Giotto Di Bondone - Painter and Architect of the Early Italian Renaissance

Giotto di Bondone, also known as Giotto, was an painter and architect from Florence who lived in the late 13th, and mid to early 14th centuries. His art broke the traditional styles and was one of the first that can be considered of the Italian Renaissance. Yet little for sure is known about his history: his birth date, birthplace, apprenticeship, the order that he made his works, and which works were actually his are all a mystery that people today are still trying to unravel.

Beginnings

Giotto was most likely born on a hilltop farmhouse outside of Florence. Since 1850, a plaque in a tower house near Colle Vespignano has advertised his home. This rumor is highly publicized, but the truth is unclear. The year of his death is actually not recorded, but based on a poem that Antonio Pucci wrote in which he described Giotto as seventy upon death. At a young age, Giotto began to work in the workshop of Cimabue (a popular mosaic and paint artist). There is a story of Giotto being a shepherd boy who drew his sheep on rocks so well that Cimabue had to invite him to his workshop. In another funny story, Giotto supposedly painted a fly on a portrait that Cimabue was working on while Cimabue was away. The fly was so realistic that Cimabue tried several times to flick it away before realizing that it was paint. In another story, the Pope requested a demonstration of Giotto's skill, so the painted painted a circle in red ink so perfect that it looked as though he has used a compass to draw it.

Technique

The techniques of Italian painters differ greatly from painting techniques used today. Artists would paint directly onto walls with tempura paint, which was powdered pigments of dangerous elements like lead and arsenic along with egg yolks, water, and glue. The first step to painting a fresco would be to cover the wall with linen strips soaked in gypsum. This created a surface to paint upon. Then, after a proper number of layers have been administered, artists would paint with a mixture of wet plaster and pigments, so that the wall would actually absorb the paints. Each area had to be done quickly before the plaster dried, so most paintings were done in stages with one small section done each day.

Lamentation

One of Giotto's most famous works is entitled Lamentation. The scene shows Mary and the disciples surrounding the dead Jesus after he is removed from the cross. Giotto captured not only the religious significance of this piece, but also the strong emotions from each of the figures. Jesus is lying off center in the arms of his mother, Mary, who cradles her dead son affectionately. Mourning angels hover in the air above the figures and a dead tree stands in the background to add an extra level of atmosphere to the painting. Giotto is very skilled at portraying the grief of those present, especially in the figure of John the evangelist as he thrown back his arms in despair. In this particular work, we can see the different days of fresco work by the slight differences in color of the blue background divided into sections. This work is an excellent example of Giotto's passion for the human experience and mastery of the human form.

Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Giotto_di_bondone