The episcopal garment and the reflective facial expression immediately immerse the viewer into a serious, perhaps somewhat grave context. The facial expression adheres to medieval iconic standards more than any other in the entire group of fourteen allegories, and purposefully so: Giotto amplifies the theme of faith via an association with a long standing pictorial [...]
Wearing a garment identical to that of Hope, Charity also reveals a resembling face: the same model probably served Giotto in painting both virtues. The woman humbly smiles and bends slightly backwards, producing a set of graceful and plastic movements, and a subtle contrapposto. She balances easily standing on a few sacks of grain or [...]
Though the term “plasticity” is more often employed when describing sculpture, it can sometimes infiltrate the visual arts to a persistent effect. Giotto’s monochrome virtues and vices, painted on the walls of Capella degli Scrovegni, Padua, demonstrate what can be defined as “quasi-sculptural” plasticity: it brings the figures to life via subtle yet expressive movement [...]
Jeremiah is the most touching of all the prophets on the Sistine Chapel Ceiling. Especially when compared to the purposefulness of Ezekiel and the focus of Joel, he reveals weakness, weariness and despair — his posture betrays inner suffering. This is a powerful psychological portrait, that epitomizes the anguish and emotional pain of witnessing the [...]
The intense focus with which Michelangelo depicts the biblical prophets, including Ezekiel and Jeremiah, helps to distance them — on a visual as well as on a notional level — from hedonistic physicality of the sibyls. In a way, the discrepancy between Jewish prophets (clarity of motion, simplicity and singularity of focus) and Greek ones [...]
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