Giotto and Workshop, 'Pentecost', probably about 1310-18

Pentecost

Giotto and Workshop

Not on display

About the work

Overview

This small painting of the Pentecost shows Giotto’s skill at transforming complex biblical stories into images that were easy to decipher. Jesus’s followers were gathered together 50 days after his Crucifixion to celebrate the Jewish Feast of Weeks. A strong wind began to blow and flames like ‘tongues of fire’ appeared on their heads. They were filled with the Holy Ghost and began to speak miraculously in a number of languages. A white dove radiating gilded rays, representing the Holy Ghost, has appeared directly beneath the central gable.

Giotto solved the problem of illustrating the narrative clearly by using a low wall to divide those experiencing the event and those straining to hear what was going on. The symmetrical arrangement of the figures focuses our attention on the dove. This picture was the final scene in a horizontal dossal – an altarpiece that was placed in front of rather than above an altar – depicting the life and Passion of Christ.

In-depth

The simplicity of the storytelling, the inclusion of lively details – like the old man who turns his head to better hear the commotion within – and the bulky solidity of the figures are characteristic of Giotto’s innovations in painting. His skill at bringing biblical stories to life, enabling viewers to identify with the humanity of the figures shown, was hugely influential and he is regarded as the founder of Italian Renaissance painting.

Christ’s followers were gathered together in Jerusalem to celebrate the Jewish Feast of Weeks, 50 days after Passover – which was also 50 days after the Crucifixion – when a strong wind began to blow and flames like ‘tongues of fire’ appeared on their heads. They were filled with the Holy Ghost and began to speak miraculously in a number of languages. Those around them were amazed and thought that they must be drunk. Soon a crowd of Jews visiting the city from Mesopotamia, Egypt and even Rome gathered to hear the disciples speaking about God in languages they could understand. Saint Peter reminded the crowd that this supernatural event had been predicted by the Old Testament prophet Joel who foretold that God would pour out his spirit upon his people. This moment is significant for Jesus’s followers after his death: it gave them the authority to continue preaching his message to all nations.

This picture demonstrates Giotto’s skill at telling a complicated story in a simple way, which he perfected in his frescoes telling the life of the Virgin Mary and Christ in the Arena Chapel in Padua. The compact, square shape of the panel means that the action takes place all at once, rather than as a sequence to be read from left to right. Giotto has used the house’s architecture to divide up the narrative events. A low wall, decorated with inlaid marble panels, separates the apostles from the crowd listening in. The symmetry of the arrangement of the figures focuses our attention into the centre of the image. Two young men on either side of the central gate turn their ears to listen, leaning in towards the centre of the image, where a white dove has appeared directly beneath the central gable. Radiating gilded rays, it represents the Holy Ghost.

Giotto depicted the tongues of fire as individual forked flames on the apostles‘ heads, painted over their gold haloes. Scientific examination has revealed that the rays from the dove were once much longer, reaching the apostles’ heads. Originally these were much more prominent as they were made of gilded tin that would have stood out above the painting’s surface.

This picture was the last in a sequence of seven images depicting the life and Passion of Christ, painted side by side on a long wooden panel. It was probably a dossal – an altarpiece that was placed in front of, rather than above, an altar. The other scenes are now held by museums in Europe and America. The Crucifixion scene shows Saint Francis with a man and a woman kneeling at the foot of the cross. It is likely that the patrons ordered the panel and chose the scenes, but we don't know their identity or the original location of the altarpiece. Giotto worked throughout Italy and even in Avignon in France so it could have been ordered by patrons in a number of cities.

The high quality of the drawing in this panel suggests Giotto painted most of it, though he may have left the hands to his assistants.

Want to find out more?

Delve deeper and explore the catalogue entry for this painting.

Key facts

Details

Full title: Pentecost
Artist: Giotto and Workshop
Artist dates: about 1267 or 1276; died 1337
Date made: probably about 1310-18
Medium and support: egg tempera on wood
Dimensions: 45.5 × 44 cm
Acquisition credit: Bequeathed by Geraldine Emily Coningham in memory of her husband, Major Henry Coningham, and of Mrs Coningham of Brighton, 1942
Inventory number: NG5360
Location: Not on display
Collection: Main Collection
Previous owners: William Coningham
Frame: 21st-century Replica Frame

Provenance

In the collection of Prince Stanislas Poniatowski in 1822; together with the Nativity, the Presentation and the Entombment in the Poniatowski sale, Christie’s, London, 9 February 1839, lots 101–4; NG 5360 was lot 104, bought by Hall. Bequeathed by William Coningham (1815–1884) to his son W.J.C. Coningham, who bequeathed it to his widow, who gave it in 1922 to Major Henry Coningham. Bequeathed to the National Gallery by his widow, Geraldine Emily Coningham, in memory of her husband and of Mrs Coningham of Brighton, 1942.

Additional information

Text extracted from the ‘Provenance’ section of the catalogue entry in Dillian Gordon, ‘National Gallery Catalogues: The Italian Paintings before 1400’, London 2011; for further information, see the full catalogue entry.

