Comparison of Giotto s Epiphany to Pietro di Domenco da Montepulciano s Madonna and Child with
The paintings which I will be comparing are Giotto’s Epiphany to Pietro di Domenco da Montepulciano’s Madonna and Child with Angles. ... The other painting is Pietro di Domenco da Montepulciano’s Madonna and Child with Angles, from around 1420. ... In the Epiphany Giotto has handled space in an interesting way. The man in the foreground who is holding the Christ child and wearing the red cloak has his back turned to us. ... It gives it three-dimensionality by adding depth to the picture; it really makes you feel as if you are standing behind the man holding the Christ child. In the Madonna and Child with Angles space is handled much differently, the people appear to be flat, and there is no depth to the picture. The Madonna and Child seem to be in the foreground which seems to have no space between it and the background, which contains the angels. ... The corner of the dress is over the Madonna’s shoulder which places it in front of the Madonna, meaning it is in the foreground even more so then the Madonna herself. ... I think this shows that Pietro had less sense of prospective and space then Giotto. Giotto’s painting seems to be three-dimensional because of the placement of all the figures, there are figures in the foreground, the virgin is in the middle ground and the angels are in the background. Where as the Pietro seems to have no definitive foreground or background. Giotto also handles people better than Pietro. Giotto’s figures are columnar and seem to take up space within the painting, giving them a much more realistic appearance than the flat figures of Pietro. Pietro’s figures seem to take up no pictorial space. Giotto’s figures are much more emotional than Pietro’s such as the man in the bottom left that is looking at Jesus is very emotional, he looks amazed to be looking at the son of God. ... In Pietro’s piece all the people seem to be calm and collected.