Giotto

Giotto di Bondone (Italian

pronunciation: [ˈdʒɔtto di bonˈdoːne];
c. 1267[a] – January 8, 1337),[2][3] known
mononymously as Giotto (UK: /ˈdʒɒtoʊ/,[4]
US: /dʒiˈɒtoʊ, ˈdʒɔːtoʊ/)[5][6] and Latinised
as Giottus, was an Italian painter and
architect from Florence during the Late
Middle Ages. He worked during the
Gothic/Proto-Renaissance period.[7]
Giotto's contemporary, the banker and
chronicler Giovanni Villani, wrote that
Giotto was "the most sovereign master of
painting in his time, who drew all his
figures and their postures according to
nature" and of his publicly recognized
"talent and excellence".[8] In his Lives of
the Most Excellent Painters, Sculptors, and
Architects, Giorgio Vasari described Giotto
as making a decisive break with the
prevalent Byzantine style and as initiating
"the great art of painting as we know it
today, introducing the technique of
drawing accurately from life, which had
been neglected for more than two hundred
years".[9]
 Giotto di Bondone

Portrait of Giotto di Bondone, made between

1490 and 1550

Born Giotto di Bondone

c. 1267
near Florence,
Republic of Florence
(present-day Italian
Republic)

Died January 8, 1337

(aged 69–70)
 Florence, Republic of
Nationality Florence
Italian

Known for Painting, fresco,

architecture

Notable work Scrovegni Chapel

frescoes, Campanile

Movement Late Gothic

Proto-Renaissance

Giotto's masterwork is the decoration of

the Scrovegni Chapel, in Padua, also
known as the Arena Chapel, which was
completed around 1305. The fresco cycle
depicts the Life of the Virgin and the Life
of Christ. It is regarded as one of the
supreme masterpieces of the Early
Renaissance.[10] That Giotto painted the
Arena Chapel and was chosen by the
Commune of Florence in 1334 to design
the new campanile (bell tower) of the
Florence Cathedral are among the few
certainties about his life. Almost every
other aspect of it is subject to controversy:
his birth date, his birthplace, his
appearance, his apprenticeship, the order
in which he created his works, whether or
not he painted the famous frescoes in the
Upper Basilica of Saint Francis in Assisi
and his burial place.

Early life and career

One of the Legend of St. Francis frescoes at Assisi,
the authorship of which is disputed.

Tradition holds that Giotto was born in a

farmhouse, perhaps at Colle di
Romagnano or Romignano.[11] Since 1850,
a tower house in nearby Colle Vespignano
has borne a plaque claiming the honor of
his birthplace, an assertion that is
commercially publicized. However, recent
research has presented documentary
evidence that he was born in Florence, the
son of a blacksmith.[12] His father's name
was Bondone. Most authors accept that
Giotto was his real name, but it is likely to
have been an abbreviation of Ambrogio
(Ambrogiotto) or Angelo (Angelotto).[1]

Vasari states that Giotto was a shepherd

boy, a merry and intelligent child who was
loved by all who knew him. The great
Florentine painter Cimabue discovered
Giotto drawing pictures of his sheep on a
rock. They were so lifelike that Cimabue
approached Giotto and asked if he could
take him on as an apprentice.[9] Cimabue
was one of the two most highly renowned
painters of Tuscany, the other being
Duccio, who worked mainly in Siena.
Vasari recounts a number of such stories
about Giotto's skill as a young artist. He
tells of one occasion when Cimabue was
absent from the workshop, and Giotto
painted a remarkably lifelike fly on a face
in a painting of Cimabue. When Cimabue
returned, he tried several times to brush
the fly off.[13] Many scholars today are
uncertain about Giotto's training and
consider Vasari's account that he was
Cimabue's pupil as legend; they cite earlier
sources that suggest that Giotto was not
Cimabue's pupil.[14]
Vasari also relates that when Pope
Benedict XI sent a messenger to Giotto,
asking him to send a drawing to
demonstrate his skill, Giotto drew a red
circle so perfect that it seemed as though
it was drawn using a pair of compasses
and instructed the messenger to send it to
the Pope.[15] The messenger departed ill
pleased, believing that he had been made
a fool of. The messenger brought other
artists' drawings back to the Pope in
addition to Giotto's. When the messenger
related how he had made the circle
without moving his arm and without the
aid of compasses the Pope and his
courtiers were amazed at how Giotto's skill
greatly surpassed all of his
contemporaries.[9]

