Giotto ( Giotto di Bondone ) (图)

                   The Gothic and Medieval Age 1300-1500

       Lamentation of Christ, c.1305 

       Scrovegni (Arena) Chapel, Poduo, Italy 

       One of the founding fathers of the Renaissance. Giotto was revered by early commentators as the greatest artist since antiquity, and it is clear that he was still influencing painters more than a century after his death. His greatest achievement was to rid Italian art of the repetitive stylisations deriving from Byzantine painting. In the process, he became one of the first western artists to stamp his own personality on his work. In particular, Giotto displayed on unparalleled degree of naturalism, both in his ability to depict solid, three dimensional forms and in his grasp of human psychology. He was also a gifted storyteller, conveying his religious narratives with absolute clarity and simplicity.

      The detail of Giotto’s own life are, however, a mystery. There is a tale that his master, Cimabue, first spotted his talent when he saw him as a shepherd-boy, sketching a lamb on a slab of rock. This is probably apocryphal, however, and the identification of Grotto’s picture presents even greater problems. The marvellous frescoes in the Arena Chapel, Padua, are usually cited as his masterpiece, but most other attributions are hotly disputed. Even his three signed altarpieces may only be workshop pieces. 

     Giotto Born c. 1267 Italy. Died 1337