Giotto's Use of Architecture in 'The Expulsion of Joachim' and 'The Entry into Jerusalem' at

Padua
Author(s): John White
Source: The Burlington Magazine, Vol. 115, No. 844 (Jul., 1973), pp. 439-447+449
Published by: The Burlington Magazine Publications Ltd.
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 ARNOLFO DI CAMBIO
designed as a pendant, perhapsfor Napoleone's own tomb.144
Behind and above the altar of the Cappella di San Nicola
is the tomb of Giangaetano Orsini, the cardinal's brother
who had died in 1294, the year of Boniface VIII's accession
(Fig.42). Above the tomb recess appears a painted triptych
of the Virgin with Saints Nicholas and Francis, and above
that a stained glass window with two lancets, showing
Cardinal Napoleone being presented to Christ in the apex,
and Giangaetano Orsini in the zone below being presented
to Saint Nicholas (Fig.43). The frescoes in the chapel at
Assisi were completed before i307, for one of the figures on
the intrados of the entrance arch was copied in reverse in a
panel painting of that year by Giuliano da Rimini, originally
from the Duomo at Urbania.146
It is possible that painted triptychs already formed part of
the decoration of the Lower Church at Assisi before the addi-
tion of the transept chapels.147With the exception of this
144Cardinal Orsini was eventually interred in St Peters, in the chapel dedi-
cated to S. Martial which he had founded. Cf. WILLEMSEN,op. cit., pp.193
note 594 and quoting the codicil of Orsini's will Vat. Lat. 7930 f. 154 v
ff.
Nevertheless there appears to exist a niche to receive a sepulchral monument
beneath the 'triptych' by Pietro Lorenzetti. It is now covered by a later metal
panel.
145 The attribution to Giovanni di Cosma by Fillippini cannot be sustained:
Cf. FILLIPPINI, op. cit., pp.85-86.
146 Reproduced and discussed by M. MEIss: Giottoand Assisi, New York [i960],
PP.3 ff.
147Fragments of a triptych painted on the wall above a side altar beside the
entrance to the Cappella della Maddalena by the Maestro di S. Francesco
were published by j. SCHULTZE: 'Zur Kunst des "Franziskusmeisters," '
JOHN
Giotto's use of Architecture
and 'The Entry into
A number of attempts, some more successful and some less,
have recently been made to connect the architecture repre-
sented in several of the narrative scenes in the Arena Chapel
with real structuresthat Giotto would, or might, have known.
So far no actual portraitsof a particular building or part of a
building have been found. In every case a new pictorial
structure has been created from an amalgam of past experi-
ences of the real world. Nevertheless, the Temple in The
Expulsionof theMoneyChangers has been linked with Giovanni
Pisano's design for the facade of the Duomo at Siena.' The
building on the right of TheMassacreof theInnocents has been
connected with the outside of the choir of S. Francesco in
Bologna and with Tuscan Baptistries.2The altar-canopy or
ciborium which appears by itself in ThePresentation of Christ,
and as part of the Temple complex in The Expulsionof
Joachim and The Presentation of the Virgin (Figs.44,45), has
been compared to the real ciborium of S. Eleucadio in S.
1 P. CELLINI:'La "facciata
semplice" del Duomo di Siena,' Proporzioni,II
[1948], pp.55-6I.
2 D. GIOSEFFI: Giottoarchitetto, Milan [1963], p.48, and j. WHrrE: Art and Archi-
tecture in Italy: 250io-4oo, Harmondsworth [1966], p.2io.
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AND ROMAN TOMB DESIGN
'inserted' motif however the design of the Orsini chapel
derives directly from that of Pope Boniface VIII. Neverthe-
less the Cappella di San Nicola has taken the conception of
the mortuary chapel an important step further, in a way
that had been impossible within the old Vatican basilica.
