The Three Dichotomies in the Lamentation

Authors

  • Valeria Leon Massa

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.18272/anima.v1i.2127

Keywords:

Giotto, Pre-Renaissance, Lamentation (The Mourning of Christ), religious art

Abstract

The Lamentation (1306) is one of the 37 frescos found inside the Scrovegni Chapel, a simple church that hides, inside its small confinements and simple finishes, a cycle of transcendental paintings about the life of Jesus and Virgin Mary. The painting was concluded in the year of 1306 by the Florentine Pre-Renaissance painter, Giotto di Bondone. The current value and discussion of this image resides in its clear representation of what Pre-Renaissance art for the development of the sphere of Western art. Moreover, the importance of it lies on its strong manifestation of Giotto's ingenuity and his artistic rupture within his medium. Above all, the painting possesses great relevancy nowadays because it shows art's capacity to be maintained and keep its spectator in a constant state of fluctuation inside different dichotomies. This painting's last characteristic is the base of the present analysis, in which it is attempted to understand thoroughly three of the dichotomies the image exhibits; they are: humanity and divinity, beauty and pain, and the before and the after. Through a detailed observation and a critical study of the painting's main elements, the context that surrounds it and the three dichotomies it depicts, it will be possible to better understand the constant fluctuation in which the spectator is involved.

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References

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Published

2021-06-30

Issue

Section

Art History

How to Cite

Leon Massa, V. (2021). The Three Dichotomies in the Lamentation. Ánima, 1. https://doi.org/10.18272/anima.v1i.2127