John W. Dixon, Jr., Art as a Means of Thinking and of Grace

 

 

The narrative is set forth with the greatest possible intensity and concentration. The gestures of the bodies are constrained; Giotto rarely shows extravagant gestures. Rather he shows full and weighty bodies departing slightly from their initial position, bending from the vertical, turning, pointing, etc. Every action, every gesture is part of the story, a part of, a response to, the event. The whole is presented to the worshipper (properly the worshipper, not the spectator) in the fullness of its meaning. The whole is enacted immediately in front of us, set a little apart on the restricted stage, but there to control our response.