The tomb chapel has now become a separate architectural
entity. A strong case can be made for the Cappella di San
Nicola as the crucial monument in the development of the
fully decorated sepulchral chapel. It was a design which
was to be strikingly paralleled by Bernini in the monument
of the Beata Lodovica Albertoni in S. Francesco a Ripa in
Rome. 148
Thus Arnolfo di Cambio'slast tomb design proved notably
influential, but its popularity was not at the expense of his
earlier compositions, which were better suited to clients of
more modest ambition and slenderer means. In the half-
century after I280 all his tomb designs were taken up and
developed with varying degrees of success by Roman tomb
masons. Arnolfo's role in the development of Roman tomb
design was seminal. On a wider front the influence of his
designs can be traced throughout Italy well into the Quat-
trocento. That he was so influential is largely because of the
fact that his achievement was not as isolated as has previ-
ously been supposed.
Wallraf-Richartz-Jahrbuch,XXV [1963], pp.109-150. Fig.I I6. That this
formed part of a programme seems indicated by the 'triptychs' in the Orsini
chapels, and by those set below the fresco cycles of the transept.
148 Cf. R. WITTKOWER:Bernini, London [I955], Fig.i I6.
WHITE
in 'The Expulsion of Joachim'
Jerusalem' at Padua
Apollinare in Classe at Ravenna.3 It is uncertain if Giotto
was actually familiar with this particular ciborium, but he
would clearly have seen similar structures,some of them in
Rome, as well as many later, twelfth and thirteenth-century
examples, amongst them those of his recent predecessor
Arnolfo di Cambio.4 He must also have been very familiar
with the rectangular, column-supported pulpits of which
there were large numbers in Tuscany as well as in Southern
Italy. Even so, when faced with the completed design of
either TheExpulsionof Joachimor ThePresentation of the Virgin,
one hardly seems to be muchnearertounderstandingprecisely
what it was that Giotto had in mind when he chose this
3 GIOSEFFI,OP. cit., p.48 and Fig.39.B.
4 The twisted columns in the Ciborium of S. Eleucadio (Illus. c. RIccr:
RomanesqueArchitecture in Italy, London [1925], Fig.66) are very different from
those in Giotto's frescoes, which seem clearly to reflect the type popularised
in the late thirteenth century. Although only fragments of the early type now
survive in Rome, examples with plain or fluted columns are fairly common
(e.g. Perugia, Pal. dell' UniversitAi; Bolsena, Collegiata; Viterbo, S. Giovanni
in Zoccoli; Orvieto, S. Lorenzo: RICCI, op. cit., Figs. 120, 138, 134, 120).
Arnolfo's own ciboria in S. Paolo fuori le Mura and S. Cecilia also have
smooth columns, but the twisted form is one of the constant themes of the
architecture, sculpture, and painting of the late thirteenth century.
439
 GIOTTO S USE
particular configurationof images to representthe temple.
It is true that the medieval practice of using the internal
furniture of a building to represent the building as a whole
continued to be popular throughout the thirteenth and early
fourteenth centuries. It is also evident not only that Giotto
wished to construct a solid platform for his figures, but also
that he would have seen the altar and the pulpit as symbol-
izing the two main functions of the church on earth, the
sacramental and the predicant.5 These, and many other
things, were likely to have been in Giotto's mind when he
faced the problem of how to give maximum impact to the
opening scene of the entire earthly narrative at Padua. The
essential point for understanding his methods is that he
succeeds in bringing them all together, not merely in a
semi-abstract or symbolic structure, a purely pictorial con-
struction, but in an image that was as sharp, as precise, and
as thoroughly realistic as it was familiar. What he eventually
decided on was the re-evocation, in all its essentials, of an
actual choir and sanctuary enclosure of the kind that he had
seen in the Roman Basilicas which were in one way or
another closely associated with the Early Christian Church.
As he culled his memories of a multiplicity of ciboria and
pulpits, he also saw in his mind's eye a total configuration
which is still epitomised, albeit in reconstructedform, in S.
Clemente.
Comparison of The Expulsionof Joachim(Fig.44) with the
general views of the ninth-twelfth-century enclosure at S.
