GIOTTO di Bondone
(b. 1267, Vespignano, d. 1337, Firenze)

Scenes from the Life of St John the Evangelist: 2. Raising of Drusiana

c. 1315
Fresco, 280 x 450 cm
Peruzzi Chapel, Santa Croce, Florence

Outside the walls of the city of Ephesus, John the Evangelist resurrects the faithful Drusiana. The firmness and the plasticity of the figures, which harmonize with the architecture, reinforce the dramatic presence of their movements, through which the eye is led to the central event. The tension, which already lies in the encounter between the two groups, is thus heightened further.

Although thronged together, the people still display different reactions, which are obviously dependent on the distance they stand from the actual event, and which range from dumb amazement through to arms thrown up in horror.