965 offers a lucid discussion of technical matters as well as a discussion of patronage and the program, while Codell 1988
contributes a reading of the program that focuses on the family who commissioned it. The Opificio delle Pietre Dure is currently
working in Sta. Croce, and their findings already reveal Giotto’s compositions in the Peruzzi Chapel with new clarity. The Baroncelli
polyptych, as well as the frescoes by Taddeo Gaddi, is studied in detail in Gardner 1971 and more briefly in Skaug 1971, which
comments both on Giotto’s signature and on his use of punch marks in the panel. The polyptych is also discussed briefly in Cannon
2004 (cited under Thematic Studies).
Codell, Julie F. “Giotto’s Peruzzi Chapel Frescoes: Wealth, Patronage and the Earthly City.” Renaissance Quarterly 41.4
(1988): 583–613.
Interpretation of the frescoes in the context of contemporaneous Florentine political and social ideologies, particularly those of
magnates such as the Peruzzi family. Reprinted in Ladis 1998 (cited under Textbooks and Anthologies), Vol. 3, pp. 149–178.
Cook, William R. “Giotto and the Figure of St. Francis.” In The Cambridge Companion to Giotto. Edited by Anne Derbes
and Mark Sandona, 135–156. Cambridge Companions to the History of Art. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press,
2004.
An accessible introduction to Giotto’s Franciscan commissions, with particular emphasis on the Bardi Chapel.
Gardner, Julian. “The Decoration of the Baroncelli Chapel in Santa Croce.” Zeitschrift für Kunstgeschichte 34.2 (1971): 89–
114.
Argues that the chapel, with the frescoes executed by Taddeo Gaddi and the altarpiece signed by Giotto, still in situ, was conceived
as a unified whole, and concludes that Giotto was responsible for the innovative design, with his workshop producing both the
frescoes and the altarpiece, following his design; briefer discussion of the closely related polyptych in Bologna. Available online for
purchase or by subscription.
Gardner, Julian. “Giotto among the Money-Changers: The Bardi Chapel in Santa Croce.” In Giotto and His Publics: Three
Paradigms of Patronage. By Julian Gardner, 47–79. Bernard Berenson Lectures on the Italian Renaissance. Cambridge,
MA: Harvard University Press, 2011.
The fullest and most penetrating study of the chapel, the Bardi family, and the friars of Sta. Croce; analyzes the relationship
between the frescoes and the Upper Church at S. Francesco, characterizing the Florentine cycle as an urban narrative and “a
densely argued pictorial text.”
Goffen, Rona. Spirituality in Conflict: Saint Francis and Giotto’s Bardi Chapel. University Park: Pennsylvania State
Analysis of the Bardi frescoes as well as the duecento dossal now on the altar of the chapel. Though her argument that the dossal
is informed by Spiritual ideology while the frescoes assert a Conventual view of Francis has not been widely accepted, this study is
worth consulting on the early history of the church of Sta. Croce, the Bardi family, and the Franciscan order.
Long, Jane C. “The Program of Giotto’s Saint Francis Cycle at Santa Croce in Florence.” Franciscan Studies 52 (1992): 85–
133.
Lengthy discussion of the cycle, maintaining that the program was determined by the friars of Sta. Croce rather than by Ridolfo de’
Bardi, who commissioned them. Argues that the program emphasizes the ministry of Francis and the Franciscans’ obedience to the
Church.
Skaug, Erling. “Contributions to Giotto’s Workshop.” Mitteilungen des Kunsthistorischen Institutes in Florenz 15.2 (1971):
141–160.
Dates the altarpiece in Bologna (Pinacoteca Nazionale) and the related Baroncelli altarpiece (Florence, Sta. Croce) after April 1334,
because Giotto refers to himself as magister in signing both works; also includes a close analysis of the patterns in punch work in
these and other works, arguing that Giotto’s exposure to Simone Martini’s work during his sojourn in Naples (1328–1332/33)
prompted the inclusion of punched decoration in his late panels. Reprinted in Ladis 1998 (cited under Textbooks and Anthologies),
Vol. 3, pp. 265–284. Available online for purchase or by subscription.
Tintori, Leonetto, and Eve Borsook. Giotto: The Peruzzi Chapel. New York: H. N. Abrams, 1965.
This early example of fruitful collaboration between a conservator and an art historian considers the patronage of the chapel and its
program, technique, and early copies of the frescoes. A portion of the book is excerpted in Ladis 1998 (cited under Textbooks and
Anthologies), Vol. 3, pp. 25–63.
S. Giorgio alla Costa
The panel of the enthroned Virgin and Child, formerly in the Florentine church of S. Giorgio alla Costa and now in the Museo
Diocesano di S. Stefano al Ponte, was published in Offner 1927 as the work of the St. Cecilia Master. Oertel 1937, however,
assigns the panel (though tentatively) to Giotto, and many scholars now accept it as an early work by Giotto. Ciatti and Frosinini
1995 offers studies of the conservation by the Opificio delle Pietre Dure, as well as essays addressing aspects of style and
iconography.
Ciatti, Marco, and Cecilia Frosinini, eds. La Madonna di San Giorgio alla Costa di Giotto: Studi e restauro. Florence: Edifir,
1995.
This collection of essays was published in conjunction with the conservation of the panel painting, following the terrorist attack in
the Uffizi in May 1993. The essays are divided into two parts: the first deals with the cultural and historical context of the painting
(introduction by Giorgio Bonsanti); the second, with the efforts of the conservation and its findings (Ciatti and others), including
chemical and fluoroscopic analyses.
Oertel, Robert. “Giotto-Ausstellung in Florenz.” Zeitschrift für Kunstgeschichte 6.2–3 (1937): 218–238.
