Ruskin, John, 1819-1900 / 2008-09-12 00:00:00
And it
can hardly be doubted that Giotto had also a peculiar pleasure in
dwelling on the circumstances of the shepherd life of the father of
the Virgin, owing to its resemblance to that of his own early years.
The incidents represented in these first twelve paintings are recorded
in the two apocryphal gospels known as the "Protevangelion" and
"Gospel of St. Mary."[13] But on comparing the statements in these
writings (which, by the by, are in nowise consistent with each other)
with the paintings in the Arena Chapel, it appeared to me that Giotto
must occasionally have followed some more detailed traditions than are
furnished by either of them; seeing that of one or two subjects the
apocryphal gospels gave no distinct or sufficient explanation.
Fortunately, however, in the course of some other researches, I met
with a manuscript in the British Museum (Harl. 3571,) containing a
complete "History of the most Holy Family," written in Northern
Italian of about the middle of the 14th century; and appearing to be
one of the forms of the legend which Giotto has occasionally followed
in preference to the statements of the Protevangelion. I have
therefore, in illustration of the paintings, given, when it seemed
useful, some portions of this manuscript; and these, with one or two
verses of the commonly received accounts, will be found generally
enough to interpret sufficiently the meaning of the painter.
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