Karasik and Giotto and Comics
June 22nd, 2009
Paul Karasik offers his take on Giotto’s 600 year-old strip-style storytelling on display at the Scrovegni Chapel in Padua.
Is it “comics”?
I like to use the word at times like this because I think it encourages us to find patterns throughout art history that can inform new work today, but there are plenty of people who insist on other criteria like mechanical reproduction or direct cultural links, so take my use of the word with a grain of salt.
The definitions debate came up in the Inkstuds interviews I linked to on Saturday. Check out my own discussion with Robin from 20:15 to 23:16 for one of the most candid responses I’ve given yet on the subject.
Posted in Art History, Visual Communication
March 3, 2021
If the frescoes tell a story in some kind of sequence. I’m leaning toward yes, it is comics. You have clearly illustrated that comics don’t require words in order to be comics.
This is crazy! about 3 or 4 years I went to the Sistian Chapal (me failed english) when I thought “holy crap this a gaint bible in comic form.” Sadly I was one of the last caveman to give up Dial up Internet so I didn’t get to blog.
Yeah I was just looking at pics of the Sistine Chapel on Google Images after I looked at this. Caravaggio used a lot of similar themes in his paintings and I think he showed Jesus at various ages. I’m sure you could cherry-pick 5 or 10 and put them in some kind of series. I hope I’m talking about the right guy. Back to Google Images…