Giotto | The allegories of Vices, 1303-1305

In the Scrovegni Chapel in Padua, between 1303-1305, Italian painter and architect from Florence Giotto di Bondone (1266/7-1337), painted 14 allegories, in monochrome - seven allegorical representations of virtues and seven allegorical representations of vices.

Giotto (1267-1337) | Gothic painter

Giotto di Bondone, better known simply as Giotto, was an Italian painter and architect from Florence in the late Middle Ages.

He is generally considered the first in a line of great artists who contributed to the Italian Renaissance.

Giotto's contemporary Giovanni Villani wrote that Giotto was:

"the most sovereign master of painting in his time, who drew all his figures and their postures according to nature.

And he was given a salary by the Comune of Florence in virtue of his talent and excellence".

Petrarca | Chiare fresche e dolci acque / Clear, sweet fresh water

Chiare, fresche et dolci acque è la canzone numero CXXVI (126) del Canzoniere di Francesco Petrarca (1304-1374).

Fu scritta tra il 1340-1341 ed il poeta fu ispirato, molto probabilmente, dal fiume Sorgue, che scorre nei pressi dell'attuale comune francese di Fontaine-de-Vaucluse (Fonte di Valchiusa).

Chiare, fresche et dolci acque,

ove le belle membra

pose colei che sola a me par donna;

gentil ramo ove piacque

(con sospir’ mi rimembra)

a lei di fare al bel fiancho colonna;

herba et fior’ che la gonna

leggiadra ricoverse

Marie Spartali Stillman | The First Meeting of Petrarch and Laura, 1889

Francesco Petrarca | Solo et pensoso / Alone and thoughtful

Solo et pensoso i piú deserti campi

vo mesurando a passi tardi et lenti,

et gli occhi porto per fuggire intenti

ove vestigio human l’arena stampi.

Giovanni Fattori | Uomo nel bosco, 1880-1885

La Cappella degli Scrovegni

La Cappella degli Scrovegni, Padova - Italia, dedicata a Santa Maria della Carità ed affrescata tra il 1303-1305 da Giotto (1267-1337) su incarico di Enrico degli Scrovegni, costituisce uno dei massimi capolavori dell'arte occidentale.

La navata è lunga 29,88 m, larga 8,41 m e alta 12,65 m; l'abside è costituito da una prima parte a pianta quadrata, profonda 4,49 m e larga 4,31 m, e da una successiva, a forma poligonale a cinque lati, profonda 2,57 m e coperta da cinque unghiature nervate.

La superficie affrescata è di circa 700 m², compresi i circa 180 m² della volta dipinta quasi solo di azzurro.

Dal 2021 fa parte dei patrimoni dell'umanità UNESCO nel sito dei cicli di affreschi del XIV secolo di Padova.

I dipinti all'interno della cappella degli Scrovegni diedero il via ad una rivoluzione pittorica che si sviluppò in tutto l'arco del Trecento e che influenzò la storia della pittura.

Christine de Pizan | The first professional woman writer

Christine de Pizan or Pisan, born Cristina da Pizzano (1364 - c. 1430), was a poet and author at the court of King Charles VI of France and several French dukes.

Venetian by birth, Christine served as a court writer in medieval France after the death of her husband. Christine's patrons included dukes Louis I of Orleans, Philip the Bold of Burgundy, and his son John the Fearless.

Her best known works include The Book of the City of Ladies and The Treasure of the City of Ladies, both written when she worked for John the Fearless of Burgundy. Her books of advice to princesses, princes, and knights remained in print until the 16th century.

Christine de Pizan - Bibliothèque nationale de France, Département des manuscrits, Français

Dante Alighieri | Ladies that have intelligence in love / Donne ch’avete intelletto d’amore..

Ladies that have intelligence in love,

⁠Of mine own lady I would speak with you;

⁠Not that I hope to count her praises through,

⁠But telling what I may, to ease my mind.

And I declare that when I speak thereof,

Love sheds such perfect sweetness over me

That if my courage failed not, certainly

⁠To him my listeners must be all resign'd.

Henry Holiday | Dante meets Beatrice a Ponte Santa Trinita, 1883 | Walker Art Gallery Liverpool

Paolo and Francesca | Dante Alighieri | Inferno, Canto V

Amor, ch’a nullo amato amar perdona,

mi prese del costui piacer sì forte,

che, come vedi, ancor non m’abbandona.

Amor condusse noi ad una morte.

Caina attende chi a vita ci spense".

Queste parole da lor ci fuor porte.

Auguste Rodin | The Kiss (Paolo and Francesca) detail | Ny Carlsberg Glyptotek, Copenhagen

Dante Alighieri | My lady looks so gentle and so pure / Tanto gentile e tanto onesta pare..

La "Vita Nuova" (The New Life) or "Vita Nova" (Latin title) is a text by Dante Alighieri (1265-1321) published in 1294.

