Giotto

"The characteristics of Power and Beauty occur more or less in different buildings, some in one and some in another; but all together, and all in their highest possible relative...

"These temples grew as grows the grass: Art might obey, but not surpass; The passive master lent his hand To the vast soul that o'er him planned, And the same power that built t...

At first sight the church seems of small extent, as the entrance is in a transept at the north side, and the eye looks across the nave without perceiving it; but a few steps for...

Of all the minor disadvantages of travel which have accompanied the substitution of the locomotive for the coach, perhaps none is so real an evil as the very partial impression...

If we would gain a true and adequate conception of the works and merit of any painter, it is necessary for us not only to examine his special productions, but to become in some...

Giotto was born[37] at the small village of Vespignano, about fourteen miles from Florence, amidst surroundings, the chief characteristics of which are very beautifully describe...

The biographies in this series[1] are intended to help in the preservation of the memories of those great artists, who, leaving to the world the legacies of their genius, have n...

But little remains to us of the work of Giotto's student days, and those years immediately following; but sufficient is known to show that his first works were, as we should nat...

"I say 'Consider it' in vain; you cannot consider it, for you cannot conceive the sickness of heart with which a young painter of deep feeling toils through his first obscurity;...

"There is in truth a holy purity, an innocent _naïveté_, a child-like grace and simplicity, a freshness, a fearlessness, a yearning after all things truthful, lovely, and of goo...

"All honour and reverence to the divine beauty of form! Let us cultivate it to the utmost in men, women, and children--in our gardens and in our houses. But let us love that oth...

"Ascend the right stair from the further nave To muse in a small chapel scarcely lit By Cimabue's Virgin. Bright and brave That picture was accounted, mark, of old; A king stood...

"As in passing through life we learn many new things, so do we forget many old things, and gradually the remembrance of them is lost from among men. Therefore those persons do n...