This important essaytentatively proposes that the panel is an early work by Giotto (in the same article, Oertel assigns the Sta. Maria
Novella Cross to the young Giotto). Available online for purchase or by subscription.
Offner, Richard. “A Great Madonna by the St. Cecilia Master.” Burlington Magazine 50.287 (1927): 90–104.
The article that brought the S. Giorgio panel to scholarly attention. Stylistic analysis, noting parallels with Roman painting and
assigning the panel to the St. Cecilia Master. Available online for purchase or by subscription.
Sta. Maria Novella
The great crucifix, persuasively attributed to Giotto in Oertel 1937, was rejected from Giotto’s oeuvre in Offner 1956; until recently,
most Anglo-American scholars have accepted Offner’s judgment and thus have paid the cross scant attention. Italian scholars have
followed Oertel. Ciatti and Seidel 2002, another important volume from the Opificio delle Pietre Dure, includes an account of the
conservation and offers technical evidence confirming Giotto’s authorship, as well as pertinent essays. Cannon 2004 offers a
thoughtful overview of the critical history, as well as the author’s own assessment of the cross.
This essay on Giotto’s work for the mendicants includes a cogent discussion of the Sta. Maria Novella cross and its implications for
the authorship of the St. Francis cycle in the Upper Church of S. Francesco, Assisi, and situates it in the context of mendicant
spirituality in late medieval Italy.
Ciatti, Marco, and Max Seidel, eds. Giotto: The Santa Maria Novella Crucifix. Translated by Mark Roberts and Svitlana
Claudia Hlukvo. Florence: Edifir, 2002.
Thorough discussion of the conservation and technical examination of the cross, including the underdrawings and carpentry, and
essays examining its style and attribution, its titulus, the history of Sta. Maria Novella, and pertinent documents, among other
topics. Italian version: Giotto: La Croce di Santa Maria Novella (Florence: Edifir, 2001).
Oertel, Robert. “Giotto-Ausstellung in Florenz.” Zeitschrift für Kunstgeschichte 6.2–3 (1937): 218–238.
This important essay argues that the Sta. Maria Novella cross was painted by the young Giotto, associating it with a document of
1312 referring to the “crocifixo grande di Giotto” in that church (in the same article, Oertel suggests that the S. Giorgio alla Costa
Madonna is also the work of the young Giotto). Available online for purchase or by subscription.
Offner, Richard. A Critical and Historical Corpus of Florentine Painting. Section III, The Fourteenth Century, Vol. 6. By
Richard Offner, 9–18. New York: Institute of Fine Arts, New York University, 1956.
Includes a lengthy discussion of the Sta. Maria Novella cross and related works, rejecting the attribution to Giotto.
Sta. Reparata
The double-sided Sta. Reparata polyptych was formerly the high altarpiece of the cathedral. Despite the prestigious nature of the
commission, it has attracted relatively little attention in the Giotto literature, presumably because of the extensive involvement of his
workshop. Bonsanti 2000 reviews the literature and assigns it to the workshop. One of the few studies to address issues beyond
attribution is Gardner 2002.
Bonsanti, Giorgio. “Bottega di Giotto (‘Parente di Giotto’): Polittico di Santa Reparata” In Giotto: Bilancio critic di
sessant’anni di studi e ricerche. Edited by Angelo Tartuferi, 135–137. Florence: Giunti, 2000.
This catalogue entry (cat. 12, pl. XII) considers the stylistic characteristics of the painting, noting similar works also assigned to
Giotto’s workshop and dating it to c. 1305.
Analysis of the Sta. Reparata altarpiece, dating it (c. 1310–1312) as well as the Badia polyptych (c. 1302–1303). Considers the
original placement of the Sta. Reparata altarpiece, providing a useful diagram of the interior of the cathedral, and points out the
innovative aspects of the iconography. Briefer discussion of the polyptych in Raleigh, North Carolina (c. 1312–1315), and the
Goldman Madonna in the National Gallery, Washington, DC (c. 1315–1320).
Milan
An early chronicler reports that Giotto, called in 1334 to be the capomaestro of the cathedral of Florence, returned from Milan,
where he had been in the service of the Duke of Milan (Azzo Visconti). Though nothing remains today of Giotto’s Milanese sojourn,
Gilbert 1977 meticulously pieces together textual evidence to establish the subject and date of the work, and it associates the lost
fresco with contemporaneous manuscript illumination. Travi 2009 recaps the sources and considers the impact of Giotto’s work on
local painters.
Gilbert, Creighton. “The Fresco by Giotto in Milan.” Arte lombarda 47–48 (1977): 31–72.
Confirms that Giotto painted a fresco of Worldly Glory in the palace of Azzo Visconti and proposes that three manuscript
illuminations, frontispieces to Petrarch’s De viris illustribus, are derived from the composition. Reprinted in Ladis 1998 (cited under
Textbooks and Anthologies), Vol. 1, pp. 249–291.
Travi, Carla. “Giotto e la sua bottega a Milano.” In Giotto e il Trecento: “Il più sovrano maestro stato in dipintura. Vol. 1, I
saggi. Edited by Alessandro Tomei, 241–251. Milan: Skira, 2009.
Reviews the early sources for Giotto’s work for Azzo Visconti and the culture of the Visconti court then considers the surviving
visual evidence of Giottesque painting elsewhere in Milan.
Naples
Though only traces now remain of the work by Giotto and his assistants for the Angevin court in Naples, his stay at the court of
Robert of Anjou has drawn scholarly attention. Joost-Gaugier 1980 examines the genesis of an important secular cycle, formerly in
the Castel Nuovo, depicting famous men and women. Leone de Castris 1986 provides an overview of art at the Angevin court, and
