GIOTTO DI BONDONE

Giotto di Bondone: translation

(c. 1267-1337)

The first Italian painter to attain international fame, Giotto is considered the father of the Renaissance. He was born to a peasant family in the village of Colle di Vespignano in Tuscany.Lorenzo Ghibertiwrote that, as a young shepherd boy, Giotto drew a sheep on a rock whenCimabue, then the most prominent artist ofFlorence, passed by. Recognizing the boy's skill, Cimabue asked Giotto's father permission to take him in as his pupil. The exact dates of Giotto's apprenticeship with Cimabue are unknown, though it must have ended in c. 1280 when Cimabue was called to Assisi to work on theapseandtransept frescoesin the Upper Church ofSan Francesco.

In the mid-1280s Giotto was inRomecreating theCrucifixionfor the Church of Aracoeli (c. 1285-1287), painted in the manner of Cimabue with Christ's body sagging and bleeding, and, on theapron, theVirginandSt.Johngrieving. While in Rome, Giotto also painted a fresco in the right transept at Santa Maria Maggiore depicting a floral frieze, medallions showing the busts ofprophetsholding scrolls, and an arcade with smallforeshortenedarches. In c. 1287, probably at Cimabue's recommendation, Giotto went to work at San Francesco, Assisi, where he contributed 28 scenes from the life ofSt.Francis(some have debated the attribution and chronology of these scenes). Then, in c. 1300, he returned to Rome to work forBoniface VIII, rendering a fresco, now badly damaged, of the pope addressing the crowds. By 1301, he was back in Tuscany, and in 1305 he received theArena Chapel, Padua, commission from Enrico Scrovegni, his best-known and best-preserved work.

In 1306, the pope moved toAvignon, France, and Giotto lost his papal patronage. The Roman Cardinal Jacopo Stefaneschi, who continued the patronage of works of art destined for OldSt.Peter'sin spite of the pope's absence, provided the artist with further commissions. In c. 1307, Giotto designed for the cardinal a largemosaicfor the façade of the courtyard in front of the basilica that depicted theNavicella(only fragments have survived), the scene where Christ walks on water to saveSt.Peterfrom drowning. He also rendered theStefaneschiAltarpiece(c. 1307; Vatican Museum) for the canon'schoirin the basilica. In the 1320s Giotto was back in Florence painting frescoes in four chapels in theFranciscanChurch ofSanta Croce. Of these, only theBardiandPeruzziremain. The Bardi Chapel depicts scenes from the life of St. Francis, arranged along the walls in three levels. The Peruzzi Chapel shows the lives of Sts.John the Baptistand John the Evangelist. From 1328 to 1334, Giotto was in Naples in the court of KingRobert D'Anjou. Chronicles inform us that his work there centered on the decorations of Castel Nuovo, the king's residence, that are no longer extant.

A late work by Giotto (and assistants) is theBaroncelliPolyptych(c. 1332-1338; Florence, Santa Croce), a five-paneled altarpiece commissioned by the Baroncelli family for their chapel at Santa Croce that features theCoronation of the Virginin the center and saints and musical angels on the lateral panels. To this same period belongs Giotto's design for theCampanileof theCathedral of Florence(1334-1337), recorded in a tinted drawing on parchment in the Museo dell' Opera del Duomo in Siena. When Giotto returned to Florence from Naples in 1334, he was appointed Director of the Cathedral Works, considered a great honor, and immediately set out to work on the Campanile. Under Giotto's direction, the foundation was laid and the first story built. The project was temporarily halted in 1337 when Giotto died.

Giotto is buried in the Cathedral of Florence, then an unprecedented honor for an artist. An epitaph written by the poet Angelo Poliziano on his tomb reads: "I am the man who brought painting to life . . . whatever is found in nature may be found in my art." This epitaph truly expresses the genius of Giotto. In an era when theManiera Grecawas the style of choice, Giotto introduced a new mode of painting that required the empirical observation of nature and its phenomena, and its replication on the pictorial surface. Cennino Cennini inIl libro dell' arte, written in c. 1400, rightly proclaimed that "Giotto translated the art of painting from Greek to Latin."