Original subtitles

The story of art over the past 700 years is dominated by a dozen or so great artists whose

work-a-strucker universal chord, with Leonardo, Michelangelo and Raphael as the first

internationally known figures. But the artist they saw as their father figure began his life

as a humble shepherd boy, a painter whose brush brought the Bible to life and made art

a more substantial, more real, his name, Jotto. For many, the story of Western art starts here.

In 1267, Jotto de Bondoni was born in Collide of Espigiano, a remote hamlet in the heart

of the Tuscan countryside. His father was a local shepherd, so as soon as he was old enough,

the young Jotto joined him, tending the family's sheep. The beginnings of Jotto's transformation

from Shepherd Boy to one of the most famous artists in Western history, he shrouded in mystery.

But the most popular story, says that Chima Boy, the most famous florentine artist of the day,

was wandering here in the hills, and he saw the young shepherd boy sketching sheep on a flat rock.

Subsequently, he persuaded Jotto's father to let the boy come to Florence to train in his workshop.

Imagine the shock for a 12-year-old shepherd boy to find himself beginning his apprenticeship

in the hub of Florence. For the population of nearly 100,000, Florence is one of the largest

cities in Europe. It was four times a size of London. The phenomenal growth of its wool trade

and banking business established Florence as the most powerful city-state in Tuscany.

And on the back of this boom, came patronage for numerous works of art to enhance the prestige

of the city. Jotto's master, Chima Boy, was the most celebrated painter of his day.

His work is spiritually moving, but remote. His figures seem too dimensional and static.

Chima Boy was heavily influenced by stylised icon paintings, like this one,

from the Byzantine Empire, which dominated religious art during the Middle Ages.

Jotto's training probably lasted over 10 years. His first tasks would have been to grind

pigments for paints, or make frames for older pieces. Much later he'd have been taught to paints

and stories, according to a very strict set of rules, diligently copying from pattern books.

Creativity in originality were not requirements of the job. The medieval artist was an artisan,

no different in status from a carpenter or a baker. As a result, he don't know much about Jotto's

life. Artists were certainly not considered important enough to warrant biographies or portraits.

The only contemporary image we have of Jotto is one which he painted himself. Here is a

member of a crowd in a fresco series. What we do know, though, is that Jotto was born into a

profoundly changing world, where the traditional attitudes to art, literature, and even religion

were gradually being broken down. It's a little surprising to discover that probably the most

potent place for Christianity and religious art in the 13th century was here in Assisi, the

little hill town in Umbrea, that was the home of St. Francis, who preached a new Christian message

that empowered the poor. And when he died here in 1226, within two years, the monastic order that

he'd found it began to build a monastery with a basilica rearing up dramatically like a fortress

out of the hillside. And towards the end of the century, the crowning glory, the upper church,

this was the public place and it needed decorating. So, the greatest artist of the region was

invited, Chima Bui, along with his workshop around 1277. And 10 years later, the young Jotto arrived.

The Francis can complex here in Assisi. He's not just a great centre for Christianity,

it was an artistic workshop, and any artist's worth is sold, came from far and wide to try and get

to work here. In fact, there were workshops from Rome and Florence and from the local regions,

all vying with each other for domination. There's an edge of competition, there's a sense of tension

of each image trying to outdo the previous one. And so what we get is a great monument to Western

Art that's survived for 700 years. But there's also a problem. Over the centuries, a debate has

raised among art historians about who exactly did what? We know that Chima Bui painted the

apps and trance apps and some of the ceiling. What we're not so sure about is the most prestigious

commission, the 28 frescoes that roll all the way around the lower walls, telling the life of

some Francis himself. Now I tell you in art historians, from the great George Oversary onwards,

say this is Jotto. Others though are not so sure. Ultimately, it's a debate that can't be resolved,

but one thing is certain. The main lessons and ideas that emerge from this cycle are those

developed and pushed by Jotto for the rest of its career. And so I'm sure that he had some involvement.

What we see are 28 images that in a sense are like a cerebral cartoon strip or a pictorial

Bible for the illiterate, bringing to life a story in graphic detail. And in a way that utterly

invigorates the flat stylized compositions of Byzantine art. The great strong idea from Jotto is

the idea of space and here it is writ large in each one of these images, where the artist paints

a sense of a window, a classical window. So it's as if we're looking into another space and

the world. Also, inside the images themselves, he paints architectural constructions to give the

figures a sense of existing in real space. This anticipates the great development of perspective

in the Renaissance, loads a little bit flatter here. The most stunning example of all this

is in the very first image, where we see a Roman temple, the temple of Manurva actually here in a

place. The realistic treatment of human figures, expressions and in particular of tangible spaces,

were significant developments in art, and were to become a distinctive feature of Jotto's painting.

