Giotto
(Colle di Vespignano ca. 1266 - Florence 1337)
According to what Lorenzo Ghiberti wrote in his Commentarii, Giotto was born in Colle di Vespignano, around 1266 (a date inferable from a 14th-century document) since when he died in Florence in 1337, the painter was 70 years old.
He was trained in the Florentine workshop of Cimabue and, already at 25 years of age, at the time when Nicholas IV was the pope, he was working in the Assisi church, not yet completed, on his frescoes, from Episodes from the Life of Isaac to Episodes from the Life of Saint Francis between 1290 and 1292.
In the last decade of the 13th century, Giotto had an intense period of activity, painting works like a Madonna with Child now in the Church of San Lorenzo in Borgo San Lorenzo, the Majesty from the Church of San Giorgio alla Costa (Florence, Diocesan Museum), the monumental Crucifix for Santa Maria Novella, moving frequently, first to Rome on the occasion of the 1300 Jubilee and then to Rimini where still today there is a large painted Cross.
From 1303 to 1305 he stayed in Padua to fresco Episodes from the Life of Mary and of Christ in the chapel of the rich banker Enrico Scrovegni. Returning to Florence as a celebrated artist, he received large commissions and painted the Majesty for the Church of Ognissanti and frescoed, with the assistance of his large workshop, four chapels in Santa Croce. Of these latter, two remain: the Peruzzi Chapel with Episodes from the Life of Saint John the Evangelist and Saint John the Baptist and the Bardi Chapel with Episodes from the Life of Saint Francis.
In 1328, he is documented in Naples at the court of King Robert d’Anjou. In 1334, he was named master builder of the Florentine cathedral for which he designed the bell tower, but he did not see it completed since he died three years later.
The success of his style, so “natural” and “spacious”, was extraordinary not only in Florence, where his pupils and in turn their pupils dominated the entire 14th century, but also in other centers where real and proper schools were founded, like those in Rimini, Padua and Naples.
(Colle di Vespignano ca. 1266 - Florence 1337)
According to what Lorenzo Ghiberti wrote in his Commentarii, Giotto was born in Colle di Vespignano, around 1266 (a date inferable from a 14th-century document) since when he died in Florence in 1337, the painter was 70 years old.
He was trained in the Florentine workshop of Cimabue and, already at 25 years of age, at the time when Nicholas IV was the pope, he was working in the Assisi church, not yet completed, on his frescoes, from Episodes from the Life of Isaac to Episodes from the Life of Saint Francis between 1290 and 1292.
In the last decade of the 13th century, Giotto had an intense period of activity, painting works like a Madonna with Child now in the Church of San Lorenzo in Borgo San Lorenzo, the Majesty from the Church of San Giorgio alla Costa (Florence, Diocesan Museum), the monumental Crucifix for Santa Maria Novella, moving frequently, first to Rome on the occasion of the 1300 Jubilee and then to Rimini where still today there is a large painted Cross.
From 1303 to 1305 he stayed in Padua to fresco Episodes from the Life of Mary and of Christ in the chapel of the rich banker Enrico Scrovegni. Returning to Florence as a celebrated artist, he received large commissions and painted the Majesty for the Church of Ognissanti and frescoed, with the assistance of his large workshop, four chapels in Santa Croce. Of these latter, two remain: the Peruzzi Chapel with Episodes from the Life of Saint John the Evangelist and Saint John the Baptist and the Bardi Chapel with Episodes from the Life of Saint Francis.
In 1328, he is documented in Naples at the court of King Robert d’Anjou. In 1334, he was named master builder of the Florentine cathedral for which he designed the bell tower, but he did not see it completed since he died three years later.
The success of his style, so “natural” and “spacious”, was extraordinary not only in Florence, where his pupils and in turn their pupils dominated the entire 14th century, but also in other centers where real and proper schools were founded, like those in Rimini, Padua and Naples.