the author’s more recent work (Leone de Castris 2007) focuses on Giotto. Fleck 2008 analyzes the status of Giotto and Cavallini as
court artists and the implications of their sojourns at court, both political and artistic.
Fleck, Cathleen A. “The Rise of the Court Artist: Cavallini and Giotto in Fourteenth-Century Naples.” In Special Issue:
Import/Export: Painting, Sculpture and Architecture in the Kingdom of Naples, 1266–1713. Art History 31.4 (2008): 460–
483.
Careful analysis of the two painters’ work in Angevin Naples, drawing on contemporaneous documents; discussion of the role of the
two artists in shaping the political identity of the court, as well as a consideration of Giotto’s influence on Neapolitan painting.
Joost-Gaugier, Christiane L. “Giotto’s Hero Cycle in Naples: A Prototype of Donne Illustri and a Possible Literary
Connection.” Zeitschrift für Kunstgeschichte 43.3 (1980): 311–318.
Discusses the cycle, now lost, depicting famous men and women in the Castel Nuovo of Robert of Anjou, stressing the inclusion of
women in the cycle and linking it to the announcement of Princess Giovanna as heir to the throne; suggests that the idea originated
with Petrarch. Available online for purchase or by subscription.
Leone de Castris, Pierluigi. Arte di corte nella Napoli angioina. Florence: Cantini, 1986.
Thoroughly illustrated account of the art of the Angevin court; the focus is Cavallini, but a detailed discussion of Giotto’s work in
Naples is included.
Leone de Castris, Pierluigi. Giotto a Napoli. Naples, Italy: Electa Napoli, 2007.
Discussion of Giotto as court artist in Naples for Robert of Anjou; the lost frescoes in S. Chiara and the Castel Nuovo. An appendix
includes pertinent documents from 1329 to 1336.
Padua, Arena Chapel (Scrovegni Chapel)
As Giotto’s uncontested masterpiece, the Arena Chapel (sometimes referred to as the Scrovegni Chapel) has not suffered from
scholarly neglect—and the literature is so extensive that it has been broken down into subcategories here. For the chapel as a
whole, Italian art historians in particular have produced some visually stunning works (Basile 1993, Bellinati 2000) that provide
superb photographs along with succinct commentary. Basile and Flores d’Arcais 2002 is a postconservation updating of Basile
1993, with a well-illustrated discussion of the conservators’ findings. Banzato, et al. 2005 is a pair of volumes, lavishly illustrated
and richly documented, that are indispensable to the study of the chapel. Most recently, several scholars have produced
monographs that attempt broad contextual analysis of the frescoes, and these studies diverge to greater or lesser degrees. One
point of dispute centers on the patron, Enrico Scrovegni, and his motivations for commissioning the grandest private chapel in
northern Italy. Derbes and Sandona 2008, drawing both on contemporaneous chronicles and on visual analyses, offers evidence to
support the traditional view of Enrico as repentant usurer. Jacobus 2008 and Frugoni 2008 reject that position, presenting the
patron as a man untroubled by the Church’s condemnation of usury; Jacobus goes further, maintaining that the existing program of
the chapel was not necessarily the one originally planned. Ladis 2008 largely eschews these controversies and instead contributes
a sensitive, beautifully written meditation on the chapel and the unfolding of its meanings.
Banzato, Davide, Giuseppe Basile, and Francesca Flores d’Arcais, eds. La Cappella degli Scrovegni a Padova / The
Scrovegni Chapel in Padua. 2 vols. Mirabilia Italiae 13. Modena, Italy: F. C. Panini, 2005.
The first volume is a complete and extraordinarily detailed photo atlas of the chapel: exterior, interior, and “other ambients” (i.e.,
sacristy and upper loggia). The second volume contains essays by leading scholars on a variety of topics: Enrico Scrovegni (by
Silvana Collodo), the architecture (Vittorio Dal Piaz), Giotto’s workshop (Flores d’Arcais), the iconography of the fresco program
(Irene Hueck), post-Giotto additions to the chapel (Enrica Cozzi), and early and recent conservation (Anna Maria Spiazzi, Basile,
Banzato).
Basile, Giuseppe, ed. Giotto: The Arena Chapel Frescoes. London: Thames and Hudson, 1993.
Excellent photographs, with brief but authoritative commentary and useful notes. Translated from the Italian Giotto: La Cappella
degli Scrovegni (Milan: Electa, 1992).
Basile, Giuseppe, and Francesca Flores d’Arcais. Giotto: The Frescoes of the Scrovegni Chapel in Padua. Edited by
Giuseppe Basile. Grandi Libri Skira. Milan: Skira, 2002.
Superb photographs taken by Angelo Rubino after the conservation directed by Basile; includes extensive diagrams of the giornata
(or day’s work) in the chapel and brief discussion of the pictorial cycle, as well as an appendix that includes the chancel frescoes of
the 1320s and the cross and sculpture commissioned for the site.
Bellinati, Claudio. Padua felix: Atlante iconografico della Cappella di Giotto (1300–1305). Treviso, Italy: Vianello Libri, 2000.
Excellent photographic coverage and brief iconographic analysis; includes texts of the tituli below the Virtues and Vices (for this,
see also Banzato, et al. 2005, Vol. 2, pp. 214–229), and an appendix of relevant documents, some unpublished.
Derbes, Anne, and Mark Sandona. The Usurer’s Heart: Giotto, Enrico Scrovegni, and the Arena Chapel in Padua.
University Park: Pennsylvania State University Press, 2008.
The authors argue that the chapel’s fresco program was carefully crafted to represent its owner as a magnanimous, pious, and
penitent member of the Christian community—and ultimately to ensure his salvation.
Frugoni, Chiara. L‘affare migliore di Enrico: Giotto e la cappella Scrovegni. Saggi 899. Turin, Italy: Einaudi, 2008.
