of evoking such feelings
has faults, that the types represented do not correspond to my ideal of
beauty, that the figures are too massive, and almost unarticulated; I
forgive them all, because I have much better to do than to dwell upon
faults.

But how does Giotto accomplish this miracle? With the simplest means,
with almost rudimentary light and shade, and functional line, he
contrives to render, out of all the possible outlines, out of all the
possible variations of light and shade that a given figure may have,
only those that we must isolate for special attention when we are
actually realising it. This determines his types, his schemes of colour,
even his compositions. He aims at types which both in face and figure
are simple, large-boned, and massive,--types, that is to say, which in
actual life would furnish the most powerful stimulus to the tactile
imagination. Obliged to get the utmost out of his rudimentary light and
shade, he makes his scheme of colour of the lightest that his contrasts
may be of the strongest. In his compositions, he aims at clearness of
grouping, so that each important figure may have its desired tactile
value. Note in the "Madonna" we have been looking at, how the shadows
compel us to realise every concavity, and the lights every convexity,
and how, with the play of the two, under the guidance of line, we
realise the significant parts of each figure, whether draped or
undraped. Nothing here but has its architectonic reason. Above all,
every line is functional; that is to say, charged with purpose. Its
existence, its direction, is absolutely determined by the need of
rendering the tactile values. Follow any line here, say in the figure of
the angel kneeling to the left, and see how it outlines and models, how
it enables you to realise the head, the torso, the hips, the legs, the
feet, and how its direction, its tension, is always determined by the
action. There is not a genuine fragment of Giotto in existence but has
these qualities, and to such a degree that the worst treatment has not
been able to spoil them. Witness the resurrected frescoes in Santa Croce
at Florence!

[Page heading: SYMBOLISM OF GIOTTO]

The rendering of tactile values once recognised as the most important
specifically artistic quality of Giotto's work, and as his personal
contribution to the art of painting, we are all the better fitted to
appreciate his more obvious though less peculiar merits--merits, I must
add,