Clemente (Figs.46,47), with its twelfth-century ciborium
and thirteenth-centurypaschal candlestick,shows how much
they held in common. Both are raised upon a one-step
platform. Though the patterning is different, the walls of
both enclosures are characterized by a panelling of simple
rectangles surroundedby plain mouldings. In both of them.
the pulpits or ambos lie outside the line of the main enclosing
rectangle. In both there is a lateral extension as the altar
itself is reached, creating in the case of Giotto's design a
clearly cruciform ground-plan. The formal need for a clear
view of the main figures is a sufficient explanation for
Giotto's preference for a single pulpit, quite apart from
contemporary Tuscan architectural practice. Similarly, the
choice of a columnar form was almost certainly influenced
by the advantagesof an open supportstructureand increased
height in helping him to accentuate the figures without
outweighing or, in the case of The Presentation(Fig.45),
obscuring them. Since there is no question whatsoever of
The Expulsion of Joachim being a portrait of S. Clemente in
particular, the essential relationship is in no way disturbed
by changes of this kind, any more than it is by Giotto's
preference for a variation on an early type of ciborium,
which may well, by the beginning of the fourteenth century,
have come to be associated with the Early Christian Church.
On a more abstract level, enclosures such as that at S.
Clemente must, because of their striking quality as clear,
bounded, rectangular solids, have been particularly inter-
esting to Giotto as he tackled the problem of obtaining
pictorial solidity by perspectival means. The abrupt rec-
tangularity of Giotto's design in The Expulsion and the
strength of the impression that one could walk round it are
only matched by the reality. Because it is virtually free-
5 WHITE, Op. Cit.,pp.207-8.
440
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OF ARCHITECTURE
standing within the wide space of the nave, the invitation to
move round the enclosurein S. Clemente is almost irresistible.
Something of the jutting angular relationships, which occur
immediately one does so, and which are so strikinglyreflected
in Giotto's design, can be appreciated from
Figs.48-50o.
That Giotto had himself walked round such structuresand
that he expected the spectator in the Arena Chapel to do
likewise in imagination are shown by the extent to which, in
the face of the pictorial demands of a quite different story,
he has attempted, in ThePresentation of the Virgin(Fig.45), to
suggest that one has simply moved round to a different view
of the structure previously seen in The Expulsionof Joachim
(Fig.44). His subsequent, rigorous concern for the unity of
place throughout the narrative in the Arena Chapel and, in
particular, his triumphant invention of the dual-purpose
structurewhich appearsin TheAnnunciation toAnnaand again
in TheBirth of the Virginprove his intention.6
The impression which Giotto evidently intended in The
Presentationis that one has just walked round to the right of
TheExpulsion,past the entrance, to obtain a diagonal view of
the rectangular enclosure from the front right instead of
from the front left. From such a position the columns sup-
porting the pulpit would indeed overlap the opening of the
entrance and the pulpit would appear in front of, and par-
tially obscuring, the ciborium. Again because the demands
of the narrative and of his figure design were paramount,
Giotto has modified the relationship of the pulpit to the
ciborium by rotating its casket through ninety degrees. This
means that the steps, instead of running straight up to the
short side of the casket turn through a right angle at the
level of the upper platform or landing. This allows the long
sides of the casket to lie parallel to the left face of the
ciborium. It creates a more compact design and prevents
the pulpit supportsfrom coming too far forwardson the left.
That Giotto has made the minimum necessary modifica-
tions to something which he wishes the observerto recognise
as a differentview of the same structureis proved by the very
careful repetition not merely of the obvious decorative and
structuraldetails of enclosure,pulpit, and ciborium alike, but
by one particularly complex and significant piece of careful
representationallogic. This tell-tale proof of Giotto's inten-
tions lies in the representationof the lower part of the steps
up to the pulpit. Earlier it was mentioned in passing that the
enclosure was cruciform in plan. A careful examination of
The Expulsion (Fig.44) shows that the steps of the pulpit run
down from the casket into the angle below the cross-arm
which corresponds to the similar angle that appears im-
mediately in front of the altar on the spectator's side. The
steps do not, however, run straight on into the enclosure.
Their lack of visible continuation; the termination of the
further sloping hand-rail at a point corresponding to the
beginning of the lower platform; and finally the appearance
above the platform, but below the forward section of hand-
rail, of a further horizontal section of hand-rail, prove that
the steps turn through a right-angle at the level of the lower
platform, to run on down along the outer face of the right
arm of the cruciform enclosure. This largely implicit situa-
tion is then explicitly described in The Presentationof the
"The relationship between these two
designs is discussed in WHITE,Op. Cit.,
pp.208-9.
