Giotto

Giotto (12667-1337), the great Florentine painter and architect, was the son of a peasant named Bondone, living at the village of Colle. At an early age he was a pupil of Cimabue (q.v.), and probably assisted him at Assisi. About the year 1291 he was invited to Rome by Cardinal Stefaneschi, where the Novicella in the portico of St. Peter's is probably his work. Returning to Florence some two years later, he painted the chapel of the Podesta or Bargello. and in the Paradise series of frescoes inserted portraits of Dante, Corso Donati, and Brunette Latini. At Padua Giotto decorated the Scrovegni Chapel in the Arena Church with 38 frescoes. Dante visited him here, and is thought to have suggested subjects to his friend. The painter now probably wandered from city to city.

He is known to have been at Naples in 1333, and the fresco series there called the Seven Sacraments cf the Church have been attributed to him. At Assisi he painted a series of 28 frescoes illustrating the life of St. Francis, and treated the same subject later in the chapel of the Bardi, in Santa Croce, Florence. His work here was until recently covered by whitewash. As master of works of the cathedral and city he designed the famous Campanile, his last work. Giotto married, and had six ugly children, and many anecdotes of him have come down to us from Boccaccio and others. Among others is the story which has given rise to the Italian expression "as round as Giotto's O." When asked by a messenger of the Pope to give a specimen of his skill, the painter is said to have drawn with a pencil dipped in red colour "a circle so perfect and exact that it was a marvel to behold." Giotto is referred to in the Purgatorio of Dante (canto xi.).

He was the first great Italian painter who studied nature instead of following tradition. He first gave expression to faces, and laid on colour with a fight hand. His numerous pupils, the Giotteschi, carried on his work in the same spirit. Mr. Ruskin, who contributed the letterpress to the engravings of the Arena frescoes, is never tired of dwelling on the merits of this master.