This move to make ideas more accessible was also mirrored in other arts at the time,

in sculpture and in literature, where Jotto's fellow Florentine, the poet Dante, wrote his

divine comedy not in Latin, but in his native Tuscan tongue. And Francisco and Dominican

frias were told the Bible to their electric congregation in vernacular Italian.

Jotto's fame began to spread. In 1300, he was summoned to Rome by the Pope Boniface 8.

He produced a mosaic over the entrance to the Old St. Peters and decorated the balcony of the

Latin Palace. Today, the only survivors' copies. These high-profile commissions were good for Jotto's

career. They made him quite rich, as well as well known to other potential patrons.

Still only in his early 30s, Jotto returned home to Florence and set up his own workshop.

Continue to experiment, using the latest techniques in fresco painting. Instead of working

on dry plaster, as his master Chima Bua had done, Jotto would apply wet plaster in small areas

and put on the image quickly as it dried. This allowed for much richer colours,

and was more durable. It also meant that the artists had to work at double the speed.

Jotto's big opportunity to use this technique came in 133, when he was summoned to

decorate the small family chapel of a wealthy businessman.

It was a commission which would establish Jotto's reputation over the next seven centuries.

Here in the arena chapel in Padua, are some of the most spectacular images ever painted.

In Contraverta by Jotto, there are an extraordinary ambitious cycle of 38 frescos,

which run around the entire interior of the building. At the top, a scene from the life of the

virgin and her parents, Joaquim and Anne, and below them, a scene from Christ's life and death.

Jotto's emphasis is on storytelling. His paintings are human dramas. His settings have a

believable feel. Here is one of the most dramatic moments of the gospel. It shows the split

second after Judas has betrayed Christ with a kiss. Soldiers have already surrounded Christ,

and amidst the chaos, Jotto's brilliant composition focuses all our attention on the central

image of two men embracing. But what Jotto does is imbue the figure of Christ with a real sense of

emotion, a real sense of passion. There's a panel just to the right of the crucifixion where Christ

lies in the arms of his mother, his dead, his mother has a sense of real loss on her face. Likewise,

the figures that surround it convey a real sense of drama, and suddenly it becomes clear that raw

emotion and the real essence of a story in the Bible can be brought to life through painting.

But he does that most sensationally of all on the final image, the image that confronts us when

we leave the chapel on the West wall. This is Jotto's last judgment. In my opinion,

the best last judgment ever painted apart from Michelangelo's 200 years later in the 16 chapel.

At the centre, his Christ throned in splendour, passing judgment.

Above him, two figures appealing about the firmament to reveal a sparkling new Jerusalem. Jotto's

drawing our attention to the actual process of painting as an illusion, but he's also suggesting

through these visual slides of hand that it might just be real. Christ himself is flanked by angelic

and the twelve apostles, but beneath him, an acting as the dividing line between heaven and hell

is the central symbol of Christianity, the cross. To the left lies redemption, layer upon layer,

of the Christian great and good, the devout from down the ages from saints and kings,

to a mere artist down on the lowest level, Jotto himself, wearing a rather jonte hat.

In the foreground, we see the man responsible for this whole chapel, Enrico Scraveini,

giving his chapel to the Virgin Mary. The why? Well, his father was a money lender,

a vice in the eyes of the church, and Enrico himself was probably a user or two, so this building

was perhaps an act of atonement for the sins of his family. But things get really interesting,

really dramatic, and really traumatic, to the right of the cross. Because here is hell,

where four tongues of flames suck nude figures down into hell. This is the descent into

depravity, where figures are pulled apart, they're falling, they're being raped, they're being

violated by demons, and here with this massive image of Satan, they're being devoured and

excreted in a vicious cycle. The chapel still seems visually dazzling. In the 14th century,

it must have seemed staggering. There were critics, of course, monks from a neighbouring

monastery who claimed that it was too ordinary to display of wealth, particularly for a private

commission. But this was perhaps just a fit of jealousy, because by all other accounts,

people flocks to see it in their droves. A religious spectacle created by the new

vundakin of Italian art. After the success of the Scroveny Chapel,

Jotto has given a prestigious commission closer to home, in Florence in the church of the

Onesanti are all saints, where he produced this large altarpiece, showing the Blessed Virgin Mary

and Christ surrounded by saints, with an architectural construction that amplifies that sense of perspective.

Above where the altar would have been, Jotto paints two steps, mottled and marbled,

in blues and greens and reds, and that draws us up to the throne of the Virgin Mary herself.

It amplifies that sense of stepping into the picture in our minds. And then we approach the heavenly

couple, the central image of the painting itself, and there is Christ giving a blessing, a benediction

to all who look at the work. But we're also struck by how wonderfully real, certainly by

comparison with the previous art, this image seems. The Virgin herself, with that trans-lucent

veil, we can see the outline slightly centrally of her breast, but this is the image of a

feck and nourishing mother. But this altar piece is now in the Uffizi gallery in Florence.

