Allegory, painting and petrarch

Abstract

In 1370, four years before he died, the poet Francesco Petrarca drew up his will. He began with various pious bequests, and then moved to gifts for friends and family. For Francesco il Vecchio da Carrara, the ruler of Padua, who had sheltered and supported Petrarch at his court, the poet left a Madonna by Giotto, calling Giotto ‘egregii’ and noting that although the icon's beauty was incomprehensible to the uneducated, masters of art were stupefied by it.1 Comments on the visual arts were unusual in the Trecento, and the bequest is famous as an early and rare instance of a great writer commenting on a great artist. Yet Petrarch then explained that he was leaving the panel so that the blessed..