Király Erzsébet - Jávor Anna szerk.: A Magyar Nemzeti Galéria Évkönyve 1997-2001, Művészettörténeti tanulmányok Sinkó Katalin köszöntésére (MNG Budapest, 2002)

TANULMÁNYOK / STUDIES - ÚJVÁRI Péter: Giotto doktrínája, avagy miért lett a művészetnek elmélete

generalizable rules other artes like Rhetorics and Jurisprudence indispensably have, and if a painter succeeds, he succeeds unconsciously or, to be clear, by accident. This "accidental" nature of artistic creation was exactly what made Lorenzo Ghiberti feel uneasy about his profession. He was convinced that the decline of art after antiquity was due to the destruction of both the exemplary works and the "books, chronicles, drawings and rules giving instruction how to practise this illustrious and noble art". And although Giotto restored the dignity of art and must have been guided by the correct principles when doing so (otherwise he would not have succeeded), his unwritten doctrina still awaited formulation and future success could not be therefore guaranteed. Old Ghiberti, whose Porta del Paradiso was an achievement equal to Giotto's, was still eager to learn the reasons behind his own success. Painting was something like Dante's volgare illustre: it was the object of national pride and still highly problematic being only an accidental locutio, not a language based on the universal rules of grammar. In a quite remarkable way, this shortcoming of both was corrected by the very same person: Leon Battista Alberti, to whom not only Painting, but also the Italian language owes its first grammar.