Art Historians have long taught their students that the Renaissance began in Florence where the artist Giotto changed the rules of art, leaving behind iconic medieval conventions and adopting a way of depicting the world that reflected human visual experience. However, in the last few years that assumption has been called into question as our knowledge of late 13th-century paintings by the Roman artist Pietro Cavallini has increased. For an excellent article discussing why and how Cavallini’s offers a challenge to Giotto in the competition for the title of “First Renaissance Artist,” be sure to check out this article by Alan Longstaff.
Here at the eCool compound, we’re rooting for Rome in this contest to determine the birthplace of the Renaissance. To that end, we encourage you to make a stop at the church of Santa Cecilia in Trastevere the next time you’re in the Eterna, in order that you can admire Cavallini’s best preserved fresco, The Last Judgment (see photo above for a detail of the painting).
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