The Uffizi Gallery of Florence, Italy: Room 2 - The 13th Century and Giotto - Description

Dedicate to Cimabue and Giotto. In direct confrontation Giotto and Cimabue: Madonnas Enthroned with Angels. Also other artists of the same period. On the right wall we see the famous Madonna enthroned with Angels by Cimabue, originally in the church of St. Trinità, dated around 1275. A work greatly nourished by the Bizantine culture, especially in the soft colors, in the gold touches of the Madonna's dress and in the details of the drawing, obtained in the perspective of the throne and the degrading of the angels that reveals, with the beginning of a new style, the foundations of the future evolution of Florentine art.

On the left wall, opposite to Cimabue, the famous Madonna and Child with Angels formerly in the Rucellai Chapel in Santa Maria Novella, for centuries belived to be by Cimabue, attributed to Duccio di Buoninsegna, although authoritative critics still belive it to be the work of a master between Cimabue and Duccio, known as the "Master of the Rucellai Madonna". The solemnty of the painting, with its traditionally Byzantine colors, with the majestic figure of the Madonna and the Prophets and Saints in the beautiful frame rendered with a miniaturist's delicacy, contribute to assigning this work to Duccio.

In front of the entrance dominates the famous, grandiose Madonna Enthroned with Angels and Saints by Giotto, originally in the church of Ognissanti. One of the most solemn creations of this great imnovator of Florentine and Italian art, chronologically placed between the frescoes of Assisi and those in the Scrovegni Chapel in Padua (1303-05). In this work Giotto disloses all his powerful personality as far as space and from are concerned. While the color contributes for the first time in alluminating the figures, rendered profoundly human, the soft chiaroscuro helps to make this great work compact, volumetric and monumental.

Alsoby Giotto is the Plyptych displayed on the left, that came from the Church of the Badia.

On the wall beginning left of the entrance are: Madonna and Child (Florentine school, 12709; Crucifix and Stories of the Passion (Lucchese school, middle of the 13th century); St. Luke by the "Master of the Maddalena". On the right wall from the entrance are: the Stigmata of St. Francis and Christ Crucified, in the manner of Bonaventura Berlinghieri; the Savior between the Virgin and SS. Peter, John and Paul by the Passion, Pisan school of the middle of the 12th century.