44. The Expulsion of Joachim, by Giotto. (Arena Chapel, Padua.)

45. The Presentationof the Virgin,by Giotto. (Arena Chapel, Padua.)

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46. Interior of S. Clemente, Rome.

47. Choir Enclosure, S. Clemente, Rome.

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 GIOTTO'S USE OF
Virgin(Fig.45). Now that the observer has moved from a left
diagonal view of the enclosure to a right diagonal view, the
point at which the lower flight of steps turns through ninety
degrees, to run along the outer face of the cross-armof the
enclosure, is clearly visible where the forward faces of the
risers of the stairs come into view between the heads of the
two right-hand figures.7
The vivid experience of the changing inter-relationshipsof
cubic forms to which Giotto refers,and which can be experi-
enced in real life as one moves round an enclosure such as
S. Clemente, is partially reflectedin Figs.48-50.8Though the
detailed forms are not the same, the increasing sense of
angularity as one moves round to the right from distant and
frontal views is easily appreciated. One can also see in
principle how the spatially separatedforms of the pulpit and
ciborium move together, make contact, and finally congeal
into a changing series of single complex solids. The simi-
larity to the process of change described by Giotto in The
Expulsionand ThePresentation is startling.
The extent to which the enclosure in S. Clemente repre-
sents the entire functional core of the church, the remainder
being, as it were, merely a protective shell, is obvious from
Fig.47. It is therefore, typical of Giotto that this is what he
should have chosen not merely to symbolise but to depict. It
is no less typical that, in representing the temple, he should
have decided to do it in a way that epitomises its historical
position as a forerunner and antetype of the Christian
Church.
The strengthening sense of history, which is so evident in
the art of Giotto and which was fundamental to the emer-
gence of the Renaissance, may also provide the primary
explanation for the form which Giotto gives to the City
Gates in the scenes of TheEntryintoJerusalemand TheCarry-
ing of the Cross(Figs.5I, 52). Here Giotto's insistance on the
unity of place emphasises the tragic counterpoint between
the joyous entry and the harrowing departure. It is implicit
in the entire Gospel narrative of the Passion that this was
Roman Jerusalem. Moreover, it is noticeable that whenever
Giotto portrays the city walls, whether in these two scenes or
in the Meetingat theGoldenGate,or in TheRaisingof Drusiana
in the Peruzzi Chapel, he invariably gives them V-shaped,
Ghibelline, Imperial battlements, as opposed to the
square-cut form associated with the Guelph or papal party.
This at least does something to prepare one for the discovery
that Giotto's City Gates, through which Christ entered in
triumph and went out as a victim of Imperial power, bear a
remarkable resemblance to the gates of the fortress palace
which Diocletian, one of the great persecutors of the Early
Christian Church, built for himself at Split on the Jugoslav
coast opposite Pescara.
The closeness of the resemblance can be seen by compar-
7J. PElbNA:TektonickjProstora Architektura u Giotta,Prague [1945], Figs.I and 2,
reconstructs ground plans of the frescoes at Assisi and Padua, including both
The Expulsionand The Presentation.In the case of The Expulsion,however, the
positions of the uprights supporting the stair-rails are not indicated. As a result,
the ending of the far balustrade, marked by an upright which, because of the
foreshortening of the stairway, appears between the second and third forward
uprights from the left, has not been noticed. Similarly, the significance of the
closure of the platform on the left, and of the appearance of the end-rail above
the platform, have been missed.
8 The photographs for Figs.48-5o were kindly taken for me by Nicholas
Adams.
