Trecento giotto di bondone biography facts

The cycle is divided into 37 scenes, arranged around the lateral walls in 3 tiers, starting in the upper register with the story of Joachim and Anna, the parents of the Virgin and continuing with the story of Mary. The life of Jesus occupies two registers. While Giotto's master Cimabue painted in a manner that is clearly Medieval, having aspects of both the Byzantine and the Gothic, Giotto's style draws on the solid and classicising sculpture of Arnolfo di Cambio.

Unlike Cimabue and Duccio, Giotto's figures are not stylised, not elongated and do not follow set Byzantine models. They are solidly three-dimensional, have anatomy, faces and gestures that are based on close observation and are clothed, not in swirling formalised drapery, but in garments that hang naturally and have form and weight. Although aspects of this trend in painting had already appeared in Rome in the work of Pietro Cavallini, Giotto took it so much further that he set a new standard for representational painting.

The heavily sculptural figures occupy compressed settings with naturalistic elements, often using forced perspective devices so that they resemble stage sets. This similarity is increased by Giotto's careful arrangement of the figures in such a way that the viewer appears to have a particular place and even an involvement in many of the scenes.

This dramatic immediacy was a new feature, which is also seen to some extent in the Upper Church at Assisi. Famous panels in the series include the Adoration of the Magi, in which a comet-like Star of Bethlehem streaks across the sky, and the Flight from Egypt, in which Giotto broke many traditions in the depiction of the scene. The scenes from the Passion were much admired by artists of the Renaissance for their concentrated emotional and dramatic force, especially the Lamentation of Christ, and studies of the sequence by Michelangelo exist.

The feature which more than any other sets Giotto's work apart from that of his contemporaries is his depiction of the human face and of human emotion in both expression and gesture. When the disgraced Joachim returns sadly to the hillside, the two young shepherds look sideways at each other. The soldier who drags a baby from its screaming mother does so with his head hunched into his shoulders and a look of shame on his face.

The people on the road to Egypt gossip about Mary and Joseph as they go. Joseph and the Christ, yes, by all means Among those frescoes in Padua which have been lost are those in the Basilica of. Anthony and the Palazzo della Ragione, which are however from a later sojourn in Padua. From to 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. Peter's Basilica, commissioned by Cardinal Jacopo Stefaneschi and now lost except for some fragments. In Florence, where documents from — attest to his financial activities, he painted an altarpiece known as the Ognissanti Madonna and now in the Uffizi where it is famously exhibited beside Cimabue's Santa Trinita Madonna and Duccio's Rucellai Madonna.

Francis , the Peruzzi Chapel Life of St. John the Baptist and St. He broke with the prevailing Byzantine style and pioneered the wonderful style of painting as we understand it today, inventing the skill of drawing precisely from reality, which had been abandoned for more than years. Giotto is said to have been raised in a farmhouse. Since , a tower house in adjacent Colle Vespignano has carried an inscription proclaiming the distinction of his birthplace, a claim that has been widely advertised.

Recent research, however, has revealed documentary proof suggesting he was actually born in Florence, the child of a blacksmith. Bondone was the name of his father. He is considered to have been the child of a farmer, originating in the Mugello, a hilly region north of Florence that was also the homeland of the Medicis, who rose to prominence in the city.

Some historians believe he was born around , but other sources believe he was born in , which appears more plausible based on the sophistication of several of his early pieces. According to Vasari, in his youth, Giotto di Bondone was a shepherd boy, a happy and brilliant youngster who was adored by all who encountered him. Cimabue, the famous Florentine artist, came upon Giotto sketching drawings of his flock on a rock.

Cimabue called on Giotto and asked if he may bring him on as an assistant since they were so lifelike. He recalls a day when Cimabue was not there at the studio and Giotto put a stunningly realistic fly on the forehead in a picture of Cimabue. When Cimabue arrived, he attempted to flick the fly away many times. Whatever the real origins of their professional connection, it is probable that Giotto was taught by Cimabue, most likely starting around the age of ten, where he acquired the craft of painting.

According to Vasari, when Pope Benedict XI sent out an envoy to Giotto and asked him to produce a picture to illustrate his expertise, the painter Giotto drew a red circle so flawless that it appeared to be done with a pair of compasses and told the envoy to submit it to the Pope. The messenger was dissatisfied and left, feeling he had just been made a complete fool of.

Giotto is said to have traveled to Rome with his teacher before following him to Assisi, where he had been appointed to adorn two churches just erected to celebrate St Francis. Although Cimabue traveled to Assisi to paint numerous big murals for the new Basilica in Assisi, it is conceivable, but not confirmed, that Giotto accompanied him. The provenance of the mural cycle of St.

In the lack of contradictory evidence, it was simple to credit any mural in the Upper Church that was not clearly by Cimabue to the better-known Giotto. It was also speculated that Giotto may have executed the paintings ascribed to the Master of Isaac. Legend of St Francis: The attribution of several panel paintings attributed to the painter Giotto by Vasari, and some others, is as much debated as the Assisi paintings.

