Giotto di Bondone or Giotto is the greatest Italian artist of the Proto-Renaissance, a famous painter, frescoist and architect of the late 13th – early 14th centuries.

Many details from the official biography of Giotto di Bondone are still disputed by historians and cause heated debates. But millions of art lovers have no doubt that the work of the outstanding master, his paintings and frescoes are unique masterpieces of world culture.

Giotto di Bondone was the first of the galaxy of great masters at the dawn of the Renaissance to reject the ancient Byzantine icon-painting traditions and medieval artistic canons. Therefore, he is rightfully considered the founder of modern European painting and the inventor of the revolutionary technique of volumetric depiction of space.

Biography of Giotto di Bondone Giotto di Bondone was born in the small town of Vespignano in 1266 or 1267 in the family of a blacksmith. According to other sources, the father of the future genius was an ordinary peasant. There is a beautiful legend that the great artist of that era, Cimabue, accidentally saw a drawing of young Giotto on a stone on his way to Florence and was amazed by the talent of the village shepherd. The mature master took the boy to study and helped him master the basics of painting.

Unfortunately, this fascinating legend is not confirmed by real historical facts. Therefore, the name of Giotto’s true teacher remains unknown to this day. Historians have also not come to a consensus regarding the artist’s real name. According to one version, Giotto is an abbreviated form of the diminutive Ambrogiotto (Ambrogio), according to another, the boy was actually given this name at birth.

However, it is known for certain that Giotto received his first serious independent order in 1288. The young artist, who was barely 20 years old at the time, was entrusted with the important task of creating a cycle of 28 frescoes for the interior of the Church of San Francesco in Assisi. Moreover, given the enormous volume of work, Giotto could not cope with the order alone, and therefore worked together with assistants. The artist brilliantly completed the task and gained wide fame in central Italy.

Around 1290, Giotto di Bondone married Ricevuta di Lapo del Pela, who gave him 8 children (4 daughters and 4 sons). The artist’s family never experienced financial difficulties. Numerous orders allowed the master to maintain a spacious house and even lend money at interest to other people.

In 1303, Giotto received an order that was destined to bring great fame to the artist. Enrico Scrovegni commissioned the talented master to fresco the walls of the Arena Chapel in Padua. It was in this masterpiece that Giotto brought to life a new painting technique – spatial perspective. The cycle of 36 separate fragments still amazes with the realism of volumetric artistic compositions. The painting of the chapel became the pinnacle of the mature stage of the master’s work and finally secured his fame as the best artist in Italy.

From this moment, Giotto di Bondone began to receive expensive and complex orders from different parts of the country. And in 1315-1318, at the invitation of the head of the Catholic Church, he was at the residence of the pontiff in Avignon. Giotto spent another five years of his life in Naples, where he was invited by the local ruler Roberto of Anjou. In 1330, the Neapolitan king awarded the master the honorary title of court artist for the execution of a huge number of frescoes for various churches in the city.

In 1334, the authorities of Florence appointed Giotto the chief architect of the city and awarded him a generous salary. Until his death, the artist was actively engaged in the construction of new buildings, the erection of protective walls and the painting of temple decorations.

Shortly before his death, in 1336, the artist went to Milan to lead the work on creating frescoes for the local ruler Azzone Visconti. And the honored master completed this task brilliantly, however, like everyone else.

Giotto’s life suddenly ended on the threshold of his seventieth anniversary. There is no information about the cause of the death of the great genius, but the date of death is beyond doubt – this tragic event occurred on January 8, 1337.

Unfortunately, Giotto’s grave has not survived to this day. Different historical sources contain conflicting information about the burial place of the artist’s body. But the greater part of the creative legacy of the brilliant Florentine, fortunately, has survived the centuries and still evokes admiration among millions of tourists, museum visitors and local residents of a number of cities in northern and central Italy.