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ARCHITECTURE
ing the two scenes at Padua, and especially that of The
Entry (Fig.51), with the detail of the western gates of Dio-
cletian's Palace in Hebrard's bird's-eye water-colour recon-
struction of I912 (Fig.53).9 The polygonal form of the flank-
ing towers is closely analogous. Both have smooth masonry
and plain round-headed window openings, though Giotto
shows an increased number of such openings and the arrow
slits have been transposedfrom the first to the upper part of
the second floors. The pitched roofs, and the three main
stories, divided by cornices, are common to both. Even the
relationship between the storeys is similar, the first being
considerably taller than the second and the second slightly
taller than the third. The general proportions are a good
deal slimmer at Padua, but how easily proportions of this
kind do change can be seen by comparing Hebrard'sgeneral
perspective view with his own archaeologically accurate
elevation of this same Western Gateway, known as the Porta
Ferrea
(Fig.54).1o
This reveals, as do photographs of the surviving parts of
the gateway itself, that although there was a heavy, rec-
tangular lintel, this was surmounted by a round-headed,
relieving arch filled with open work (Fig.54). This gave the
whole the appearanceof a round-headedopening of the kind
which occurs in a quite straightforward manner in the
corresponding inner face of the gatehouse (Fig.55). It is
worth noting that a similar slimming of the general propor-
tions and a similar alteration from octagonal to hexagonal
form occurs both in a fifteenth-centurymanuscriptillumina-
tion and in the polygonal tower visible in Girolamo da Sta.
Croce's representationof the Palace as a model in the hands
of St Doinus in his altar-pieceof 1549, which is still preserved
at Split.
These two representations, published by Marasovick,
show that in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries the poly-
gonal gate-towers were still one of the recognition symbols
for Diocletian's Palace. This is not surprising, since, as can
be seen from the plan (Fig.56),x2each of the three land-ward
gates of the rectangular enclosure were of identical basic
design. This includes the most ornate of them, the Porta
Aurea, with its extensive sculptural decoration. The poly-
gonal towers, which were their most unusual feature, have
now been destroyed,though traces still remain. Nevertheless,
the fifteenth and sixteenth-centuryechoes, together with the
fact that the northern tower of the Porta Ferrea was still
standing when Robert Adam and Charles Louis Clirisseau
surveyed the Palace at the end of the eighteenth century,'3
ensure that in the early fourteenth century the gateways
could have been considered to be a characteristic feature of
the building.
No specific answer can at present be given to the question
of how Giotto might have known of Diocletian's Palace and
of its distinctive external hall-mark. The political situation
* HABRARDand ZEILER:
Spalato,le Palais de Dioclitien, Paris [1912], unnumbered
colour-plate, p.I.
10 HiBRARD, Op. cit., p.48.
11 j. and T. MARASOVI6:Der Palast des Diokletian, Vienna
[1969], Suppl. Figs.2, 3.
12 A. BOETuwUS and J. B. WARD-PERKINS: Etruscan and Roman Architecture, Har-
mondsworth [1970], Fig.2oo.
1aThe indication in the more freely interpretative general and detailed plans
in R. ADAM: Ruins of the Palace of the EmperorDiocletian at Spalatroin Dalmatia
[I784], pls.II, V, is confirmed by C16risseau's archaeologically conservative
'plan exact' reproduced in HABRARD,Op. Cit., p.17.
443
 GIOTTO' S USE OF ARCHITECTURE
was, however, such that there were constant contacts be-
tween Italy and the towns of the Dalmatian coast. These had
long been a secure part of Venetian territory and remained
so until the middle of the fourteenthcentury. For an example
of artistic interchange, the pulpit still to be seen in what was
once the Mausoleum of Diocletian is closely related to one
which once stood in Trani, and both of them are closely
allied to that of Nicola Pisano in the Baptistry at Pisa.14
From Venice itself there must have been a continuous flow
of commercial and other sea-borne traffic to the cities of the
Dalmatian coast and nothing would have been easierthanfor
Giotto himself to have made such a trip. Even if he did not,
he would have had ample opportunity, in and around
Venice, to meet people who had. He could well have heard
first-hand accounts of the Palace and, indeed, seen drawings
of it.