Exhibition history

2012

Florence at the Dawn of the Renaissance: Painting and Illumination, 1300 - 1350

The Getty Center Los Angeles

13 November 2012 - 10 February 2013

Art Gallery of Ontario

16 March 2013 - 16 June 2013
2017

Pietro Lorenzetti: Siena to Hull, a Masterpiece Revealed

Ferens Art Gallery

9 January 2017 - 23 April 2017
2017

Giovanni da Rimini: A 14th-century Masterpiece Unveiled

The National Gallery (London)

14 June 2017 - 8 October 2017

Bibliography

1951

Davies, Martin, National Gallery Catalogues: The Earlier Italian Schools, London 1951
1952

R. Longhi, 'Presenza di Masaccio nel trittico della Neve', Paragone, XXV, 1952, pp. 8-16
1957

R. Oertel, Kurzes Verzeichnis der Bilder, Alte Pinakothek, München, ed. E. Buchner, Munich 1957
1957

F. Zeri, 'Due appunti su Giotto', Paragone, LXXXV, 1957
1958

C. Gnudi, Giotto, Milan 1958
1961

M. Davies, The Earlier Italian Schools, 2nd edn, London 1961
1962

R. Salvini, Tutta la pittura di Giotto, Milan 1962
1963

B. Berenson, Italian Pictures of the Renaissance: A List of the Principal Artists and Their Work, with an Index of Places: Florentine School, 2 vols, New York 1963
1967

G. Previtali, Giotto e la sua bottega, Milan 1967
1969

F. Bologna, I pittori alla corte Angioina di Napoli, 1266–1414, Rome 1969
1969

F. Bologna, Novità su Giotto: Giotto al tempo della cappella Peruzzi, Turin 1969
1969

L. Vertova, 'I Tatti', Antichità viva, VIII, 1969, pp. 53-78
1978

E. Fahy, 'Italian Paintings at Fenway Court and Elsewhere', The Connoisseur, CXCVIII, 1978, pp. 28-9
1982

K. Christiansen, 'Fourteenth-Century Italian Altarpieces', Metropolitan Museum of Art Bulletin, XL/1, 1982, pp. 53-5
1982

D. Gordon, 'A Perugian Provenance for the Franciscan Double-Sided Altar-Piece by the Maestro di San Francesco', The Burlington Magazine, CXXIV/947, 1982, pp. 70-7
1985

National Gallery, 'Pictures Cleaned and Restored in the Conservation Department of the National Gallery, January 1984 - December 1984', National Gallery Technical Bulletin, IX, 1985
1986

Davies, Martin, National Gallery Catalogues: The Earlier Italian Schools, revised edn, London 1986
1986

G. Bonsanti, Giotto: Historical Notes and Critical Appraisals, Padua 1986
1988

Gordon, Dillian, National Gallery Catalogues: The Early Italian Schools before 1400, revised edn, London 1988
1989

S.B. Bistoletti, Giotto: Catalogo complete dei dipinti, Florence 1989
1989

D. Gordon, 'A Dossal by Giotto and His Workshop: Some Problems of Attribution, Provenance and Meaning', The Burlington Magazine, CXXXI/1037, 1989, pp. 524-31
1989

D. Bomford et al., Italian Painting before 1400 (exh. cat. The National Gallery, 29 November 1989 - 28 February 1990), London 1989
1991

J. Dunkerton et al., Giotto to Dürer: Early Renaissance Painting in the National Gallery, New Haven 1991
1991

F. Haskell, 'William Coningham and His Collection of Old Masters', The Burlington Magazine, CXXXIII/1063, 1991, pp. 676-81
1993

A. Busignani, Giotto, Florence 1993
1994

E. Langmuir, The National Gallery Companion Guide, London 1994
1994

A. Thomas, An Illustrated Dictionary of Narrative Painting, London 1994
1995

F. Flores D'Arcais, Giotto, trans. R. Rosenthal, London 1995
2001

C. Baker and T. Henry, The National Gallery: Complete Illustrated Catalogue, London 2001
2011

Gordon, Dillian, National Gallery Catalogues: The Italian Paintings before 1400, London 2011

Frame

This replica frame was made at the Gallery in 2016. Meticulously copied from the fourteenth-century frame around Giotto’s Crucifixion at the Musée des Beaux-Arts in Strasbourg, the moulding was crafted in poplar wood and the water gilding has an antique effect. The frame moulding features a fillet top edge, an inset cavetto and a slight ogee with a slanted edge at the sight edge.

Pentecost was one of seven paintings adorning a large plank of wood, forming part of a rectangular altarpiece, which was later separated into individual images. Notably, this Giotto panel retains residue of the burr edge on its right-hand side, indicative of the former engaged frame being forcibly removed.

About this record

If you know more about this painting or have spotted an error, please contact us. Please note that exhibition histories are listed from 2009 onwards. Bibliographies may not be complete; more comprehensive information is available in the National Gallery Library.

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