Now dismiss Thy servant, O Lord,In peace, according to Thy word:
For mine own eyes hath seen Thy salvation,
Which Thou hast prepared in the sight of all the peoples,
A light to reveal Thee to the nations
And the glory of Thy people Israel.
The Presentation of Jesus in the Temple, Giotti
The Presentation of Jesus Christ in the Temple by Jacopo da Bologna
Ceremony Upon Candlemas Eve
Down with the rosemary, and so
Down with the bays and misletoe ;
Down with the holly, ivy, all,
Wherewith ye dress'd the Christmas Hall :
That so the superstitious find
No one least branch there left behind :
For look, how many leaves there be
Neglected, there (maids, trust to me)
So many goblins you shall see.
- Robert Herrick
2 comments:
London is covered in snow for Candlemas. I have been unable to get to work and Liz could not go up to the cathedral!
It's very interesting to notice that Quattrocento artists such as Giotto were still deeply rooted in the "Byzantine" iconographic tradition (Byzantine being used here as a metaphor, because at that point, divisions were not strong enough to specify different iconographic schools). He kept the same Baldacchino-like niche which represents the temple, and poses of the main figures. In this case, however, he gave them tri-dimensionality (notably demonstrated by blending shades in drapery and a very successful perspective in the temple - especially taking into account he didn't know two-ponint perspective), which makes me wonder if he in fact painted an icon much closer to Early Christian ones.
One side note that I find funny in Giotto is that he treated halos as 3-d discs that hovered behind saints' heads. Therefore, when they are looking to the side, the disc is distorted to compensate their heads. Sadly, this represents a loss of understanding of what iconography means in the West, which led to its complete disappearing in less than 100 years.
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