They feature a mural of The Annunciation and a massive hanging Crucifix that is about 5 meters tall. It was completed in and is assumed to be contemporaneous with the Assisi paintings. Francis Cycle. Giotto wedded a Florentine lady named Ceuta in , with whom he had several children. Someone reportedly asked Giotto the artist how he could make such beautiful paintings yet generate such hideous offspring, to which he answered that he produced his offspring in the dark.

Giotto completed his first significant work at Assisi from to , during which he achieved a number of notable graphical improvements. Giotto started a period of constant travel throughout the regions of Italy after a reasonably long stay at Assisi, a trend that would define his entire career. Giotto established studios in a variety of locales where his technique was replicated and where several of his helpers went on to launch their own careers.

Giotto journeyed to Rimini, Florence, and most likely Rome around the turn of the century. He then spent several years in Padua concentrating on the Arena Chapel, one of his most significant and well-known masterpieces. Giotto may have encountered the poet Dante, who was exiled in Padua from Florence, during his time there. Giotto appears to have traveled from Florence and Rome many times between and Vasari writes that when Cimabue was away from the workshop, Giotto painted a fly on the face of the painting that his master was working on.

When Cimabue came back, he tried several times to brush the fly off. Vasari also tells the story that the Pope wanted to see if Giotto would be a good artists to paint some important pictures. The Pope sent a messenger asking Giotto to send him back a small picture. Instead of doing a painting, which would take many days, Giotto drew, in red paint, a circle that was so perfect that it seemed as though it was drawn using a pair of compasses.

Giotto told the messenger to give that to the Pope. Giotto's master, Cimabue , was one of the two most famous painters of Tuscany. He worked in Florence, while the other famous painter, Duccio , worked mainly in Siena. Around , Giotto and Cimabue went to Rome, where there were several fresco painters. The most famous painter in Rome was Pietro Cavallini.

The famous sculptor and architect from Florence, Arnolfo di Cambio , was also working in Rome. Giotto would have seen the paintings and sculpture by these different artists. Pietro Cavallini's paintings and Arnolfo's sculpture was far more realistic and three-dimensional than the paintings by Giotto's teacher Cimabue. Francis of Assisi. Through the 19th century,and for much of the 20th century it was believed that Giotto had also painted a famous series of frescos in the "Upper Church".

These pictures show the "Life of St. From , some art historians who studied these frescos more closely, decided that they were the work of several different artists probably four , probably from Rome, and that probably none of the pictures were by Giotto. Nowadays, most art historians agree with this, but some books and some websites continue to say that these paintings are by Giotto.

All the papers that belonged to the monastery were destroyed by Napoleon 's soldiers, so there is no record of which artist was paid to do the job. These paintings include a fresco of the Annunciation and the enormous suspended Crucifix which is about 5 metres high painted in about In , a rich Florentine gentleman called Ricuccio Pucci left money in his will so that a lamp could be kept burning before the crucifix "by the illustrious painter Giotto".

Trecento giotto di bondone biography facts

The couple had many children, perhaps eight. One of the sons, Francesco, became a painter. Giotto's fame as a painter spread. See right Giotto became rich enough to buy land in the wealthy city of Florence. This probably means that he was the master of a large workshop. Giotto's most famous works are the fresco paintings in the Scrovegni Chapel in Padua.

These were painted sometime between and Giotto was "commissioned" given the work by a rich Paduan man called Enrico degli Scrovegni. Enrico built the chapel and had it painted as a place to pray for the soul of his dead father. It was next to a very old palace that Enrico ws restoring to live in. The palace has gone now, but the chapel is still standing.

The outside of the building is very plain, pinkish-red bricks. The inside of the chapel is also very simple. It is long, with a chancel at one end where a priest can say the mass, an arched roof and windows down one side. The walls have been painted with three tiers layers of pictures. The "theme" the main idea in the pictures is God's Salvation of people through Jesus Christ.

His masterwork, the Scrovegni Chapel often called the Arena Chapel , was completed in and received widespread critical acclaim. He also completed the Santa Croce chapels in Florence during this period of his life, the most noted of which is the Peruzzi Chapel. In his personal life, di Bondone was happy and content. He had married an Italian woman named Ricevuta di Lapo del Pelo and together they had six children, one of whom went on to become an artist as well.

It has been suggested, although never proven, that Giotto was a somewhat religious man. It is known that he supported albeit discreetly the ideals of the Franciscans and even named two of his children Francesco and Chiara. By no means did Giotto di Bondone slow down during his later years, remaining active until he died in , aged Toward the end of his life, di Bondone solidified his impression on the art world.

He became close to the Pope and was called to the royal household by the King of Naples, Robert of Anjou, where he lived for over five years. Three years before his death, di Bondone was appointed chief architect of Florence and began building the Florence Cathedral. By the end of his life, di Bondone had become friends with literary greats Boccaccio, Sacchetti and Dante, all of whom featured or mentioned him in their works.

He died in January of and was initially buried in the Church of Santa Reparata. After excavations in the s, however, the remains were moved to a place of honor, near the grave of Renaissance great Brunelleschi.