It is an expression of the medieval genre of courtly love in a prosimetrum style, a combination of both prose and verse.

La "Vita Nuova" contains 42 brief chapters with commentaries on 25 sonnets, one ballata, and four canzoni; one canzone is left unfinished, interrupted by the death of Beatrice Portinari, Dante's lifelong love.

Raffaello Sorbi | Dante incontra Beatrice

Jacobello Alberegno (Venice, c.1367-1397)

Jacobello Alberegno | Polyptych of the Apocalypse | Whore of Babylon | Accademia Venice

Jacobello Alberegno also Jacobello Albaragno or Jacopo Alberegno (born before 1367; died before July 14, 1397 in Venice) was an Venetian painter active in the second half of the fourteenth century.

Jacobello Alberegno was fixed in the tradition of early Venetian painting masterpieces.

Sculptures in Notre-Dame de Paris

Notre-Dame de Paris🎨 - Stone, copper and bronze statues, including statues of the twelve Apostles that surrounded the base of the spire, had been removed from the site days prior to the 2019 fire as part of the renovations.

Adam - West facade

Notre-Dame de Paris, 1345 | A cathedral of Art and history

Notre-Dame de Paris, also known as Notre-Dame Cathedral or simply Notre-Dame, is a medieval Catholic cathedral on the Île de la Cité in the fourth arrondissement of Paris, France.

The cathedral is considered to be one of the finest examples of French Gothic architecture.

The innovative use of the rib vault and flying buttress, the enormous and colorful rose windows, and the naturalism and abundance of its sculptural decoration all set it apart from earlier Romanesque architecture.

La Biblioteca Apostolica Vaticana

Vatican Apostolic Library -BAV, official library of the Vatican, located inside the Vatican palace. It is especially notable as one of the world’s richest manuscript depositories.

The library is the direct heir of the first library of the Roman pontiffs. Very little is known of this library up to the 13th century, but it appears to have remained only a modest collection of works until Pope Nicholas V (1447-55) greatly enlarged it with his purchase of the remnants of the imperial library of Constantinople (now Istanbul), which had recently been conquered by the Ottoman Turks.

Gentile da Fabriano | Gothic Era painter

Gentile da Fabriano, original name Niccolò di Giovanni di Massio (born c. 1370, Fabriano, Papal States [Italy]-died 1427, Rome), foremost painter of central Italy at the beginning of the 15th century, whose few surviving works are among the finest examples of the International Gothic style.

Gerard David | Northern Renaissance painter

Gerard David (c. 1460 - 13 August 1523) was an Early Netherlandish painter and manuscript illuminator known for his brilliant use of color. Only a bare outline of his life survives, although some facts are known.

He may have been the Meester gheraet van brugghe who became a master of the Antwerp guild in 1515. He was very successful in his lifetime and probably ran two workshops, in Antwerp and Bruges.

Like many painters of his period, his reputation diminished in the 17th century until he was rediscovered in the 19th century.

Giotto | The allegories of Virtues / Le allegorie delle Virtù, 1303-1305

The bottom tiers of the longer walls feature 14 allegories, in monochrome, symbolising Vices on the North wall and Virtues on the South wall.

The Vices are: Stultitia, Inconstantia, Ira, Iniusticia, Infidelitas, Invidia, Desperatio.

The Virtues are divided as follows: the four Cardinal Virtues: Prudentia, Iustitia, Temperantia, Fortitudo, followed by the three Theological ones: Fides, Karitas, Spes.

Each virtue and vice is embedded within a mirror-like marble frame.

The name of the vice or the virtue is written in Latin on top of each figure, indicating what these figures represent: the seventh day (the day between Jesus’s birth and the Final Judgement).

Temperanza e L'Ira

Loggia dei Lanzi, 1380 | Open-air museum in Florence

In the Piazza della Signoria, adjoining the Uffizi Palace, there is a masterpiece of Medieval architecture: the Loggia della Signoria, built in about 1380, to host public ceremonies and assemblies, during the republican period.

It is called Loggia dei Lanzi, because it is said that landsknechts (lanzichenecchi or lanzi in Italian) encamped here in 1527, while they were going to Rome.

Paolo and Francesca | Inferno, Canto V | The Divine Comedy

Francesca da Rimini or Francesca da Polenta (1255 - ca. 1285) was the daughter of Guido da Polenta, lord of Ravenna.

She was a historical contemporary of Dante Alighieri, who portrayed her as a character in the Divine Comedy.

Paolo Malatesta (c. 1246-1285) was the third son of Malatesta da Verucchio, lord of Rimini.

He is best known for the story of his affair with Francesca da Polenta, portrayed by Dante in a famous episode of his Inferno (Canto V). He was the brother of Giovanni (Gianciotto) and Malatestino Malatesta.

Auguste Rodin - Paolo e Francesca

Monumento a Dante in Piazza Santa Croce a Firenze, 1865