Giotto

Giotto di Bondone, commonly known simply as Giotto, was an Italian painter and architect active in the late 13th and early 14th centuries. Born about 1267 in Colle di Vespignano near Florence and dying in 1337 in Florence, he is widely regarded as a pivotal figure in the transition from medieval to Renaissance art.

Giotto trained with Cimabue in Florence, and his early work already showed a move toward naturalism. He rejected the stiff, iconic figures of medieval painting in favor of more lifelike forms, anchored in solid anatomy, expressive faces, and convincing spatial relationships.

Among his major works are the fresco cycles in the Scrovegni Chapel (Arena Chapel) in Padua, completed around 1305, celebrated for narrative clarity and sculpted forms; and his frescoes in Assisi portraying the Life of Saint Francis. In Florence, he contributed to religious commissions and is traditionally credited with designing the Campanile (bell tower) of the Florence Cathedral. His innovations laid groundwork for later Renaissance masters such as Masaccio and helped establish painting as a vehicle for naturalistic representation and human emotion.

Giotto’s impact on Western art endures in his emphasis on three-dimensional space, figural volume, and narrative expressiveness, marking a decisive break with purely ornamental medieval painting and influencing generations of artists who followed.