Reads the program of the chapel as a celebration of Enrico’s worldly status, asserting that wealth can be properly used for spiritual
purposes. Includes a lengthy discussion of the Virtues and Vices in the dado.
Jacobus, Laura. Giotto and the Arena Chapel: Art, Architecture and Experience. London: Harvey Miller, 2008.
Provocative and, at times, speculative study, which questions a number of widely accepted ideas about the chapel; includes useful
appendices of documents pertinent to the chapel, with translations commissioned by the author.
Ladis, Andrew. Giotto’s O: Narrative, Figuration, and Pictorial Ingenuity in the Arena Chapel. University Park:
Pennsylvania State University Press, 2008.
A “close reading” of the Arena Chapel’s program as a “perfectly unified scheme” (p. 5) and “a great visual poem” (p. 53). Ladis first
distinguishes between Giotto’s narrative and allegorical modes of representation (linking the Virtues and Vices with the narrative
cycles above). Detailed and compelling analyses of the south wall, the Massacre of the Innocents, and the “rhetoric of wonder”
centered on the decorative band of the north wall.
Patronal, Civic, and Liturgical Contexts
The circumstances of the Scrovegni family and Enrico’s involvement in civic affairs, including the local celebration of the
Annunciation, are an important context for the chapel. Hyde 1966 is still the definitive account of Padua in the years just before and
after Enrico launched the project. Kohl 1995 offers a brief account of the Scrovegni in the trecento, along with a translation of
Enrico’s will, which is critical to an understanding of the chapel. Zanocco 1937 publishes important documents on the annual
celebration of the Annunciation in Padua and Enrico’s financial sponsorship of the feast. Schwarz 2010 recaps some of the
arguments in the author’s 2008 monograph, offering further discussion of the feast of the Annunciation and the salvific role of the
Virgin for the citizens of Padua. Jacobus 2012 publishes a document found by Kohl, recording the postmortem probate of Enrico’s
will, and considers Enrico’s tomb monument.
Hyde, John Kenneth. Padua in the Age of Dante. Manchester, UK: Manchester University Press, 1966.
Authoritative history of the commune in the later duecento and early trecento, by an eminent historian of Padua; includes a useful
discussion of the Scrovegni family.
Jacobus, Laura. “The Tomb of Enrico Scrovegni in the Arena Chapel, Padua.” In Special Issue: Sculpture and Design.
Publishes a document showing that Enrico’s body was reburied in the Arena Chapel three months after his death, and analyzes the
tomb monument. Available online for purchase or by subscription.
Kohl, Benjamin G. “The Scrovegni in Carrara Padua and Enrico’s Will.” Apollo: The International Magazine of Arts 142.406
(1995): 43–47.
Kohl provides a succinct discussion of the later history of the Scrovegni family and an appendix with an English translation of
Enrico’s will, in which his chapel figures prominently. Reprinted in Ladis 1998 (cited under Textbooks and Anthologies), Vol. 2, pp.
343–347.
Schwarz, Michael Viktor. “Padua, Its Arena and the Arena Chapel: A Liturgical Ensemble.” Journal of the Warburg and
Courtauld Institutes 73.1 (2010): 39–64.
This lengthy study focuses on the procession celebrating the Annunciation in Padua, but in the process it surveys the scholarly
literature on Enrico’s motivations for commissioning the chapel and discusses many relevant documents. Builds on the work of
Schwarz, et al. 2004–2008 (cited under General Overviews).
Zanocco, Rizieri. “L’Annunciazione all’Arena di Padova (1305–1309).” Rivista d’Arte 19 (1937): 370–373.
Brief but important publication of the documents on the liturgical drama of the Annunciation in Padua, funded in part by Enrico
Scrovegni. English translation in Stubblebine 1969 (cited under Textbooks and Anthologies), pp. 127–131.
The Fresco Program
The fresco program of the Arena Chapel is indisputably the work of Giotto, but it is also indisputably a work of collaboration: it is
likely that Giotto, Enrico Scrovegni (the patron), a theological advisor and other interested parties each contributed something to the
formation of this extraordinarily complex depiction of salvation history. There are three clear subsets to the program. The narrative
cycle—which moves in a spiral fashion, starting on the south wall, shifting to the north and then to the east, and continuing back to
the south (moving down three registers—thirty-nine frescoes in all)—begins with the story of the Virgin’s parents and the miracle of
her conception; her early life and marriage to Joseph follow. The Annunciation is featured prominently on the east wall; scenes of
the Infancy, Ministry, and Passion of Christ, through the Pentecost, follow. At the dado level of the north and south walls, allegorical
personifications of the Vices and Virtues in grisaille direct the viewer’s attention to the counterfacade, which depicts a Last
Judgment with a portrait of Scrovegni among the elect. The three listings below (Narrative Cycle, Dado, Quatrefoils, and Grisaille
Figures, and Last Judgment) contain entries whose focus is primarily in one of these subsets of the program. Lisner 1990 (cited
under Narrative Cycle), for example, traces the color codes associated with the apostles (primarily in the narrative cycle) but also
refers to the apostles in the Last Judgment.
Narrative Cycle
While the monographs listed in General Overviews provide extensive discussion of the narrative cycle, these articles have made
notable contributions to specific aspects of the program. Alpatoff 1947 broke new ground in noting the visual and thematic parallels
