#GIOTTO DESCENT INTO LIMBO SERIES#
It is known that this panel was the last in a series of panels which were all cut from the same plank of wood. This image is taken from the National Gallery Technical Bulletin The illustration below shows them as they would originally have been seen. There were formed in gilded thin which was easier to apply but was quite expensive. However, the most significant discovery is that originally there were strong rays descending on each apostle. He is a bit smaller but has been painted over the adjacent apostle’s halo. Another one was added not long after its completion on the far left. Indeed, originally, there just eleven Apostles. In fact cleaning and analysis has shown that this dove and these rays were added later on. In the London panel there is a feeble looking dove in the centre sending down rather faint rays. The rays coming down upon the apostles are also visible.
To my eye it is like a lantern or lamp lit shine before the nations of the earth.
Some writers think it suggests the Church. As you can see from the image, within the loggia the circle of golden haloes catch the light. It like contemporary architecture which must be deliberate. In the Scrovegni Chapel fresco the Apostles are seated on benches in a kind of loggia with gothic arches. But in both works Giotto shows Pentecost happening in a different room. “The Golden Legend” says it was the Cenacle, which was the location of the Last Supper. However, it is assumed that it was the same room where they had eaten the Last Supper and to which they had returned after the Ascension. Luke says that they were all in one place. Both this scene of Pentecost and the one in Padua are in accord with “The Golden Legend”. It also says that when the Spirit came they were seated which was a sign of their humility. The text lays great emphasis on the significance of fire and flame for their future ministry of preaching and witnessing to Christ. Upon whom did the Spirit descend at Pentecost? The Golden Legend says it was just the Apostles. But “The Golden Legend” is quite clear that the Spirit doesn’t come as a dove at Pentecost. How did the Spirit come? Well Varagine’s answer is the Spirit came with the sound of a mighty wind and fire in tongues of flame.
#GIOTTO DESCENT INTO LIMBO FULL#
It has quite a full treatment of the Holy Spirit and, with respect to Pentecost, asks and then answers a number of very specific questions. It was very widely read and artists used it as their main narrative source.
This was a compendium structured around liturgical feast days. This is one reason why I think he may have been following not Luke’s Acts but “The Golden Legend” which was composed by Jacobus da Varagine between12. “Pentecost from the Scrovegni Chapelm Padua, Giotto c.1504-5 This is true also of his slightly earlier depiction of the same scene in the fresco cycle of the Scrovegni Chapel in Padua. The word “they” leaves room for asking were the people mentioned as being with the Apostles on their return to the upper room also there when the Spirit came? Before and indeed after Giotto Mary is shown with the Apostles at Pentecost and the tongue of fire is also above her head. Acts 2 describes what happened on Pentecost and begins, “When the day of Pentecost came around, they were all together in one place”. However, according to Acts there were others with them: “All these devoted themselves to prayer, together with the women and Mary the mother of Jesus, and with his brothers“ (Acts1:14). As a result Matthias is selected to replace him. It names the eleven and refers to the betrayal and death of Judas. Chapter 1 of Acts says that after the Ascension, the Apostles went back to the upper room in Jerusalem. Pentecost is described in the Acts of the Apostles. This little painting from London’s National Gallery (45.5cm X 44cm) is full of surprises. May 30th 2020 Giotto and Workshop, about 1267 or 1276 died 1337īequeathed by Geraldine Emily Coningham in memory of her husband, Major Henry Coningham, and of Mrs Coningham of Brighton, 1942
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