Everything about Giotto Di Bondone totally explained
Giotto di Bondone (
1267–
January 8 1337), better known simply as
Giotto, was an
Italian painter and
architect from
Florence. He is generally considered the first in a line of great artists who contributed to the
Italian Renaissance.
Giotto's contemporary
Giovanni Villani wrote that Giotto was "the most sovereign master of painting in his time, who drew all his figures and their postures according to nature. And he was given a salary by the commune [ofFlorence] in virtue of his talent and excellence."
The later 16th century biographer
Giorgio Vasari says of him "...He made a decisive break with the ...Byzantine style, and brought to life the great art of painting as we know it today, introducing the technique of drawing accurately from life, which had been neglected for more than two hundred years."
Giotto's masterwork is the decoration of the
Scrovegni Chapel in
Padua, commonly called the
Arena Chapel, completed around
1305. This
fresco cycle depicts the
life of the Virgin and the
life of Christ. It is regarded as one of the supreme masterpieces of the Early
Renaissance. That Giotto painted the
Arena Chapel and that he was chosen by the commune of Florence in 1334 to design the new
campanile (bell tower) of the
Florence Cathedral are among the few certainties of his biography. Almost every other aspect of it's subject to controversy: his birthdate, his birthplace, his appearance, his apprenticeship, the order in which he created his works, whether or not he painted the famous frescoes at Assisi, and where he was eventually buried after his death.
Biography
Early years
Giotto was probably born in a hilltop farmhouse, perhaps at Colle di Romagnano or Romignano; since 1850 a tower house in nearby
Colle Vespignano, a hamlet 35 kilometres north of Florence, has borne a plaque claiming the honour of his birthplace, an assertion commercially publicised. He was the son of a man named Bondone, described in surviving public records as "a person of good standing". Most authors accept that Giotto was his real name, but it may have been an abbreviation of Ambrogio (
Ambrogiotto) or Angelo (
Angelotto).
The year of his death is calculated from the fact that Antonio Pucci, the town crier of Florence, wrote a poem in Giotto's honour in which it's stated that he was 70 at the time of his death. However, the word "seventy" fits into the rhyme of the poem better than would have a longer and more complex age, so it's possible that Pucci used artistic license. an increasing number of scholars have expressed doubt that Giotto was in fact the author of the
Upper Church frescos. There are many differences between them and the
Arena Chapel frescoes which can not be accounted for by the stylistic development of an individual artist. It seems, rather, that several hands painted the frescoes and that the artists were probably from Rome. If this is the case, then Giotto's frescoes at Padua owe much to the naturalism of these painters.
Other early works are the
Madonna and Child panel now in the Diocesan Museum of
Santo Stefano al Ponte, Florence, and the signed panel of the
Stigmata of St. Francis, from Pisa and now in the Louvre.
In 1287, at the age of about 20, Giotto married Ricevuta di Lapo del Pela, known as "Ciuta". The couple had numerous children, (perhaps as many as eight) one of whom, Francesco, became a painter. and the
Palazzo della Ragione, which are however from a later sojourn in Padua.
Numerous painters from northern Italy were influenced by Giotto's work in Padua including
Guariento,
Giusto de' Menabuoi,
Jacopo Avanzi, and
Altichiero.
Mature works
From 1306 to 1311 Giotto was in Assisi, where he painted frescoes in the transept area of the
Lower Church, including
The Life of Christ,
Franciscan Allegories and the Maddalena Chapel, drawing on stories from
the Golden Legend and including the portrait of bishop Teobaldo Pontano who commissioned the work. Several assistants are mentioned, including one Palerino di Guido. However, the style demonstrates developments from Giotto's work at Padua.
The bones were those of a very short man, of little over four feet tall, who may have suffered from a form of congenital dwarfism. This supports a tradition at the Church of Santa Croce that a dwarf who appears in one of the frescoes is a self portrait of Giotto. On the other hand, a man wearing a white hat who appears in the
Last Judgement at Padua is also said to be a portrait of Giotto. The appearance of this man conflicts with the image in Santa Croce.
Gallery
Image:Giotto - Scrovegni - -31- - Kiss of Judas.jpg|The Kiss of Judas
Image:Dante-alighieri.jpg|Dante Alighieri
Image:Giotto di Bondone 007.jpg|Attendant figures in a scene from the Arena Chapel.
Image:Giotto' Flight into Egypt.jpg|The Flight into Egypt.
Image:Giotto - Scrovegni - -18- - Adoration of the Magi.jpg|Adoration of the Magi
Image:Giotto ls.jpg|The last supper, Alte Pinakothek
Further Information
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