Giotto: artistic realism,political realism

The conventional view of Giotto is that he was a great narrative and dramatic painter. In addition his art was ideologically aligned with the Guelph party in Florence and its allies: the papacy, the Franciscan establishment and the house of Anjou. This can be traced in his paintings, especially the fresco cycles. Internal evidence suggests that in addition to his acknowledged cycle for the Scrovegni family in Padua he was the principal artistic deviser of many of the disputed frescoes in the nave of the Upper Church at Assisi, including the paintings of the life of St. Francis.There is also evidence that many of his frescoes in various parts of Italy (including cycles no longer extant) were undertaken at the behest of the Florentine commune as part of its diplomacy. He was in fact the first artist to become part of the bourgeois ruling class, and his spatial and plastic realism was in complete accord with their interests.The Scrovegni cycle is more complex than has been realised, involving a profound allegory which fulfils the needs of the patron, expresses Giotto's world view, and at the same time serves the diplomatic interest of Florence.