Next door to the work of Jotto's great teacher, Chima Buay. And you can compare a work

of Chima Buay the 25 years before, and you realise just how much more intimate Jotto's work is,

how more worldly, how more real and tangible. Both pictures have an audience of figures surrounding

the Holy Pear. Chima Buay stacks them up one on top of the other. Jotto, however, creates more

solid sculptural beings arranged to receipts slightly, giving a sense of perspective. At the same time,

there's a real weight and monumentality to both Mary and Jesus. And so, what Jotto manages to

combine very definitely is an image of gravity and of grace. During the next 20 years, Jotto

travelled widely for work, he painted for poops, kings and nobleman, all over the Italian

peninsula and even in France. He created an international reputation unprecedented among artists.

Jotto had become a wealthy landowner, as well as being a major artist, he was a

shrewd business entrepreneur. One of the few surviving documents from Jotto's life tells

that he used to hire out his wall weaving loom as a very high price, a clever and apparently

widespread practice to make money without being directly guilty of the sin of money lending.

Painting, however, remained his main source of income, and back in Florence,

are two examples of the artist's later commissions here in the Church of Santa Crochet.

Jotto's contribution to the vast cavern of Santa Crochet was very intimate. These two small

family chapels. This chapel was commissioned by the Peruzzi family. They were bankers,

and it's an early example of the patronage of arts that flourished over the next two centuries.

What Jotto did in three panels on either side was fuse together the lives of two saints

or interweave them. So on this side, we have the life of John the Evangelist, and on this side,

we have the life of John the Baptist. The Peruzzi who commissioned the chapel was also called

John, so there's a little nod to him, but John the Baptist was the patron saint of Florence itself.

What we see on the left hand side begins with St John having his revelations on the island

of Patmos to his ascension up to heaven in the bosom panel. But here on the right, things get

really dramatic. Down here in the largest panel, closest to the audience, we see the beheading of

John the Baptist by Herod for Salamay. The head of the Baptist is presented as if it's a joint

of meat to King Herod himself. Architectural shape gives us a greater sense of perspective. It also draws

in. And if you look at the whole design, you see that Jotto lets buildings disappear

where the real architecture of the church begins to give a sense of a fragment of reality.

These frescas are very damaged. Jotto was working with dry plaster,

probably because it was winter time and the temperatures were too low

for using the more durable wet plaster technique. In the 17th and 18th centuries,

horrifyingly, these chapels were white washed. We don't really know why anyone would do such

a thing. But what we do know is when they were restored in the 20th century, particularly here,

a lot of the paint comes off and so you get this very faded image. Around the corner though,

although the chapel is very damaged, things are slightly clearer.

In this chapel, Jotto is working again with wet plaster. It was commissioned by another banking

family, the body, and redultoed a body, the man who actually commissioned Jotto to work,

is buried right underneath where I'm standing. Here though, Jotto returns to the time on a tradition

of a life cycle of one man. Exactly the same format as the Peruzzi, six panels, but this time

dedicated to the life of some Francis of a CC. But the climax of the whole work of the cycle

is here, closest to the viewer again, where ornament is stripped down, and there's an extraordinary

range of and subtlety of human emotion. Even though most of the expression is grief,

each of the faces registers a slightly different expression. And it'd be very easy to show these

as generic monks, but Jotto doesn't do that. Each one is individualised. So we see the body of

Saint Francis, but at the same time, we see the monks animatedly holding and kissing his hands in

his feet, where the stigmata were, and this draws the viewer in. What began in a CC now

reaches fruition here in Florence, and it establishes Jotto as the visual chronicle of the

life of Saint Francis. As bankers with the branch in Naples, the body family were probably

instrumental in Jotto's appointment as court artist to the King of Naples. In 1330, he was given

official post for which he received a large salary, apprentices, and materials. Unfortunately,

very little from this time has survived. The city of Florence, on of their son,

with the title of Magnus Magester, or the Great Master, his rise from Shepherd Boy to courtier,

was now complete. Jotto's personal fame had put the painter's profession on the social

map in Florence. His career proved a new departure in the way that artists were perceived.

From now on, painting was destined to be more than just a manual craft, and the status of

the artist, more than that of a mere artisan. In 1334, Jotto was appointed Master Architects of

the City of Florence and oversaw the building of walls and fortifications. He also was in charge

of the most ambitious project in the city's history, the ongoing building of the cathedral,

and in particular, the campanile or bell tower whose foundation stone was laid in the same year.

And for the next three years, Jotto made designs and sketches and saw the slow rise of the tower,

but he never saw it completed. And in January 1337, at the age of 70, Jotto died to be buried

with an almost state-like funeral in the cathedral here. Jotto had transformed religious art,

infusing painting with a new naturalism and solidity, and creating something of the illusion

of pictorial space. It was his revolutionary vision that laid the foundations for the next generation,

the artists of the Italian Renaissance.