I am very fortunate with the ease of today’s technology to share stories and images.  Giotto di Bondone didn’t share this fortune.  I can’t imagine the efforts it took, even with a team of people, to stage his fresco production.  Draw, apply plaster, paint. And do it quickly—in manageable squared-off areas—before it dries.

Overcoming the physical challenges of art is one thing.  Challenging society’s norms in religious art is another.  Giotto was among the artists who moved away from traditions of stiff and somber stoicism.  I’ve always felt detached from the expression of earlier (Byzantine) human faces, but my heart is warmed by Giotto’s images.  He treated the illiterate masses to church walls containing the wailing sadness of angels, joyful reverence of Christ’s disciples, and glowing adoration of Mary.

I sketched out this picture from Giotto’s fresco cycle in Padua.  It shows an intimate expression of the most human kind—a kiss.  Imagine seeing this kiss for the first time.  Yet I wonder how many actually saw this image.  A rich man paid to have this cycle created, allegedly in an act of penitence, hoping its creation would provide passage to a better after-life.  If indeed that was the case, I wonder what sort of gallant overture he’d produce on today’s Internet to achieve the same purpose.