Crocifissi Giotteschi: Alcune ipotesi sull'organizzazione del lavoro nella bottega medievale

Following on from Bruno Zanardi's studies regarding the organisation of medieval worksites for fresco pain- ting, efforts have been made to find out more about how medieval art studios were organised. To this end, some Giotto-style crucifixes were compared to see if there were analogies and marked differences in execution, and if repetitive operations were used in the production of paintings on wooden panels. The aim was to iden- tify those produced on site and those created in studios, since Giotto's activities included both types of loca- tion. Comparison showed that ali the crucifixes (the one from Santa Maria Novellato a slighter lesser extent) are technically very similar to one another, and that there must have been a degree of standardisation among- st the various painters and assistants involved. The idea of standardised painting techniques - where proce- dures were laid down by a supervising artist or maestro - was given further support by graphic studies car- ried out on the various figur es of Christ. Superimposing graphic outlines showed that "pattems" were syste- matically used to produce paintings on wooden panels. The pattems were cut out so as to obtain the silhouet- tes of the various features of the figur e. Then they were placed on the support to help the artist paint the figu- re in different positions, sometimes inverting elements, using them back to front, or conining different sizes and shapes. Tue patterns were evidently important tools for achieving standardised results. Hence, we should understand that the creativity of medieval artists was partly guided by a set of codified workshop rules.