Giotto.

Admit it. You have post-modern eyes.

I know you probably hate that phrase, seeing it as a meaningless retread of decadent modernism, but if you see it as identifying art viewers who cannot find a mainstream, then it fits.

You see, the old notion was that there was progress in art. Someone had an idea, and someone else took that idea, and the next thing you know there is a trajectory, and the old art is primarily of interest because it shows the aesthetic vector.

Yawn. What a tedious way to look at art.

So, how DO we look at and understand Giotto in 2006?

Come on now, you don't really think that I am going to give you an easy answer right now, do you?

Instead you will have to come to the National Shrine of St. Francis of Assisi in San Francisco's North Beach district, at 7:00 (or is it 7:30? I will have to check with my minders) on June 13th to hear me talk about it, live and in person. At least I hope "live." Living in the war zone makes that always seem a bit presumptuous. Don't ask, just pray for us residents of Oakland, where you have a much higher probability of being shot in front of your house, but, hey, at least smoking is prohibited within 25 feet of doorways and windows!

But, as to art, come one, come all. It will be a dreaded slide lecture, but I promise it will not be boring. I hate boring slide lectures.

By the way, for those of you who live in distant lands, we are planning on recording the talk for podcast via the Saint Anthony of Padua Institute website (where you can find my last talk on viewing modern art with Catholic eyes).