The paucity of surviving early fourteenth-centuryarchi-
tectural drawings, and the degree of artistic licence normally
apparent in the buildings representedin the narrative com-
positions of the period, must not be allowed to obscure the
remarkabledescriptiveaccuracy which could be achieved by
architecturaldraughtsmenwhen accuracywas required. It is
always assumed, and correctly assumed, that for the greater
part of the middle ages an artist or architect could only
acquire accurate visual information about a building by
actually visiting it. However, by the mid-thirteenth century
a change is already beginning to take place, and by the first
years of the fourteenth century it is certainly no longer a
valid assumption that architects and artists could not and
did not give accurate portrayals of what they had seen on
their travels to fellow artists who were interested. The more
or less contemporary drawings for the fagade of the Duomo
at Orvieto,15or the drawing for the campanile at Florence1e
show what delicacy and precision could be attained, and
what a range of accurate information could be transmitted,
when so desired. The later drawings for a pulpit at Orvieto,
for the Baptistry fagade of the Duomo at Siena, or for the
Cappella di Piazza, also in Siena,"1 are virtually inter-
changeable with the earlier ones as far as the accuracy and
finesse of the latter are concerned. All of them are merely
the few chance survivors of what must once have been a
mass of similar works. Finally, if further evidence is needed,
Giotto's own portrayal of the Arena Chapel in The Last
Judgementat Padua (Figs.57,58) certainly supplies it.18
The likelihood that Giotto's design is indeed a reflection
of, and an intentional reference to, what must have been a
famous building in his day is increased by the rarity of the
form. A similar gateway once existed at Salano a few miles
from Split and the form later appears at Mschatta in
1u For the pulpit at Split see
MARASOVI6,op. Cit., Figs.54, 56.
5 Illus, B. DEGENHART, A. SCHMIDT: CorpusderItalienischeZeichnungenx3oo-145o,
4 vols, Berlin [1968], Teil I, Band 3, Figs.24-28, and in E. CARLI:II Duomo
di Orvieto,Rome [1965], pp.15, 16, and Le sculturedel Duomodi Orvieto,Bergamo
[1947], pp.i6, 17.
16 Illus, DEGENHART, op. cit., Fig.66, and in
WHrTE, op. cit., Fig.74 (a), (b), and
M. TRACHTENBERG: The Campanile of FlorenceCathedral, New York [1971],
Figs.IX, 5.
17 For all three, see DEGENHART, op. cit., Figs.7I-75, 67-70, and 85-87, and
for the Baptistry, WHITE, op. cit., Figs.154-5.
18GIOSEFFI,op. cit., p.42, discusses the likelihood that the transept included in
Giotto's representation reflects an original design which was, in this one
respect, replaced in execution by a more modest scheme.
4444
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Transjordan,19but it is not a common feature of Italian
fortifications. The gates of Rome itself were, for example,
flanked by rounded or by rectangular towers,20 as were
virtually all the earlier gates which had towers at all. Apart
from the gateway at Split, half a dozen or so other gateways,
or parts of gateways, with related polygonal towers do sur-
vive from late antiquity, but none of them are very close in
detailed form either to Giotto's representation or to the
pattern at Split. To take the most obvious differences,all of
them had multiple openings for roadways and foot passages,
and none of the towers, where their form can still be ascer-
tained, were divided into storeys by a series of cornices. The
finest of these gateways, the Porta Palatina at Turin, with
its extremely widely spaced, sixteen-sidedtowers, had a total
of four road and foot-way entrances surmounted by a com-
plex, multi-storeysuper-structure,so that the total effect was
vastly different.21The closest to Giotto is perhaps that at
Spello in Umbria (Fig.59), a town with which Giotto is quite
likely to have been familiar. There, however, the fine
decagonal towers stand upon rectangular bases, only one of
which is partly visible in the illustration, and flank a highly
restored triple entry. There is a series of round-headed
windows on two levels, but these are placed, as at Turin,
where there are four sets, upon alternate faces of the poly-
gons. Once again there is no horizontal division by cornices.
Triple entries were also characteristicof the gate-ways at
Avrenches, which may have already been a ruin as early as
the end of the third century, and at Como, where again only
the foundations survive. The vertically undifferentiated,
twenty-four-sided Torre di Ansperto in Milan still stands,
on the other hand, but stands alone, as does the sixteen-
sided tower at Asti which had, in any case, already acquired
a cylindrical upper element by the thirteenth century at
the latest. The likelihood that other late antique gates of
this general form were still extant in the early fourteenth
century must, of course, be borne in mind, Nevertheless,
the more the small amount of comparable late antique
material is examined in the context of Giotto's design, the
more remarkable the detailed correspondenceswith Split
appear to be.
