Masaccio's Holy Trinity and Giotto Essay

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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.

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The effect, then, is a kind of celebration of human emotion, and the lack of real symmetry serves to highlight the emotionally chaotic nature of the scene.

By comparing and contrasting Masaccio's Holy Trinity and Giotto di Bondone's Lamentation, one is able to see how either image uses its formal characteristics in order to produce a different effect in the viewer. Where Holy Trinity uses symmetry, realistic perspective, and a highly detailed, imagined scene of Jesus in a vault in order to argue for the necessity of piety in the face of death, Lamentation uses an almost impossible perspective coupled with less-detailed but nonetheless emotionally resonant figures in order to bring the viewer into an emotionally fraught scene in the life of Jesus, using the positioning of the figures in order to literally guide the viewer towards Christ.

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