O Deus encarnado: Giotto e a estigmatização de São Francisco no trecento italiano

Abstract

The medieval Christian image is at the core of this research. One understands that the image has its place of production, as also is destined to a goal in which all its constitutive elements collaborate for the construction of a social. The medieval Christian image has as its end the elevation of man to the supernatural, i.e., it is a mediator in the relation between man and divine. In the Low Middle Ages of Western Europe, Christianism turns into a “image’s religion”. We use the stigmatization images of Francis of Assisi made by Giotto between the end of 13th century and beginning of 14th century in the North of Italy with the purpose of meditate how these contribute to the construction of a new spirituality in the Middle Ages whose center is Christ. We can affirm that the stigmatization of Saint Francis puts an end, or at least reduces to a minimum, the abstract character of Christianism, since it leaves the field of theological speculation and materializes in the stigmas of the saint. Giotto is the first painter who stands out in representation, in a unique way of his time, of this important modification of spirituality, since, by certain way, he enabled, through the medieval notion of transitus, that everyone who see the image/object could live the saint’s experience.