Around 1290, Giotto married Ricevuta di

Lapo del Pela (known as 'Ciuta'), the
daughter of Lapo del Pela of Florence. The
marriage produced four daughters and
four sons, one of whom, Francesco,
became a painter.[1][16] Giotto worked in
Rome in 1297–1300, but few traces of his
presence there remain today. By 1301,
Giotto owned a house in Florence, and
when he was not traveling, he would return
there and live in comfort with his family. By
the early 1300s, he had multiple painting
commissions in Florence.[15] The
Archbasilica of St. John Lateran houses a
small portion of a fresco cycle, painted for
the Jubilee of 1300 called by Boniface VIII.
In this period Giotto also painted the Badia
Polyptych, now in the Uffizi, Florence.[9]

Cimabue went to Assisi to paint several

large frescoes at the new Basilica of Saint
Francis of Assisi, and it is possible, but not
certain, that Giotto went with him. The
attribution of the fresco cycle of the Life of
St. Francis in the Upper Church has been
one of the most disputed in art history.
The documents of the Franciscan Friars
that relate to artistic commissions during
this period were destroyed by Napoleon's
troops, who stabled horses in the Upper
Church of the Basilica, so scholars have
debated the attribution to Giotto. In the
absence of evidence to the contrary, it was
convenient to attribute every fresco in the
Upper Church not obviously by Cimabue to
the more well-known Giotto. In the 1960s,
art experts Millard Meiss and Leonetto
Tintori examined all of the Assisi frescoes,
and found some of the paint contained
white lead—also used in Cimabue's badly
deteriorated Crucifixion (c. 1283). No
known works by Giotto feature this
medium. However, Giotto's panel painting
of the Stigmatization of St. Francis
(c. 1297) includes a motif of the saint
holding up the collapsing church,
previously included in the Assisi
frescoes.[17]

The authorship of a large number of panel

paintings ascribed to Giotto by Vasari,
among others, is as broadly disputed as
the Assisi frescoes.[18] According to
Vasari, Giotto's earliest works were for the
Dominicans at Santa Maria Novella. They
include a fresco of The Annunciation and
an enormous suspended Crucifix, which is
about 5 metres (16 feet) high.[9] It has
been dated to about 1290 and is thought
to be contemporary with the Assisi
frescoes.[19] Earlier attributed works are
the San Giorgio alla Costa Madonna and
Child, now in the Diocesan Museum of
Santo Stefano al Ponte, Florence, and the
signed panel of the Stigmatization of St.
Francis housed in the Louvre.

An early biographical source, Riccobaldo

of Ferrara, mentions that Giotto painted at
Assisi but does not specify the St Francis
Cycle: "What kind of art [Giotto] made is
testified to by works done by him in the
Franciscan churches at Assisi, Rimini,
Padua..."[20] Since the idea was put
forward by the German art historian
Friedrich Rintelen in 1912,[21] many
scholars have expressed doubt that Giotto
was the author of the Upper Church
frescoes. Without documentation,
arguments on the attribution have relied
upon connoisseurship, a notoriously
unreliable "science",[22] but technical
examinations and comparisons of the
workshop painting processes at Assisi
and Padua in 2002 have provided strong
evidence that Giotto did not paint the St.
Francis Cycle.[23] There are many
differences between the Francis Cycle and
the Arena Chapel frescoes that are difficult
to account for within the stylistic
development of an individual artist. It is
now generally accepted that four different
hands are identifiable in the Assisi St.
Francis frescoes and that they came from
Rome. If this is the case, Giotto's frescoes
at Padua owe much to the naturalism of
the painters.[1]

