Giotto (b. 1267, Vespignano, d. 1337, Firenze)

Giotto di Bondone was a Florentine, and worked as both a painter and architect. Outstanding as a painter, sculptor, and architect, Giotto was recognized as the first genius of art in the Italian Renaissance. Giotto lived and worked at a time when people's minds and talents were first being freed from the shackles of medieval restraint. He dealt largely in the traditional religious subjects, but he gave these subjects an earthly, full-blooded life and force.

He was the most important Italian painter of the 14th century, whose conception of the human figure in broad, rounded terms-rather than in the flat, two-dimensional terms of Gothic and Byzantine styles indicated a concern for naturalism that was a milestone in the development of Western art.

Giotto was one of the first artists of the proto-renaissance period in Italy. The emergence of Giotto signaled the beginning of the Renaissance in Italy. His style of painting broke so radically from the past that influences on his style are still being debated today. To imagine art without Giotto is nearly impossible. He was such a sensation in his time that he was mentioned in writings by Petrarch and in Dante's Divine Comedy where he was said to have surpassed his master.

Sometimes called the "father of western pictoral art", his painting turned from the flatter, more iconic Byzantine style to a more naturalistic approach. A firm proponent of using observation of nature to learn about art, his painting emphasized some major characteristics of modern representational art; sculptural solidity, weight/mass of figures, and dimensionality.

While primarily a muralist, it's interesting to note that he was an architect as well. Some say he must have designed the Arena Chapel for the paintings to have fit so well in its design. Late in his career, he took over as chief architect of the cathedral in his home of Florence, where he designed the campanile next to the cathedral - a structure now known as "Giotto's Tower".

Giotto was most likely taught by his contemporary, Cimabue. Giorgio Vasari, one of Giotto's first biographers, tells how Cimabue, a well-known Florentine painter, discovered Giotto's talents. Cimabue supposedly saw the 12-year-old boy sketching one of his father's sheep on a flat rock and was so impressed with his talent that he persuaded the father to let Giotto become his pupil. Another story is that Giotto, while apprenticed to a wool merchant in Florence, frequented Cimabue's studio so much that he was finally allowed to study painting. His major works are Madonna Enthroned (c. 1310) ; Arena Chapel Frescoes (c.1304) - 38 paintings on the life of Christ ; and Santa Croce Frescoes (?) - Frescoes on the lives of St. John and St. Francis.

Vasari tells the story of how Pope Boniface VIII sent a messenger to Giotto with a request for samples of his work. Giotto dipped his brush in red and with one continuous stroke painted a perfect circle. He then assured the messenger that the worth of this sample would be recognized. When the pope saw it, he "instantly perceived that Giotto surpassed all other painters of his time."

In common with other artists of his day, Giotto lacked the technical knowledge of anatomy and perspective that later painters learned. Yet what he

possessed was infinitely greater than the technical skill of the artists who followed him. He had a grasp of human emotion and of what was significant

in human life. In concentrating on these essentials he created compelling pictures of people under stress, of people caught up in crises and

soul-searching decisions. Modern artists often seek inspiration from Giotto. In him they find a direct approach to human experience that remains valid for every age.

Overall, Giotto is regarded as the founder of the central tradition of Western painting because his work broke free from the stylizations of Byzantine art, introducing new ideals of naturalism and creating a convincing sense of pictorial space. His contemporaries recognized his momentous achievement with pride. In about 1400 Cennino Cennini wrote `Giotto translated the art of painting from Greek to Latin.'

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