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MADONNA AND SAINTS, ATTRIBUTED TO GIOTTO
In the lower church of Assisi

GIOTTO

BY HARRY QUILTER

LONDON
SAMPSON LOW, MARSTON, SEARLE, & RIVINGTON
CROWN BUILDINGS. 188, FLEET STREET
1880

(All rights reserved.)

LONDON: R. CLAY, SONS, AND TAYLOR,
BREAD STREET HILL, E.C.

TO THE MEMORY

OF

ELIZABETH HARRIET QUILTER

THIS ESSAY IS LOVINGLY DEDICATED
BY

HER YOUNGEST SON.

PREFACE.

My only object in writing these few words of prefaceis to state plainly the share of originality whichbelongs to this essay. This is rendered necessary because thesubject of the work has occupied the attention of manyauthors of far greater ability and experience than that ofwhich the present writer can boast.

The extent, then, to which this essay is original is asfollows:—The facts of Giotto's life have been taken fromVasari's Lives of the Painters and compared with those givenby all later writers on the same subject. As these laterauthors are mentioned throughout the book, wherever theiropinions are quoted, I need not give a list of them here.The descriptions of the pictures and sculptures of Giotto are,in all cases, written by myself after careful study of theoriginals. In no case whatever is an opinion expressed uponthe merit or meaning of a work which I have not personallyexamined; this applies to all pictures and statues mentionedin the essay as well as to those of Giotto.

The descriptions of Padua, Assisi, and Florence werewritten on the spot, and the vignettes of the two formertowns are reduced from sketches made by myself on purposefor the present work.

The fresco of the Unknown Madonna, formerly attributedvto Giotto, and still ascribed to him by the monks of Assisi,is reproduced here, by chromo-lithography, from a watercolourdrawing made by me at Assisi in the spring of lastyear—its only use is to show readers the kind of colouringprevalent in Giotto's work.

Lastly, for all criticisms, theories, and illustrations givenin the essay, I am alone responsible, except in cases wherethe name of the author is subjoined in a footnote.

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