that link the frescoes. Schlegel 1969 notes the visual allusions to avarice and interprets the chapel as Enrico Scrovegni’s attempt to
expiate the usury of his father. Rough 1980 calls attention to the Cavalieri Gaudenti as possible copatrons of the chapel, a view that
has generated much discussion. Ladis 1986 traces Giotto’s reputation for sharp wit and then offers observations on numerous
instances in the chapel of Giotto’s visual humor. Lisner 1990 contributes a scrupulous study of Giotto’s use of color and on this
basis identifies the apostles in the cycle. Riess 2006 argues that the program, especially the cycle of Joachim and Anna, is tinged
by anti-Semitism.
Alpatoff, Michel. “The Parallelism of Giotto’s Paduan Frescoes.” Art Bulletin 29.3 (1947): 149–154.
Early innovative reading of the Arena Chapel’s narrative cycle as more than a matter of “temporal succession” (p. 149). Offers
careful analysis of the correspondences and parallels within and across the three registers of the chapel’s nave frescoes. Extensive
comparisons of the second and third registers of the south and north walls (The Nativity with the Last Supper, the Adoration of the
Magi with the Washing of the Feet, etc.). Notes important correspondences on the chancel arch. Speculates on how these parallels
are related to typological reading and to Dante’s poetic method in the Divine Comedy. Reprinted in Stubblebine 1969 and Ladis
1998 (both cited under Textbooks and Anthologies). Available online for purchase or by subscription.
Ladis, Andrew. “The Legend of Giotto’s Wit and the Arena Chapel.” Art Bulletin 68.4 (1986): 581–596.
Classic essay that first considers anecdotes in Boccaccio, Sacchetti, and others that depict Giotto’s wit, then reveals the subtle
humor of the fresco cycle, and calls attention to the previously overlooked grisaille figures over the north door of the chapel.
Reprinted in Ladis 1998 (Vol. 2, pp. 245–260) and in Derbes and Sandona 2004 (pp. 221–238), both cited under Textbooks and
Anthologies. Available online for purchase or by subscription.
Lisner, Margrit. “Die Gewandfarben der Apostel in Giottos Arenafresken: Farbgebung und Farbikonographie, mit Notizen
zu älteren Aposteldarstellungen in Florenz, Assisi und Rom.” Zeitschrift für Kunstgeschichte 53.3 (1990): 309–375.
Meticulous study of the apostles in the Arena Chapel, using the color of their garments to identify them; includes a lengthy
discussion of comparanda in Florence, Assisi, and Rome. Available online for purchase or by subscription.
Riess, Jonathan. “The Jew and Judaism in Giotto’s Arena Chapel Frescoes.” In Watching Art: Writings in Honor of James
Beck / Studi di storia dell’arte in onore di James Beck. Edited by Lynn Catterson and Mark Zucker, 217–228. Todi, Italy:
Ediart, 2006.
Focusing on the cycle of Joachim and Anna, argues that the images are an expression of anti-Judaic sentiment, more explicit in the
later chancel frescoes depicting the funeral of the Virgin.
Rough, Robert H. “Enrico Scrovegni, the Cavalieri Gaudenti, and the Arena Chapel in Padua.” Art Bulletin 62.1 (1980): 24–
35.
Proposes that the Cavalieri Gaudenti, a religious order with which Enrico Scrovegni was briefly affiliated, was copatron of the Arena
Chapel, citing as evidence the chronicle of Giovanni da Nono. While the argument has had a mixed reception, the article
convincingly identifies one of the two figures in the dedication scene as St. John. Available online for purchase or by subscription.
Schlegel, Ursula. “On the Picture Program of the Arena Chapel.” In Giotto: The Arena Chapel Frescoes. Edited and
translated by James H. Stubblebine, 182–202. Norton Critical Studies in Art History. New York and London: W. W. Norton,
1969.
This pioneering article was the first to make a detailed case linking the Scrovegni family’s money lending with the pictorial program
of the chapel—a view that prevailed in the literature on the chapel for over half a century. Schlegel pointed to the prominence of
Judas on the chancel arch and his presence in hell, intuitively understanding him as the embodiment of avarice and usury.
Reprinted in Ladis 1998 (cited under Textbooks and Anthologies), Vol. 2, pp. 42–64; originally published as “Zum Bildprogramm der
Arena Kapelle” in Zeitschrift für Kunstgeschichte 20.2 (1957): 125–146.
Dado, Quatrefoils, and Grisaille Figures
Even the secondary elements in the chapel’s program have been the subject of thoughtful analysis. For the Virtues and Vices in the
dado, the meticulous Pfeiffenberger 1966 remains basic. Cole 1996 turns to the dado’s function within the larger narrative program.
Osborne 2003 focuses on the precedents for the dado and confirms their integration within the program as a whole. Shoaf 2009
considers a single vice, Envy or Invidia, and offers a careful analysis of the vice in medieval texts and visual expressions of Envy in
the program. For the quatrefoils, Sale 1999 offers the fullest discussion. The enigmatic grisaille figures over the north door are
considered in Frojmovič 2007.
Cole, Bruce. “Virtues and Vices in Giotto’s Arena Chapel Frescoes.” In Studies in the History of Italian Art, 1250–1550. By
Bruce Cole, 337–363. London: Pindar, 1996.
Situates the personifications in the context of the whole program. Argues for a shift from the realism of the upper registers toward
illusion in the dado figures—even as the framework within which the figures are placed is highly realistic. Offers comparisons with
narrative reliefs on contemporaneous pulpits. Concludes that the personifications are “an integral part of the chapel’s overall
program” (p. 363). Reprinted in Ladis 1998 (cited under Textbooks and Anthologies), Vol. 4, pp. 369–395.
Frojmovič, Eva. “Giotto’s Circumspection.” Art Bulletin 89.2 (2007): 195–210.

