Giotto di Bondone 1267/75–1337 Italian Painter and Architect

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Giotto di Bondone
1267/75–1337
Italian painter and architect

Giotto di Bondone played a pivotal role in the history of Renaissance art. In his works, he attempted to show figures, space, color, and light in a realistic way. Giotto's naturalistic* approach set a new standard for painting that influenced many other artists and paved the way for the emergence of later Renaissance styles.

Life and Career. Little is known for certain about Giotto's early life. According to tradition, he was born to a peasant family in a small village in Tuscany, near Florence. Several writers say that, when Giotto was young, he met the painter Cimabue in the countryside. Cimabue noticed that the boy was drawing a picture of a sheep on a flat stone. Struck by the boy's artistic skills, Cimabue got permission from Giotto's father to take him on as a student. Eventually, Giotto surpassed his teacher as a painter.

Giotto worked in many of the major artistic centers of Italy, including Florence, Padua, and Naples. He completed projects for patrons* such as the king of Naples, wealthy business leaders, and the Dominican and Franciscan religious orders. In 1334 he was appointed to oversee the construction of the cathedral of Florence and to design its new tower. This important commission, late in his life, reflects the prestige Giotto had acquired as both an artist and an architect.

Works. Giotto worked in a variety of artistic media, including fresco*, tempera (egg-based paint), gold leaf, and mosaic*, and produced pieces ranging from panel paintings to large murals. Many of his murals, created for churches and chapels, depict scenes from the lives of major religious figures.

Giotto's work reveals his tremendous powers of observation and attention to detail. His fresco St. Francis Preaching to the Birds (Church of San Francesco, Assisi) includes minute elements of the foliage and the different types of birds. The painter used subtle contrasts in color and tone to create an impression of depth. In addition, the backgrounds for his scenes, such as rural settings or splendid palace interiors, often reflect the nature of the subject. Thus, St. Francis Preaching to the Birds is set in a country landscape that emphasizes the saint's life as a wandering spiritual leader.

In St. Francis of Assisi Preaching before Pope Honorius III (Church of San Francesco, Assisi), Giotto placed the figures in an elegant room. The pope, the supreme religious authority, dominates the center of the picture. However, he appears to be listening attentively to Francis's sermon, revealing his respect for the saint's faith and teaching.

Giotto's work also shows a realistic treatment of human emotions not found in earlier works of art. The people in his paintings display great emotion, from peaceful expressions to tension, turmoil, and suffering. In Kiss of Judas (Scrovegni Chapel, Padua), Judas glares at Jesus, who remains calm while a group of angry soldiers bears down on them.

Artistic Achievements. Giotto gained fame in his own time as an accomplished artist. In the 1300s the poets Dante Alighieri and Petrarch mentioned Giotto in their works. Giovanni Boccaccio, writing in the 1350s, said that Giotto had reintroduced a naturalistic style of art that had been lost since the time of ancient Greece and Rome. In the 1400s the sculptor Lorenzo Ghiberti wrote about Giotto's importance in launching a new movement in Italian painting.

A century later, the art historian Giorgio Vasari praised Giotto in his Lives of the Artists (1550). Vasari, too, saw Giotto as having revived the high artistic traditions of the ancient world. In Vasari's view, Giotto was responsible for reestablishing nature as the highest model for artists to imitate. The historian traced the influence of this element of Giotto's work on the styles of painters of the 1500s, such as Leonardo da Vinci, Raphael, and Michelangelo Buonarroti.

(See alsoArchitecture; Art; Art in Italy. )