The Crucifixion of Rimini

Giotto's fame as a painter spread. He was

called to work in Padua and also in Rimini,
where there remains only a Crucifix
painted before 1309 and conserved in the
Church of St. Francis.[9] It influenced the
rise of the Riminese school of Giovanni
and Pietro da Rimini. According to
documents of 1301 and 1304, Giotto by
this time possessed large estates in
Florence, and it is probable that he was
already leading a large workshop and
receiving commissions from throughout
Italy.[1]

Scrovegni Chapel
Kiss of Judas, Scrovegni Chapel

Around 1305, Giotto executed his most

influential work, the interior frescoes of the
Scrovegni Chapel in Padua. Enrico degli
Scrovegni commissioned the chapel to
serve as a family worship, burial space[24]
and as a backdrop for an annually
performed mystery play.[25]

The theme of the decoration is Salvation,

and there is an emphasis on the Virgin
Mary, as the chapel is dedicated to the
Annunciation and to the Virgin of Charity.
As was common in church decoration of
medieval Italy, the west wall is dominated
by the Last Judgement. On either side of
the chancel are complementary paintings
of the angel Gabriel and the Virgin Mary,
depicting the Annunciation. The scene is
incorporated into the cycles of The Life of
the Blessed Virgin Mary and The Life of
Christ. Giotto's inspiration for The Life of
the Virgin cycle was probably taken from
The Golden Legend by Jacopo da Voragine
and The Life of Christ draws upon the
Meditations on the Life of Christ as well as
the Bible. The frescoes are more than
mere illustrations of familiar texts,
however, and scholars have found
numerous sources for Giotto's
interpretations of sacred stories.[26]

Vasari, drawing on a description by

Giovanni Boccaccio, a friend of Giotto,
says of him that "there was no uglier man
in the city of Florence" and indicates that
his children were also plain in appearance.
There is a story that Dante visited Giotto
while he was painting the Scrovegni
Chapel and, seeing the artist's children
underfoot asked how a man who painted
such beautiful pictures could have such
plain children. Giotto, who, according to
Vasari was always a wit, replied, "I make
my pictures by day, and my babies by
night."[9][15]

Sequence …

The cycle is divided into 37 scenes,

arranged around the lateral walls in three
tiers, starting in the upper register with the
story of St. Joachim and St. Anne, the
parents of the Virgin, and continuing with
her early life. The life of Jesus occupies
two registers. The top south tier deals with
the lives of Mary's parents, the top north
with her early life and the entire middle tier
with the early life and miracles of Christ.
The bottom tier on both sides is
concerned with the Passion of Christ. He
is depicted mainly in profile, and his eyes
point continuously to the right, perhaps to
guide the viewer onwards in the episodes.
The kiss of Judas near the end of the
sequence signals the close of this left-to-
right procession. Below the narrative
scenes in colour, Giotto also painted
allegories of seven Virtues and their
counterparts in monochrome grey
(grisaille). The grisaille frescoes are
painted to look like marble statues that
personify Virtues and Vices. The central
allegories of Justice and Injustice oppose
two specific types of government: peace
leading to a festival of Love and tyranny
resulting in wartime rape.[27] Between the
narrative scenes are quatrefoil paintings of
Old Testament scenes, like Jonah and the
Whale, that allegorically correspond to and
perhaps foretell the life of Christ.

Much of the blue in the frescoes has been

worn away by time. The expense of the
ultramarine blue pigment used required it
to be painted on top of the already-dry
fresco (fresco secco) to preserve its
brilliance. That is why it has disintegrated
faster than the other colours, which were
painted on wet plaster and have bonded
with the wall.[28] An example of the decay
can clearly be seen on the robe of the
Virgin, in the fresco of the Nativity.

