Page:The painters of Florence from the thirteenth to the sixteenth century (1915).djvu/41

1335] warmth. Nowhere is his colouring so lovely, so full of actual charm and delicate gradation of tint. And when, towards sunset, the evening light streams through the narrow windows in the massive walls of the apse and illumines the ancient church, it is almost impossible to believe that these frescoes, glowing with pure and radiant hues, were really painted six hundred years ago. Most fortunately, these priceless works have been preserved from damp by the floor of the Upper Church above, and have never been ruined by re-painting, as the frescoes of the Arena Chapel and Santa Croce. So that here we can form some idea of Giotto's gifts as a colourist, and can understand the amazement with which his contemporaries saw the wonders wrought by his brush.

From the first, Giotto adopted a clear pale tone of colouring, which forms a marked contrast to the dark and heavy tints in use among Byzantine artists, and produces the effect of water-colour, while that of the older painters more nearly resembles oils. The technique which he used, both for tempera and fresco-painting, and which remained in use among Florentine artists for the next hundred-and-fifty years, was in reality founded on the old Greek method which had been practised during many centuries, although the improvements which he introduced were sufficient to justify the Giottesque artist Cennino Cennini in saying, that Giotto changed painting from the Greek to the Latin manner and brought in modern art. Yet more striking were the innovations which he introduced in his types, the almond-shaped eyes, long noses and oval countenances with square, heavy jaws which he substituted for the staring eyes and round