Argues that the allegorical figures over the north door of the Arena Chapel can be understood in the context of contemporaneous
rhetoric on optics, especially the work of Francesco da Barberino and Petrus de Abano. Available online for purchase or by
subscription.
Osborne, John. “The Dado Programme in Giotto’s Arena Chapel and Its Italian Romanesque Antecedents.” Burlington
Magazine 145.1202 (2003): 361–365.
An illuminating examination of the Arena dado in the context of earlier examples in north Italy as well as in Tuscany and France,
concluding that Giotto’s work, unlike these precedents, is thematically integrated with the program as a whole. Available online for
Pfeiffenberger, Selma. “The Iconology of Giotto’s Virtues and Vices at Padua.” PhD diss., Bryn Mawr College, 1966.
A thorough description of the iconography of the dado personifications in the Arena Chapel, and an account of Giotto’s connection
to the literary tradition of virtue/vice confrontations. At times the transcriptions of the tituli are incorrect; see Banzato, et al. 2005
(cited under Padua, Arena Chapel (Scrovegni Chapel)), Vol. 2, pp. 214–229, for more-complete and accurate texts.
Sale, Heather L. “Ten Overlooked Quatrefoils from the Arena Chapel.” Gazette des Beaux-Arts 141.1570 (1999): 179–200.
Identifies the subjects of the quatrefoils and analyzes their typological relationship to the New Testament narratives they
accompany.
Shoaf, Matthew G. “Eyeing Envy in the Arena Chapel.” Studies in Iconography 30 (2009): 126–167.
Drawing on the medieval discourse on envy, this essay offers a probing consideration of Invidia, both the personification in the dado
and expressions of Invidia in the narrative program.
Last Judgment
Dominating the west wall, the Last Judgment is the subject of specific studies on a variety of topics. Shorr 1956 focuses on the
unusual role of the Virgin in the Last Judgment. Other studies call attention to aspects of hell and the punishment of the damned.
Lorenzoni 1998 notes the predominance of sexual sinners, many of whom are circumcised, and proposes a link to anti-Semitism.
Cassidy 2004 stresses the humorous elements in hell, noting the number of clerics among the damned and associating it with
contemporaneous anticlerical sentiment. Pace 2009 considers the emphasis on sexuality in the context of civic disorder. Neff and
Derbes 2009 discusses the phenomenon of bleeding demons in several late medieval images of hell, among them the Arena
Chapel.
Cassidy, Brendan. “Laughing with Giotto at Sinners in Hell.” Viator 35 (2004): 355–386.
Interprets the treatment of sinners as intentionally funny (a topic also of Ladis 1986, cited under Narrative Cycle), focusing particular
attention on the punishment of sinful clerics and relating it to contemporaneous events in late medieval Padua. Available online for
Lorenzoni, Giovanni. “Su alcuni aspetti iconografici dell’Inferno di Giotto nella Cappella Scrovegni di Padova.” In Special
Issue: Between East and West: From Iconoclastic Movement to the Gothic. Hortus Artium Medievalium 4.1 (1998): 155–
159.
Calls attention to the punishment of sexual sinners in hell, proposing that the circumcised sinners suggest an anti-Semitic agenda.
Neff, Amy, and Anne Derbes. “‘This Unnatural Flow’: Bleeding Demons in the Supplicationes Variae, the Arena Chapel,
and Notre-Dame des Fontaines, La Brigue.” In Anathēmata eortika: Studies in Honor of Thomas F. Mathews. Edited by
Joseph D. Alchermes, 247–255. Mainz, Germany: Philipp von Zabern, 2009.
Argues that instances of demonic blood in several late medieval images of hell, among them the Arena Chapel, allude to a virulent
anti-Semitic trope.
Pace, Valentino. “Ingiustizia, lussuria e disordine sociale: La condanna della sessualità nel Giudizio universale della
Cappella dell’Arena a Padova.” Iconographica 8 (2009): 42–46.
Linking the depiction of rape in the predella below Injustice to the images of sexual punishment in hell, argues that the images
should be read in the context of civic concerns about lust as a cause of social disorder.
Shorr, Dorothy C. “The Role of the Virgin in Giotto’s Last Judgment.” Art Bulletin 38.4 (1956): 207–214.
Stresses the importance of the Virgin as titular saint of the chapel, discussing the dedication to Sta. Maria della Carità, the annual
Annunciation procession and drama on the site, and the Virgin’s prominence in the Last Judgment. The identification of the three
figures to whom Enrico Scrovegni presents a model of the chapel has not been widely accepted; for these, see Rough 1980 (cited
under Narrative Cycle) and Bellinati 2000 (cited under Padua, Arena Chapel (Scrovegni Chapel)). Available online for purchase or
by subscription.
Padua, Palazzo Della Ragione
The fresco program executed by Giotto and his assistants in the town hall of Padua was so extensively repainted that few studies
discuss it at any length. One that does, Frojmovič 1996.
Frojmovič, Eva. “Giotto’s Allegories of Justice and the Commune in the Palazzo della Ragione in Padua: A
Reconstruction.” Journal of the Warburg and Courtauld Institutes 59 (1996): 24–47.
A meticulous analysis of the frescoes in the Salone, the great hall of the Palazzo della Ragione, painted c. 1306–1309 by Giotto
and his assistants; though repeatedly repainted, they provide important evidence of Giotto’s secular work, and the repainting itself
attests to their importance for later rulers of Padua. Available online for purchase or by subscription.
Pisa, S. Francesco
Giotto’s innovative altarpiece for S. Francesco, Pisa, now in the Louvre, is one of only three works signed by the painter and is the
only one executed relatively early in his career. The extent of his participation is still at times debated, but scholars generally now
accept it as an autograph work. Gardner 1982 contributes a detailed analysis of the altarpiece and its possible original site. Cannon
