Introduction to Robert Browning [96]
muse in hope, upon this shore Of golden Arno, as it shoots away Through Florence' heart beneath her bridges four." -- Casa Guidi Windows.
2.
River and bridge and street and square Lay mine, as much at my beck and call, Through the live translucent bath of air, As the sights in a magic crystal-ball. And of all I saw and of all I praised, The most to praise and the best to see Was the startling bell-tower Giotto raised: But why did it more than startle me?
-- St. 2. the startling bell-tower Giotto raised: the Campanile of the Cathedral, or Duomo, of Florence (La Cattedrale di S. Maria del Fiore), begun in 1334.
"The characteristics of Power and Beauty occur more of less in different buildings, some in one and some in another. But all together, and all in their highest possible relative degrees, they exist, as far as I know, only in one building of the world, the Campanile of Giotto." -- Ruskin. But why did it more than startle me?: There's a rumor "that a certain precious little tablet which Buonarotti eyed like a lover" has been discovered by somebody. If this rumor is true, the speaker feels that Giotto, whom he has so loved, has played him false, in not favoring him with the precious find. See St. 30. "The opinion which his contemporaries entertained of Giotto, as the greatest genius in the arts which Italy in that age possessed, has been perpetuated by Dante in the lines in which the illuminator, Oderigi, says: -- "`In painting Cimabue fain had thought To lord the field; now Giotto has the cry, So that the other's fame in shade is brought' (Dante, `Purg.' xi. 93).
"Giotto di Bondone was born at Del Colle, a village in the commune of Vespignano near Florence, according to Vasari, A.D. 1276, but more probably A.D. 1266. He went through his apprenticeship under Cimabue, and practised as a painter and architect not only in Florence, but in various parts of Italy, in free cities as well as in the courts of princes. . . . On April 12, 1334, Giotto was appointed by the civic authorities of Florence, chief master of the Cathedral works, the city fortifications, and all public architectural undertakings, in an instrument of which the wording constitutes the most affectionate homage to the `great and dear master'. Giotto died January 8, 1337." -- Woltmann and Woermann's History of Painting.
For a good account of the Campanile, see Susan and Joanna Horner's `Walks in Florence', v. I, pp. 62-66; Art. in `Macmillan's Mag.', April, 1877, by Sidney Colvin, -- `Giotto's Gospel of Labor'.
3.
Giotto, how, with that soul of yours, Could you play me false who loved you so? Some slights if a certain heart endures Yet it feels, I would have your fellows know! I' faith, I perceive not why I should care To break a silence that suits them best, But the thing grows somewhat hard to bear When I find a Giotto join the rest.
4.
On the arch where olives overhead Print the blue sky with twig and leaf (That sharp-curled leaf which they never shed), 'Twixt the aloes, I used to learn in chief, And mark through the winter afternoons, By a gift God grants me now and then, In the mild decline of those suns like moons, Who walked in Florence, besides her men.
-- St. 4. By a gift God grants me now and then: the gift of spiritual vision.
5.
They might chirp and chaffer, come and go For pleasure or profit, her men alive -- My business was hardly with them, I trow, But with empty cells of the human hive; -- With the chapter-room, the cloister-porch, The church's apsis, aisle or nave, Its crypt, one fingers along with a torch, Its face set full for the sun to shave.
6.
Wherever a fresco peels and drops, Wherever an outline weakens and wanes Till the latest life in the painting stops, Stands One whom each fainter pulse-tick pains: One, wishful each scrap should clutch the brick, Each tinge not wholly escape the plaster, -- A lion who dies of an ass's kick, The wronged great soul of
2.
River and bridge and street and square Lay mine, as much at my beck and call, Through the live translucent bath of air, As the sights in a magic crystal-ball. And of all I saw and of all I praised, The most to praise and the best to see Was the startling bell-tower Giotto raised: But why did it more than startle me?
-- St. 2. the startling bell-tower Giotto raised: the Campanile of the Cathedral, or Duomo, of Florence (La Cattedrale di S. Maria del Fiore), begun in 1334.
"The characteristics of Power and Beauty occur more of less in different buildings, some in one and some in another. But all together, and all in their highest possible relative degrees, they exist, as far as I know, only in one building of the world, the Campanile of Giotto." -- Ruskin. But why did it more than startle me?: There's a rumor "that a certain precious little tablet which Buonarotti eyed like a lover" has been discovered by somebody. If this rumor is true, the speaker feels that Giotto, whom he has so loved, has played him false, in not favoring him with the precious find. See St. 30. "The opinion which his contemporaries entertained of Giotto, as the greatest genius in the arts which Italy in that age possessed, has been perpetuated by Dante in the lines in which the illuminator, Oderigi, says: -- "`In painting Cimabue fain had thought To lord the field; now Giotto has the cry, So that the other's fame in shade is brought' (Dante, `Purg.' xi. 93).
"Giotto di Bondone was born at Del Colle, a village in the commune of Vespignano near Florence, according to Vasari, A.D. 1276, but more probably A.D. 1266. He went through his apprenticeship under Cimabue, and practised as a painter and architect not only in Florence, but in various parts of Italy, in free cities as well as in the courts of princes. . . . On April 12, 1334, Giotto was appointed by the civic authorities of Florence, chief master of the Cathedral works, the city fortifications, and all public architectural undertakings, in an instrument of which the wording constitutes the most affectionate homage to the `great and dear master'. Giotto died January 8, 1337." -- Woltmann and Woermann's History of Painting.
For a good account of the Campanile, see Susan and Joanna Horner's `Walks in Florence', v. I, pp. 62-66; Art. in `Macmillan's Mag.', April, 1877, by Sidney Colvin, -- `Giotto's Gospel of Labor'.
3.
Giotto, how, with that soul of yours, Could you play me false who loved you so? Some slights if a certain heart endures Yet it feels, I would have your fellows know! I' faith, I perceive not why I should care To break a silence that suits them best, But the thing grows somewhat hard to bear When I find a Giotto join the rest.
4.
On the arch where olives overhead Print the blue sky with twig and leaf (That sharp-curled leaf which they never shed), 'Twixt the aloes, I used to learn in chief, And mark through the winter afternoons, By a gift God grants me now and then, In the mild decline of those suns like moons, Who walked in Florence, besides her men.
-- St. 4. By a gift God grants me now and then: the gift of spiritual vision.
5.
They might chirp and chaffer, come and go For pleasure or profit, her men alive -- My business was hardly with them, I trow, But with empty cells of the human hive; -- With the chapter-room, the cloister-porch, The church's apsis, aisle or nave, Its crypt, one fingers along with a torch, Its face set full for the sun to shave.
6.
Wherever a fresco peels and drops, Wherever an outline weakens and wanes Till the latest life in the painting stops, Stands One whom each fainter pulse-tick pains: One, wishful each scrap should clutch the brick, Each tinge not wholly escape the plaster, -- A lion who dies of an ass's kick, The wronged great soul of