Reading the Mural The Last Judgment by Giotto Based on the Theory of Ervin Panofsky


Mehdipour Moghaddam Z., Mohammadzadeh M., Shokrpour S.

Rahpooye Honar-Ha-Ye Tajassomi, cilt.5, sa.4, ss.87-97, 2023 (Hakemli Dergi)

Özet

In the Scriptures of Christianity, the question of the end of the world, the end of humanity and the concept of last judgment have always been addressed. From the Christian point of view, humanity will be judged at the end of material life, which is what God considers the judgment of the Day of Resurrection. And given that Christ embodies the truth in Christianity, therefore, God himself is on earth who will make the final judgment. The subject of the last judgment, based on principles derived from the ideology of celestial religions, has also entered the field of visual arts and represented the ultimate judgment of human beings in a symbolic language. This issue is one of the subjects of interest in sacred art, especially Christian painting, which has been frequently the subject of artists’ works in various studies of Christian art history. What will happen to man’s destiny and how the good and evil actions of human beings will be measured. This issue is one of the subjects of the mural “Judgment of the Last” (1934-1934) in the inner part of the Arena Prayer Room, padua city in northern Italy, as the first artistic masterpiece of Giotto di Bundoné, an Italian artist who is also an important milestone in the development of Western painting. In fact, in order to express the concept of the last judgment, the artist has narrated this issue in a huge mural. In this regard, the present study tries to answer the question of what is the concept of visual elements in Giotto’s “Judgment of the Last Judgment” mural from the perspective of Christianity by relying on Panofsky’s approach based on three levels: descriptive, analytical and interpretive. The aim was to understand and interpret the visual elements with the concept of “last judgment” based on principles derived from Christian ideology. In fact, for the first time, Panofsky distinguishes between iconography and iconology. From his perspective, iconography is a method that only pays attention to the work itself and its form, while iconology is distinct from iconography and based on the meaning of the work and is in front of it. In fact, Panofsky believed that by distinguishing between form and meaning in reading images, he believed that these are as follows: 1.Description of pre-iconography(prehistoric), 2.Analysis of iconography (iconography) and, 3.Iconology interpretation (iconology) . In this regard, panofsky theory in relation to iconography and iconology has been discussed first and then based on pre-iconography, iconography analysis and iconology interpretation, the mural of “Judgment of the Last” by Giotto has been analyzed. The findings have been carried out by descriptive-content analysis method, stating that the recognition and interpretation of this mural has provided a platform to understand the concept of the work and the reading of visual elements, by distinguishing between the form and meaning of the work, the reciprocal relationship between the artwork and the belief of Christians at cultural, historical or religious levels, and in general, the prevailing worldview in the artist’s era and time. Because according to Panofsky’s theory, in order to find the meaning of a visual work, reciprocal relationships between the overall level of a culture and the partial level of a work of art must be studied. It can be said that the entire level of painting has provided a context for realizing this cultural background that is rooted in Christian belief. Therefore, according to Christian artist Panofsky’s iconology approach to expressing the sacred concept in his work, with the help of visual elements, he portrayed a purely material and earthly world that, according to Burkhart, “sees Christianity from the perspective of man to God.” In such a way that the human face of Christ is the perfect divine image and the word of God, and Christian art revolves around the personality of Jesus Christ, who adjudicates all human beings based on their actions in this life and faith in Christ himself. Therefore, such illustrations, formed according to biblical teachings, make religious concepts more influential to the audience. Because, on the one hand, the image gives the phenomenon an artistic concept and takes it out of ordinary interpretations, and on the other hand, it provides the ground for displaying invisible truths in the mind of the audience.