Polygonal towers and keeps, which are very different in
form, do appear here and there among the innumerable
medieval castles and town walls scattered throughout
Italy,22 but with two notable exceptions I have so far been
unable to find examples of polygonal towers as the flanking
elements of a gateway.
The two exceptions are interesting in themselves. The
19
See j. STRZYGoWSKI: 'MschattaII', Jahr. kon. Preuss.Kunstsammlungen, XXV
[1904], PP-225-73.
20 See L. G.
COZZI:Le Porte di Roma, Rome [1968].
21 See BOETHISand
WARD-PERKINS,Op.cit., p.304, where a reconstruction of
this gate is given (Fig. xl7) and the other examples discussed below are listed.
For the gate at Avrenches, see G. SCHWARZ:Die KaiserstadtAventicum,Berne
[1964]. H. VON PETRIKOVrrs: 'Fortifications in the North Western Roman
Empire from the third to the fifth centuries A.D.', Journal of RomanStudies,
LXI [1971], 178-2 18, contains a useful hand list. There is also much additional
information in TILMANN BECKERT: 'R6mische Lagertore und ihre Bauin-
schriften', BonnerJahrbucher,I71 [1971], pp.20o-287, in which, on pp.273-4
(P1.25. 5) traces of a polygonal gate-tower at Risingham and, on p.286 (Pl.37.i),
the originally polygonal form at Windisch are discussed.
22 The most complete survey is still B. EBHARDT: Die
Burgen Italiens, 6 vols.
Berlin [I909-27].
48. Detail from Choir Enclosure, S."tClemente,
Rome. 49. Detail from Choir Enclosure, S. Clemente, Rome. 50. D
R

5'. The Entryinto Jerusalem,by Giotto. (Arena Chapel, Padua.) 52. The Carryingof the Cross,by Giotto. (Arena Chapel, Pa

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53.54.

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53. Detail from bird's-cye reconstruction of the Palace of Diocletian, Split, by Hd-
brard.

54. Reconstruction of the Porta Ferrea, Palace of Diocletian, Split, Ht

by brard.

55. Gatehouse Arch and Outer Gate of the Porta Fcrrea, seen fro:n the Interior,
Palace of Diocletian, Split.

56. Ground-plan of the Palace of Diocletian, Split (Ward-Perkins).

SPALATO (SPLIT)
55-

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 GIOTTO'S USE
first is Frederick II's Capua Gate.23 Here, however, the
resemblenceis very partial, since only the bases of the towers
are polygonal, whilst the main bodies are circular. Further-
more, the masonry of the polygonal sections is not smooth,
like that at Split and in Giotto's Entry,but cut 'all'antica'in
the manner of that in the lower part of Giotto's Meetingat
the GoldenGate, itself a further confirmation of Giotto's
determination to characterizeJerusalem as a Roman city.
The second example is Frederick II's Castel del Monte,
where the towers, like the main body of the castle, are
octagonal (Fig.6o). There, however, the form of the entry
itself is very different and the towers are not specifically
gate-towers. They are merely the two in an identical series
of eight which happen to have a gate between them.
Furthermore,they are very different in general appearance,
since they have no windows and are divided roughly half-
way up by a single cornice. Nevertheless, it is an interesting
2SSee C. A. WILLEMSEN: Kaiser FriedrichsII Triumphtorzu Capua, Wiesbaden
[1953], Taf. 1-5.
CHARLES
The Building Programme of
THE architecture of Early Renaissance Florence has been
the subject of an increasing number of detailed studies.x
During the past several decades attention has been focused
upon the specific cloisters,churches,palaces and institutional
buildings of the city. Archival research has played the most
prominent role in these endeavours. As a result of these
recent examinations, the names of several previously un-
familiar architects and builders have been added to the
already well-known triumvirate of Brunelleschi, Michelozzo
and Alberti. Bernardo Rossellino, for instance, is beginning
to be accorded a significant position in the formation of the
Florentine architecturalstyle.2 Lesser architecturalluminar-
ies, such as Antonio Manetti, Pagno di Lapo Portigiani,
Andrea di Nofri, Antonio di Domenico and the Gieri family,
are also beginning to emerge from obscurity. Soon this re-
search into the histories of specific monuments and per-
sonalities may result in a broader reconstruction of the
entire architectural situation in Florence at the beginning
of the Renaissance.
