From Page to Wall: Scientific Form and Diagrammatic Painting in the Age of Giotto

press release: While most scholars of Italian Gothic painting focus on narrative and devotional works of art, numerous other works were created during the period that would most accurately be described as diagrammatic. These paintings, often esoteric and enigmatic, provided medieval viewers with access to scientific and diagrammatic modes of representation that were more often reserved for manuscripts. Drawing on the extensive recent scholarship about medieval scientific illustrations and diagrams, this lecture explores the intersection of manuscript contexts and monumental painting in fourteenth-century Italy, arguing that certain modes of viewing and communication that were developed primarily in manuscript contexts were harnessed in these much more public works. Exploring the scholastic and scientific backgrounds of such paintings can help move us closer to understanding the ways that Trecento painters conveyed meaning and information in a series of spectacular but little known works.

Co-Sponsored by the Department of Art History, the Department of History, the Medieval Studies Program, and the Center for Visual Cultures.