Byzantine Christian Art Analysis

In the Proto Renaissance era, also known as the era before the renaissance, the most usual form of art was a style was one which closely resembled Byzantine Christian artwork. Through research, I found a definition for this style of artwork. A website called Britannica described Byzantine Christian art in way that was easy for me to understand, it was defined as “Based on the dynamic of lines and flat areas of color rather than form,” (Britannica, Byzantine Christian par.5). This style of work is the very basis of comparison of Cimabue’s work and the work of his student Giotto. The paintings in question for comparison are “Madonna Enthroned with Angels and Profits” or “Santa Trinita Madonna,” by Cimabue, and “Ognissanti Madonna,” by Giotto.
He does however use a darker flat color as shading to define movement and body structure in the fabric, however he still fails at making the figures appear three dimensional (Simon, par. 91). According to the article “'A Giotto conviene far ritorno' The Arena Chapel, the British, a Futurist, and the reputation of Giotto,” by Robin Simon, at one point it was actually thought that another artist, Duccio, was the predecessor to Giotto, it was observed though that Cimabue’s work held more resemblance to Giotto’s work than Duccio’s had. Robin Simon’s article also mentions that both Giotto and Cimabue used “color symmetry,” within their artwork, this is an interesting point to keep in mind when viewing both pieces of work by the student and teacher (Simon, par.