*Research for this paper was carried out in the Spring of 1970 with the aid of
a grant from the Samuel H. Kress Foundation.
1
I should like to single out for special mention, H. SAALMAN's 'The Palazzo
Comunale in Montepulciano: An Unknown Work by Michelozzo,' Zeitschritf
far Kunstgeschichte,XXVIII [1965], pp.Iff. This article goes far beyond the
limited scope suggested by its title and presents a most fascinating consideration
of Florentine architectural practice.
2Bernardo di Matteo Ghamberelli called Rossellino (1409-1464) is most
celebrated as a sculptor for his Monument to Leonardo Bruni and as an
architect for his designing of the papal city of Pienza. His career was reviewed
in M. TYSZKIEWICZ: BernardoRossellino,Florence [1929] and in L. PLANISCIG:
Bernardound AntonioRossellino, Vienna [I942]. To these earlier studies and
several individual articles have been added two dissertations, one by A.
MARKHAM:The Sculptureof BernardoRossellinoand his Workshop,New York Univ.
[1968] and the other by c. MACK:Studiesin the ArchitecturalCareerof Bernardo
di Matteo Ghamberellicalled Rossellino,Univ. of North Carolina [1972].
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OF ARCHITECTURE
coincidence that the only major post-antiqueexamples of the
form in terms of real architecture should have been built
in an Imperial context and by no less an Emperor than
Frederick II, who was consciously reviving Imperial forms
for political ends and who was still, in Giotto's day, some
half a century later, remembered as the very symbol of
Imperial hostility to the church.
In short, if what might seem, in the case of TheExpulsion
of Joachimand The Presentation of the Virgin,to be a rather
simple-minded pictorial symbol or analogy can be seen with
virtual certainty to be a precise evocation of the reality still
represented by the internal dispositionsof S. Clemente, it is
by no means as improbable as it might at first appear to be
that the forms of the gateways in the scenes of TheEntryinto
Jerusalemand The Carryingof the Cross were derived by
Giotto from the Palace of Diocletian, and that they were
chosen by him for the rich weight of associationwhich they
carried. If, on the other hand, what is involved in what
appears to be the only surviving example of Giotto's use of
a portrayal of an existing building in a narrative context is
only a coincidence, it is, at least, a very remarkableone.
RANDALL MACK
the Cloister of San Miniato*
As part of this continuing examination of Quattrocento
Florentine architecture, Howard Saalman published an
article in this Magazine in 1964 which dealt with the
cloister of the Basilica of San Miniato al Monte.3 Saalman's
study was concerned primarily with establishing Paolo
Uccello's authorship of the fresco decorations of the cloister
but he also made some valuable observationsconcerning the
construction of the cloister buildings and loggias themselves.
On several points, however, the article did engender a few
misconceptions.
In discussing the construction of the cloister, Saalman
wrote: 'The chief contractor is Andrea di Antonio di Gieri.
... More interesting is the fact that the architectural
details for the job were the product of the shop of Bernardo
and Antonio di Matteo called Rossellino.'4 Pointing to
certain payment records in the Libri di debitorie creditori
of the institution, Saalman concluded that 'it is obvious that
the Rossellino shop determined the formal aspects of the
construction.'5Actually, however, the role which Saalman
gave to Andrea di Antonio di Gieri is somewhat misleading
and that which he assignedto the Rossellinoshop is definitely
so. Although the documentation presented by Saalman does
prove Bernardo Rossellino's presence at the project, his
architecturalparticipation was really quite minimal.
San Miniato had originally belonged to the Cluniac
order but had passed into the hands of the Olivetians in
I373-74.* At that time the establishment consisted of the
3 H. SAALMAN: 'Paolo Uccello at San Miniato,' THE BURLINGTON MAGAZINE,
CVI [19641, pp.558 ff.
* Ibid.,P.559*
6 Ibid.
6 w. and E. PAATZ: Die Kirchenvon Florenz, Frankfurt a. M. [194o-54], IV,
p.213.
447
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