The "unity and harmony" of the whole--which make this an exceptional
work of its kind--mean, I suppose, its general look of having been
painted out of a scavenger's cart; and so we are reduced to the last
article of our creed according to Crowe,--
"In the composition of this scene Giotto produced a masterpiece."
Well, possibly. The question is, What you mean by 'composition.' Which,
putting modern criticism now out of our way, I will ask the reader to
think, in front of this wreck of Giotto, with some care.
Was it, in the first place, to Giotto, think you, the, "composition of
a scene," or the conception of a fact? You probably, if a fashionable
person, have seen the apotheosis of Margaret in Faust? You know what
care is taken, nightly, in the composition of that scene,--how the
draperies are arranged for it; the lights turned off, and on; the
fiddlestrings taxed for their utmost tenderness; the bassoons exhorted
to a grievous solemnity.
You don't believe, however, that any real soul of a Margaret ever
appeared to any mortal in that manner?
_Here_ is an apotheosis also. Composed!--yes; figures high on the
right and left, low in the middle, etc., etc., etc.
But the important questions seem to me, Was there ever a St. Francis?--
_did_ he ever receive stigmata?--_did_his soul go up to heaven--did any
monk see it rising--and did Giotto mean to tell us so? If you will be
good enough to settle these few small points in your mind first, the
"composition" will take a wholly different aspect to you, according to
your answer.
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