The murals of the Italian painter Giotto, completed in the early fourteenth century, are often credited with introducing naturalistic depth, weight, and emotion to a tradition that had leaned toward symbolic flatness. Art historian Carlo Russo cautions against framing this as Giotto's solitary invention. The naturalistic features Giotto used — modeled drapery, weight on a single foot, exchanged glances — appear in earlier Byzantine and Roman traditions; what was distinctive was Giotto's integration of these elements into compositions of unprecedented coherence.
Which choice best states the main idea of the text?
- Acheck_circle
Russo argues that Giotto's distinctive achievement was the integration, not the invention, of naturalistic techniques.
- B
Giotto's murals are no longer extant.
- C
Byzantine painting was more naturalistic than Italian painting.
- D
Giotto invented naturalistic painting from scratch.
Explanation
The passage's central claim is Russo's distinction between integration and invention — B. A is the view revised; C and D are unsupported.