2004 offers nuanced comments about the panel, in a broader consideration of Giotto’s mendicant patronage. Cook 2004 discusses
the panel in the context of representations of St. Francis and their textual sources. Gardner 2011 returns to the subject of Gardner
1982, now identifying the patrons more specifically and offering new insights on iconography and relevant texts.
In her overview of Giotto’s work for the mendicant orders, Cannon considers the iconography of the Stigmatization, concluding that
the panel from S. Francesco “draws from the creative interchange between artist and friars” (p. 127).
Cook, William R. “Giotto and the Figure of St. Francis.” In The Cambridge Companion to Giotto. Edited by Anne Derbes
and Mark Sandona, 135–156. Cambridge Companions to the History of Art. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press,
2004.
In his survey of Giotto’s depictions of St. Francis, Cook discusses the form and iconography of the Pisa panel, with a consideration
of the predella.
Gardner, Julian. “The Louvre Stigmatization and the Problem of the Narrative Altarpiece.” Zeitschrift für Kunstgeschichte
45.3 (1982): 217–247.
Stresses the novelty of the Stigmatization as a historical phenomenon and the iconographic idiosyncrasies of the panel and its
predella, with an insightful discussion of the importance of narrative for the Franciscan order. Notes the presence of identical
heraldry on the panel and in two choir chapels of S. Francesco, Pisa, proposing one of the two as the panel’s original site.
Reprinted in Ladis 1998 (cited under Textbooks and Anthologies), Vol. 1, pp. 315–346. Available online for purchase or by
subscription.
Gardner, Julian. “Giotto at Pisa: The Stigmatization for San Francesco.” In Giotto and His Publics: Three Paradigms of
Patronage. By Julian Gardner, 17–46. Bernard Berenson Lectures on the Italian Renaissance. Cambridge, MA: Harvard
This detailed essay expands on Gardner 1982, discussing the patrons—the Cinquina family—at length, offering comments on the
phenomenon of family chapels in the late duecento and early trecento and considering both the predella and the central image in
depth. A helpful ground plan of S. Francesco is included.
Rimini, S. Francesco
An early chronicler, Riccobaldo Ferrarese, attests to Giotto’s work for the Franciscans in Rimini, but questions remain concerning
the paintings that he may have produced there. Gordon 1989 convincingly reconstructs a horizontal altarpiece from seven panels,
now dispersed, and proposes Rimini as a possible provenance. Bonsanti 2000 argues instead that the altarpiece came from Borgo
San Sepulcro. A large crucifix still in Rimini attests more firmly to Giotto’s sojourn there; it is discussed in some length in Volpe
2002.
Bonsanti, Giorgio. “Giotto, Presentazione al Tempio.” In Giotto: Bilancio critic di sessant’anni di studi e ricerche. Edited
by Angelo Tartuferi, 174–177. Florence: Giunti, 2000.
Dating this panel (cat. 23, pl. XXII) and the related seven panels to c. 1320–1325, rejects the argument that they came from S.
Francesco, Rimini, as inconclusive, and proposes the Franciscan church in Borgo San Sepulcro as their original site.
Gordon, Dillian. “A Dossal by Giotto and His Workshop: Some Problems of Attribution, Provenance and Patronage.”
Discussion of seven panels, including the Pentecost in the National Gallery, London; the Nativity and Adoration of the Magi (New
York, Metropolitan Museum); the Presentation in the Temple (Boston, Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum); Entombment (Settignano,
Villa i Tatti); and three panels in Munich (Alte Pinakothek: Last Supper, Crucifixion, and Descent into Limbo). Proposes that they
once formed a horizontal dossal, perhaps for the high altar of S. Francesco, Rimini. Reprinted in Ladis 1998 (cited under Textbooks
and Anthologies), Vol. 1, pp. 352–359. Available online for purchase or by subscription.
Volpe, Alessandro. Giotto e il Riminesi: Il gotico e l’antico nella pittura di primo Trecento. Milan: F. Motta, 2002.
Dates Giotto’s activity in Rimini to 1297–1302; consideration of the crucifix for S. Francesco, Rimini, and other early work that the
author ascribes to Giotto and his shop; also considers Giottesque painting in Rimini.
Rome
The two Roman works most closely associated with Giotto were commissioned by Cardinal Giacomo Gaetani Stefaneschi: the
double-sided Stefaneschi altarpiece for St. Peter’s and the Navicella mosaic (today largely destroyed) for the atrium of St. Peter’s.
Both have generated considerable controversy. The date of the altarpiece, its authorship, and its original placement in St. Peter’s all
are contested matters. Gardner 1974 sees the work as the high altarpiece of St. Peter’s, accepts it as Giotto’s (as stated in a
document of 1343), and argues for an early date, c. 1300. Kempers and de Blaauw 1987 challenges Gardner on each point,
proposing that the altarpiece was intended for the canons’ altar in the nave and that it was painted probably in the 1330s by an
anonymous Giottesque painter. Lisner 1995 provides a careful analysis indicating a date between 1309 and 1314. Kessler 2009
generally follows Lisner in the dating and offers a nuanced comparison of the work to others in and near Rome. Marinacci 2009
includes beautiful, detailed photographs of the altarpiece. Like the Stefaneschi altarpiece, the Navicella mosaic, in particular the
date and the circumstances of the commission, remains controversial. Some works, such as Gardner 1974 and Boskovits 2000,
place the mosaic early in Giotto’s career; Gardner links it with the Jubilee of 1300. Others, among them Kessler 2009, argue that it
should be understood in the context of the papacy’s move to Avignon.
Boskovits, Miklós. “Giotto a Roma.” Arte Cristiana 88 (2000): 171–180.

