Masaccio's Holy Trinity and Giotto

Masaccio's Holy Trinity And Giotto Di Bondone's Lamentation Oftentimes the nuance and particular details of any given artwork do not easily present themselves to the viewer until considered alongside something else, such that the similarities and differences work to demonstrate a contrast between the two pieces. In this very fashion, one is able to compare and contrast Masaccio's fresco of the Holy Trinity alongside Giotto di Bondone's fresco Lamentation in order to see how either artist chooses to represent Jesus Christ on a cross.

Examining either image in this way reveals that where Masaccio's image uses realistic looking portrayals of perspective and scale in order to instruct and ultimately condemn the viewer, Lamentations maintains a more traditional perspective seen in earlier painting in order to create a space for the viewer to enter in to a particular scene from the Biblical narrative. Masaccio's Holy Trinity is an image of Jesus on a cross, which is held up by the figure of God inside of a recessed vault.

Despite minor differences in the particular characters flanking Jesus both at his feet and on a lower platform in front of him, the image is particularly symmetrical, with the image of God serving as the singular organizing point, even if Jesus' pale skin and positioning in the middle of the frame first draws the eye. The entire image is portrayed to scale and with an eye towards perspective, so that the vault behind Jesus and God appears to continue on, into the wall.

All of this is above a stone coffin featuring a skeleton which takes up roughly the bottom one-fourth of the image and which serves as a memento mori, enticing the viewer to place Jesus as the focus of his or her life, just like the supplicating figures kneeling on either side of the image, on a vertical plane just in front of the recessed vault.

Thus, Masaccio's Holy Trinity is characterized by a certain coldness of theme and expression, with the positively bleak message of the image portrayed in equally stark vertical lines and symmetrical divisions. The viewer is not meant to sympathize with Christ, despite his position on the cross, but rather to fear and worship him.

In contrast to Holy Trinity, Giotto di Bondone's Lamentation forgoes symmetry, scale, and an accurate portrayal of human perspective in order to give the viewer a unique look into the narrative of Jesus' death and resurrection, thus suturing the viewer into the scene in attempt to convey emotional resonance on a fundamentally human level, rather than relying on the divinity of the subject matter to create the impetus for recognition and devotion.

The figures in Bondone's fresco are not given nearly the same realistic detail as in Masaccio's, but what they lack in fine lines they make up for in emotional presence, because the skewed perspective allows the viewer to see a number of profiles, each expressing worry and affection for the injured (and possibly dead) Christ, who is being cradled on the ground. Above the outpouring of human emotion, angels express some of the lamentations of the title.

The key formal aspect of the image which serves to draw the viewer into the scene of the narrative is the outstretched arms of a figure whose head is almost precisely in the center of the image. Although the figure's hands and arms appear somewhat oddly positioned upon close inspection, they serve first to draw the viewer's eye and then direct it towards Christ by forming a kind of horizontal barrier blocking the two figures to the right of the scene.

Furthermore, while some of the angels have thrown their heads up in grief, each of the human characters is looking directly at Christ, such that any look at one of the mortals necessarily leads back to Jesus on the ground. The.