The Perfect "O"

The tradition of Giotto’s perfect “O” stems from a story told by 16th-century Italian painter, architect, and historian Giorgio Vasari in his most famous art-historical writing, "Lives of the Most Excellent Painters, Sculptors, and Architects." According to Vasari, Pope Benedict XI was looking for an artist to paint his portrait. He decided to send a messenger to Giotto di Bondone asking for proof of the artist's drawing skills. Giotto drew a perfect red circle without the aid of any instrument to demonstrate his abilities. The messenger brought back the circle to Rome and the simplicity of the form drawn with ease was enough for the Pope to understand the qualities of the artist.

To celebrate the life of the Florentine painter and architect, Dr. Francesco Saverio Russo and Salvatore Russo created the Giotto International Prize to be awarded to talented artists around the world for their artistic merit. The awards ceremony took place on November 21th, 2019 at the Conference Room of the Dom Pedro Hotels & Golf Collection in Lisbon, Portugal to the presence of collectors, journalists, politicians, and art lovers. In addition, participating artists were invited to submit their interpretation of the perfect "O" to be published in the catalog. Art International Contemporary Magazine dedicates and article in its November-December 2019 issue to the artistic talent of Giotto along with the artwork of the artists selected for the award. My interpretation of the perfect "O" takes into consideration the fact that Giotto is regarded as the herald of the Renaissance and his faces show real human emotions such as joy, rage, despair, shame, spite, and love. He was also an architect, being chosen by the Commune of Florence to design the new bell tower of the Florence Cathedral.

Fine art photographer Eduardo Fujii was among the awardees. His image "The Uncertainty Principle," from the series "The Uncertain Nature of Reality" was selected to represent Eduardo's work in the celebration and publication in the event's catalog and the Art International Contemporary Magazine. This body of work reflects philosophical concepts of Quantum Mechanics, a branch of Physics that makes us question fundamental concepts of the world we live in. How sure are we that our perceived reality is actually there? Quantum mechanics, which attempts to model nature at the sub-atomic level, seems to imply that there is a cause-effect relationship between reality and conscious observation. Loosely applying the uncertainty principle to a ballet dancer we know the dancer is moving and therefore has momentum. However, we cannot know for certain where the dancer's legs are, we can only know the probabilities of them being at specific locations.