© Zani-Casadio
Via Sancti Romualdi 2021
Flavio Caroli
The paintings that shook the world after the time of Dante and Giotto
In memory of Mario Salvagiani (1930-2019)
introduce Giorgio Gualdrini
“I 100 dipinti che sconvolsero il mondo”
(Edizioni 24 Ore Cultura, 2021)
in collaboration with Associazione Romagna-Camaldoli
As Dante was a watershed for literature, so was Giotto for painting. As the Poet wrote in his Purgatorio, Canto XI, “In painting Cimabue thought he held / the field, and now it’s Giotto they acclaim – / the former only keeps a shadowed fame.” A century later, the great painter and essayist Cennino Cennini also confirmed that Giotto’s legacy was destined to prevail over any other painter’s, when he stated, in his Book of The Art, that “Giotto translated the art of painting from Greek into Latin, and put it into a modern idiom”.The term “modern” comes from the Latin adverb “modo”, meaning “just now”. The modernity of Dante and Giotto did not wear out quickly, though. Indeed, it lasted long enough that we can still call it “contemporary”.
