Behold this Annunciazione Mural before you. What if I told you this wasn’t just paint on a wall? It is a portal into a sacred moment. The Annunciazione Mural is a visual echo of a divine announcement.
The video “Untitled (The Annunciation)” was commissioned by Fondazione Rivoli Due. It was to be shown alongside Sironi’s preparatory sketch “The Annunciation”. This happened at the exhibition “Mario Sironi, L’Annunciazione. Drawing, Architecture and Contemporary narrative”. Sironi’s sketch became the main stained-glass window for the chapel at Niguarda Hospital in Milan.
The video itself takes you inside the Niguarda Chapel. It follows the flight of doves. This draws your eye to the chapel’s Monumentalism style. Finally it reveals the fine details of Sironi’s stained-glass window.
Consider Giotto di Bondone an Italian painter and architect from Florence. He lived during the Late Middle Ages. Giotto’s contemporary Giovanni Villani said he was the most sovereign master of painting. He drew figures and their postures according to nature. Giorgio Vasari said Giotto broke from the Byzantine style. He initiated the great art of painting. He introduced drawing accurately from life.
Giotto’s masterwork is the decoration of the Scrovegni Chapel in Padua. It is also known as the Arena Chapel. The fresco cycle depicts the Life of the Virgin and the Life of Christ. It is a masterpiece of the Early Renaissance.
Tradition says Giotto was born in a farmhouse. Vasari said Giotto was a shepherd boy who was loved by all. Cimabue discovered him drawing sheep on a rock. The drawings were so lifelike that Cimabue asked Giotto to be his apprentice.
One story tells of Giotto painting a lifelike fly on Cimabue’s painting. Cimabue tried to brush it off several times. Another story says Pope Benedict XI asked Giotto for a drawing to demonstrate his skill. Giotto drew a perfect red circle and sent it to the Pope. The Pope was amazed by Giotto’s skill.
Around 1290 Giotto married Ricevuta di Lapo del Pela. They had four daughters and four sons. One son Francesco became a painter. Giotto worked in Rome from 1297 to 1300. By 1301 he owned a house in Florence.
Giotto may have gone to Assisi with Cimabue. They painted frescoes at the Basilica of Saint Francis of Assisi. The authorship of the Life of St. Francis cycle is debated. Some experts say the frescoes were by the Master of Isaac.
Giotto’s fame spread and he was called to work in Padua and Rimini. By 1301 he possessed large estates in Florence. Around 1305 Giotto executed the frescoes of the Scrovegni Chapel in Padua.
The theme of the decoration is Salvation. It emphasizes the Virgin Mary. The west wall is dominated by the Last Judgement. Paintings of the angel Gabriel and the Virgin Mary depict the Annunciation.
Vasari said Giotto was the ugliest man in Florence. Dante visited Giotto while he was painting the Scrovegni Chapel. He asked how a man who painted such beautiful pictures could have such plain children. Giotto replied “I make my pictures by day and my babies by night.”
Much of the blue in the frescoes has been worn away by time. Giotto’s style drew on the sculpture of Arnolfo di Cambio. His figures are three-dimensional and based on close observation.
Giotto’s depiction of the human face and emotion sets his work apart. Famous narratives include the Adoration of the Magi. Giotto may have been inspired by Halley’s comet.
From 1306 to 1311 Giotto was in Assisi. In 1334 Giotto was appointed chief architect to Florence Cathedral. He designed the bell tower known as Giotto’s Campanile.
After Giotto’s death Andrea Pisano and Francesco Talenti took over the tower’s construction. Before 1337 he was in Milan with Azzone Visconti. Giotto died in January 1337.
As you stand here before the Annunciazione Mural remember the layers of history and artistry. It is a testament to faith and creativity. May this image inspire awe and reflection.