trees, and below him his underlings are stripping and murdering a
wayfarer. "Avarice" is a horned hag with ears like trumpets. A snake
issuing from her mouth curls back and bites her forehead. Her left hand
clutches her money-bag, as she moves forward stealthily, her right hand
ready to shut down on whatever it can grasp. No need to label them: as
long as these vices exist, for so long has Giotto extracted and
presented their visible significance.

[Page heading: GIOTTO]

Still another exemplification of his sense for the significant is
furnished by his treatment of action and movement. The grouping, the
gestures never fail to be just such as will most rapidly convey the
meaning. So with the significant line, the significant light and shade,
the significant look up or down, and the significant gesture, with means
technically of the simplest, and, be it remembered, with no knowledge of
anatomy, Giotto conveys a complete sense of motion such as we get in his
Paduan frescoes of the "Resurrection of the Blessed," of the "Ascension
of our Lord," of the God the Father in the "Baptism," or the angel in
"Zacharias' Dream."

This, then, is Giotto's claim to everlasting appreciation as an artist:
that his thorough-going sense for the significant in the visible world
enabled him so to represent things that we realise his representations
more quickly and more completely than we should realise the things
themselves, thus giving us that confirmation of our sense of capacity
which is so great a source of pleasure.


III.