Pointing to 17th-century sources dating the Navicella mosaic to 1298, Boskovits offers stylistic parallels to support an early date for
the mosaic.
Gardner, Julian. “The Stefaneschi Altarpiece: A Reconsideration.” Journal of the Warburg and Courtauld Institutes 37
(1974): 57–103.
In this extensive study, Gardner proposes an early date (c. 1300) for the altarpiece—a controversial position; also considers the
circumstances of the commission and the iconography. Reprinted in Ladis 1998 (cited under Textbooks and Anthologies), Vol. 4, pp.
359–406. Available online for purchase or by subscription.
Kempers, Bram, and Sible de Blaauw. “Jacopo Stefaneschi, Patron and Liturgist: A New Hypothesis regarding the Date,
Iconography, Authorship and Function of His Altarpiece for Old St. Peter’s.” Mededelingen van het Nederlands Instituut te
Rome 47 (1987): 83–113.
The authors’ argument—that the original location was not the high altar, as had been believed, but rather was the canons’ altar in
the nave—has been generally accepted; their dating of the commission—late in Stefaneschi’s life, probably the 1330s—and
attribution, to a Giottesque painter but not to Giotto himself, are debated. Reprinted in Ladis 1998 (cited under Textbooks and
Anthologies), Vol. 4, pp. 407–438.
Kessler, Herbert L. “Giotto a Roma.” In Giotto e il Trecento: “Il più sovrano maestro stato in dipintura. Vol. 1, I saggi.
Edited by Alessandro Tomei, 85–99. Milan: Skira, 2009.
Thoughtful consideration of the Navicella mosaic and the Stefaneschi altarpiece, placing the Navicella in the context of the papacy’s
move to Avignon, accepting Kempers and de Blaauw’s arguments about the original location of the Stefaneschi altarpiece, and
arguing for the fundamental Romanness of both works.
Lisner, Margrit. “Giotto und die Aufträge des Kardinals Jacopo Stefaneschi für Alt-St. Peter, II: Der Stefaneschi-Altar,
Giotto und seine Werkstatt in Rom; Das Altarwerk und der verlorene Christuszyklus in der Petersapsis.” Römisches
Jahrbuch der Bibliotheca Herziana 30 (1995): 59–133.
Thorough stylistic and iconographic study of the altarpiece. Relies on the physiognomy of the apostles and the color of their
garments, arguably influenced by Duccio’s Maestà, to date the altarpiece between 1309 and 1314. Also discusses other works,
including the Navicella mosaic, commissioned by Stefaneschi for Old St. Peter’s.
Marinacci, Marco. Giotto: Il ciclo dell’anima; Il polittico Stefaneschi. Genoa, Italy: Marietti 1820, 2009.
Most useful for its color plates.
Architecture
Appointed capomaestro of Florence Cathedral in 1334, Giotto was responsible for the design of the cathedral’s bell tower, or
campanile. Scholars focusing on Giotto’s architecture consider his work as an architect—the campanile as well as other buildings
that he is said to have designed—or the origins of Giotto’s depicted architecture—whether and how he based these renderings on
actual buildings. Some works, such as Gioseffi 1963, discuss both; Gioseffi argues that Giotto was a practicing architect,
responsible for works beyond the campanile—a controversial position. Trachtenberg 1971 offers a thorough consideration of the
campanile, with relevant documents. White 1973 and White 1993 provide meticulous analyses of the representation of architecture
in Giotto’s paintings. Radke 2004, addressing both Giotto’s painted architecture and his work as an architect, is the clearest starting
point for further research. Benelli 2012 examines all of Giotto’s depictions of buildings.
Benelli, Francesco. The Architecture in Giotto’s Paintings. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 2012.
Seeks to combine architectural history with the techniques of art history, in an analysis of all of Giotto’s extant depictions of
architecture: Assisi, Padua, and Florence. Poorly edited.
Gioseffi, Decio. Giotto architetto. Studi e Documenti di Storia dell’Arte 4. Milan: Edizioni di Comunità, 1963.
Considers both the depicted architecture and the architecture Giotto constructed. Seeks parallels with actual points of reference
(the Arch of Rimini, S. Marco in Venice, S. Francesco in Bologna). Gioseffi wholeheartedly contends that Giotto was an
accomplished architect; for reactions to that argument, see reviews by Camillo Semenzato (“Giuseppe Torretto”) in Arte Veneta 18
(1964): 123–134, and by Alastair Smart (“Giotto as Architect,”) in Burlington Magazine 110.779 (1968): 100–103.
Radke, Gary M. “Giotto and Architecture.” In The Cambridge Companion to Giotto. Edited by Anne Derbes and Mark
Sandona, 76–102. Cambridge Companions to the History of Art. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 2004.
Considers Giotto’s depictions of architecture in Padua and Florence, with detailed assessments of the care with which Giotto
observed actual buildings; concludes that the architectural depictions serve as “a scaffolding for his powerful imaginings”(p. 102).
Argues against the idea that Giotto was the architect of the Arena Chapel, suggesting that Giotto’s design for the campanile in
Florence was more painterly than practical.
Trachtenberg, Marvin. The Campanile of Florence Cathedral: “Giotto’s Tower.” New York: New York University Press, 1971.
Thoroughly researched and presented description of the design and completion of the campanile; includes important documents.
White, John. “Giotto’s Use of Architecture in ‘The Expulsion of Joachim’ and ‘The Entry into Jerusalem’ at Padua.”
Burlington Magazine 115.844 (1973): 439–447, 449.
From a careful and detailed study of two frescoes, White raises historical and theoretical questions about the relatedness of Giotto’s
depicted architecture and actual structures. Reprinted in Ladis 1998 (cited under Textbooks and Anthologies), Vol 4. Available
online for purchase or by subscription.
White, John. Art and Architecture in Italy, 1250–1400. 3d ed. Pelican History of Art. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press,
1993.
First published in 1966 (Harmondsworth, UK: Penguin), this study contains an extensive assessment of Giotto’s depiction of
architecture in the Arena Chapel (pp. 309–343).
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LAST REVIEWED: 10 MAY 2017

Tomei, Alessandro. “Giotto di Bondone.” In Treccani.it: L’Enciclopedia Italiana. 1995.

Textbooks and Anthologies

Early Assessments and Critical Reception

Romano, Serena. La “O” di Giotto. Milan: Electa, 2008.

Assisi, S. Francesco, Upper Church

Assisi, S. Francesco, Lower Church

Schmidt, Victor M. “Giotto. Bologna.” Burlington Magazine 148.1236 (2006): 222–223.

S. Giorgio alla Costa

Sta. Maria Novella

Patronal, Civic, and Liturgical Contexts

The Fresco Program

Dado, Quatrefoils, and Grisaille Figures

Frojmovič, Eva. “Giotto’s Circumspection.” Art Bulletin 89.2 (2007): 195–210.

Padua, Palazzo Della Ragione

Boskovits, Miklós. “Giotto a Roma.” Arte Cristiana 88 (2000): 171–180.

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