[0]Statue of Giotto di Bondone, close to the Uffizi, Italy.

Very little is actually known about Giotto’s life. He’s considered the father of western painting, the first in a long line of artists that set the Renaissance rolling.

It’s thought that Giotto was born in a small farming community outside the city of Florence around 1267. There’s a legend that the young artist, at around twelve, was seen drawing on a rock by the great Florentine painter Cimabue, who was impressed with the boy’s ability and asked his father if he could take Giotto on as an apprentice. Cimabue took Giotto to Rome, where the young artist learned fresco.

Fresco is a technique of painting where the artist paints on freshly laid still wet plaster. Frescoes are extremely cheap to create, even on a large scale. The technique also allows the artist to start over at any time, or to plaster over an area that he wants to re-do. The affordability and flexibility of this medium, combined with Giotto’s excellent drawing skills and vision, led to some of the influential works in the proto-Renaissance period.

His most famous project is The Scrovegni Chapel (also known as the Arena Chapel), which he completed sometime between 1303 and 1310. Stay tuned
for more on the Arena Chapel later in the week.

Giotto is credited with putting the life and realism back into painting after almost 200 years of the Byzantine style, which prized spirituality above realism, and therefore paid little attention to body shape or facial expression. Most action and emotion was communicated thru gestures. Giotto began to use more realistic body shapes. He was also the first artist in centuries to use facial expression, along with gesture, to tell the story.

It is believed that Giotto died in January of 1337. It is disputed where he is buried.

Sources are Wikipedia and my Renaissance art class.