Giotto di Bondone (1266-1337)

Giotto di Bondone (1266-1337)

Giotto di Bondone, actually Angiolo di Bondone, Italian architect and painter in the Renaissance, one of the first proponents of perspective. According to the chronicler Vasari, he ‘rejected a Byzantine mannerism and has encouraged the realism’ in way that the line converge as in nature, toward the point of projection. (Parramón, p.15. )However, his perspective was still very intuitive compared to what will happen in the bloom of the Renaissance.

A legend says, that as a young boy Giotto was a shepherd and in free time he was doing amateur drawings which were soon spotted by the famous architect Cimabue. These stories, however, should be considered a bit of a distance. In fact, Giotto studied painting at the side of his master Cimabue and during this period, probably he was travelling to Rome and Pisa.

In 1288-1292, first time he demonstrated his talent at work on the frescoes in the Basilica of St. Francis of Assisi. In the years 1303-1305 he worked in Padua, where he painted frescoes Scrovegni Chapel. In 1310-1320 he lived in Florence, where he performed the frescoes at the Basilica of Santa Croce, designed and built a bell tower. In 1328 the king of Naples invited him to decorate the chapel and halls of the palace. In 1334 he returned to Florence, where he was honored by the city authorities being appointed as a chief architect to Florence Cathedral. His last known work (with assistants' help) is the decoration of Podestà Chapel in the Bargello, Florence. In his final years Giotto had become friends with Boccaccio and Sacchetti, who featured him in their stories.

Expulsion of the Devils from Arezzo (1295 - 1299)

The tenth of twenty-eight scenes of the fresco cycle of the stories of St. Francis of Assisi.

References:

Parramón, J.M. How to Draw in Perspective, (1988) Barcelona: Paramón Editions, S.A.

www.giottodibondone.org/biography.