(The language of art is very difficult to
understand so I am explaining it through some
stories and narrative explanations to make the
student understand it.
If the student knows what needs to be learnt
then the second step starts with how to learn.)

I will start this column with an interesting incident in history, which happened in early 14th century.

To decorate the Vatican Church, the pope sent his messengers all over Italy to find the best artists of the time. They went town to town to know who are the best.

Shilpa    Artist : Magunta Dayakar

In their search they heard about Giotto.

So they went to him and asked him to give some work to present to the Pope to judge along with other artists’ work.

At that time Giotto was admired as a great artist who changed the course of art. He introduced realistic faces, figures and natural appearances as it appears to our eye. He was recognized as the first Renaissance painter who introduced accurate drawing from life which is called representative art.

Even though he was a very popular artist at that time in Florence and other cities, he always behaved courteously with others. So he didn’t take it as an insult to present a work for judgement along with others.

He smiled at them, took a sheet of paper and a pencil, dipped the pencil in red ink, drew a circle with a sweeping force, put a dot in the centre of that circle and handed it over to the messengers of the Pope.

The messengers stared at that circle in confusion, they could not believe their eyes. … ‘Is this work to be submitted to the Pope? What would be his reaction?’ They questioned themselves.

They asked Giotto, the same.

Giotto smiled with the same courteous nature and replied to them, ” … Yes. You present this.”

They left with disgust. Presenting this kind of work to a powerful person like Pope, something unimaginable. They imagined the mood of the Pope when he sees it.

Later Pope saw that drawing. He had disbelief written all over his face. The drawing appeared as if it was drawn by a compass. He felt that only a master can do that great magic without using compass.

The rest is history. The Pope called Giotto to decorate the church with his work.

Tail Piece: Learn Drawing. It is like the spinal cord of art. All great masters including modern and abstract artists mastered this. If you don’t have the drawing skills however successful you are as an artist, you won’t have the pride to be called an Artist.