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Giotto
Giotto
(artist) (c. 1267-1337), the most
important Italian painter of the 14th
century, whose conception of the human
figure in broad, rounded terms-rather than
in the flat, two-dimensional terms of
Gothic and Byzantine styles-indicated a
concern for naturalism that marked a
turning point in the development of
Western art.
He
was born Giotto di Bondone in Colle di
Vespignano, near Florence. Details of his
early life are scarce, but he probably
served an apprenticeship in Florence
before embarking on a career that took him
to Rome, Padua, Arezzo, Rimini, Assisi,
and Naples.
Giotto's
entire output consists of religious works,
primarily altarpieces and church frescoes.
Few remain in good condition, and most
have disappeared entirely or have been
almost wholly repainted. Others cannot be
securely attributed to him and are more
likely to be the work of followers or
apprentices. One of his earliest and
best-known attributable works is the large
fresco cycle illustrating the lives of the
Virgin and Christ in the Scrovegni (Arena)
Chapel in Padua, which may have been
completed as early as 1305 or 1306.
Giotto's scenes break with rigid medieval
stylization to present human figures in
rounded sculptural forms that appear to
have been based on living models rather
than on idealized archetypes. He rejected
the bright, jewel-like colours and long,
elegant lines of the Byzantine style in
favour of a quieter, more realistic
presentation. His emphasis is on the human
and the real rather than on the divine and
the ideal-a revolutionary development in
an age dominated by religion. His settings
(here as in all of his works) consist of
shallow, boxlike architectural backdrops.
These are somewhat more open than the flat
planes of Byzantine and Gothic paintings
but fall short of the fully developed
perspective seen in later Renaissance
painting.
The
Ognissanti Madonna (c. 1310, Uffizi,
Florence) is roughly contemporary with the
Arena frescoes and is Giotto's only
attributable panel painting. It shows the
influence of the earlier Florentine
painter Cimabue in composition and style,
but is unique in its humanization of the
Madonna's face. Two fresco cycles in the
Church of Santa Croce, Florence-depicting
the life of St Francis and the lives of St
John the Baptist and St John the
Evangelist-are thought to be later works.
While they are extensively restored, they
represent the most advanced stage of
Giotto's style, showing human figures
grouped in free, active poses. The
question of Giotto's authorship of the
frescoes in the Upper Church at Assisi is
an ongoing one among art
historians.
Giotto
was ahead of his time. Most of his
followers painted in a less realistic,
more overtly decorative style. It remained
for Masaccio, a century later, to expand
upon Giotto's style. Giotto's example was
crucial to the development of later
Florentine painting, and his preoccupation
with the realities of the human figure and
the visible world became the dominant
concerns of the Florentine Renaissance. He
died in Florence, in 1337.
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