Lamentation (The Mourning of Christ), Scrovegni

Chapel

Style …

Giotto's style drew on the solid and

classicizing sculpture of Arnolfo di
Cambio. Unlike those by Cimabue and
Duccio, Giotto's figures are not stylized or
elongated and do not follow Byzantine
models. They are solidly three-
dimensional, have faces and gestures that
are based on close observation, and are
clothed, not in swirling formalized drapery,
but in garments that hang naturally and
have form and weight. He also took bold
steps in foreshortening and with having
characters face inwards, with their backs
towards the observer, creating the illusion
of space. The figures occupy compressed
settings with naturalistic elements, often
using forced perspective devices so that
they resemble stage sets. This similarity is
increased by Giotto's careful arrangement
of the figures in such a way that the viewer
appears to have a particular place and
even an involvement in many of the
scenes. That can be seen most markedly
in the arrangement of the figures in the
Mocking of Christ and Lamentation in
which the viewer is bidden by the
composition to become mocker in one and
mourner in the other.

Giotto's depiction of the human face and

emotion sets his work apart from that of
his contemporaries. When the disgraced
Joachim returns sadly to the hillside, the
two young shepherds look sideways at
each other. The soldier who drags a baby
from its screaming mother in the
Massacre of the Innocents does so with
his head hunched into his shoulders and a
look of shame on his face. The people on
the road to Egypt gossip about Mary and
Joseph as they go. Of Giotto's realism, the
19th-century English critic John Ruskin
said, "He painted the Madonna and St.
Joseph and the Christ, yes, by all means...
but essentially Mamma, Papa and Baby".[1]

Famous narratives in the series include the

Adoration of the Magi, in which a comet-
like Star of Bethlehem streaks across the
sky. Giotto is thought to have been
inspired by the 1301 appearance of
Halley's comet, which led to the name
Giotto being given to a 1986 space probe
to the comet.

Mature works

Details of figures from the Raising of Drusiana in the

Peruzzi Chapel

Giotto worked on other frescoes in Padua,

some now lost, such as those that were in
the Basilica of. St. Anthony[29] and the
Palazzo della Ragione.[30] Numerous
painters from northern Italy were
influenced by Giotto's work in Padua,
including Guariento, Giusto de' Menabuoi,
Jacopo Avanzi, and Altichiero.

From 1306 to 1311 Giotto was in Assisi,

where he painted the frescoes in the
transept area of the Lower Church of the
Basilica of St. Francis, including The Life
of Christ, Franciscan Allegories and the
Magdalene Chapel, drawing on stories
from the Golden Legend and including the
portrait of Bishop Teobaldo Pontano, who
commissioned the work. Several
assistants are mentioned, including
Palerino di Guido. The style demonstrates
developments from Giotto's work at
Padua.[1]

In 1311, Giotto returned to Florence. A

document from 1313 about his furniture
there shows that he had spent a period in
Rome some time beforehand. It is now
thought that he produced the design for
the famous Navicella mosaic for the
courtyard of the Old St. Peter's Basilica in
1310, commissioned by Cardinal Giacomo
or Jacopo Stefaneschi and now lost to the
Renaissance church except for some
fragments and a Baroque reconstruction.
According to the cardinal's necrology, he
also at least designed the Stefaneschi
Triptych (c. 1320) , a double-sided
altarpiece for St. Peter's, now in the
Vatican Pinacoteca. It shows St Peter
enthroned with saints on the front, and on
the reverse, Christ is enthroned, framed
with scenes of the martyrdom of Saints
Peter and Paul. It is one of the few works
by Giotto for which firm evidence of a
commission exists.[31] However, the style
seems unlikely for either Giotto or his
normal Florentine assistants so he may
have had his design executed by an ad hoc
workshop of Romans.[32]

The cardinal also commissioned Giotto to

decorate the apse of St. Peter's Basilica
with a cycle of frescoes that were
destroyed during the 16th-century
renovation. According to Vasari, Giotto
remained in Rome for six years,
subsequently receiving numerous
commissions in Italy, and in the Papal seat
at Avignon, but some of the works are now
recognized to be by other artists.

In Florence, where documents from 1314

to 1327 attest to his financial activities,
Giotto painted an altarpiece, known as the
Ognissanti Madonna, which is now on
display in the Uffizi, where it is exhibited
beside Cimabue's Santa Trinita Madonna
and Duccio's Rucellai Madonna.[1] The
Ognissanti altarpiece is the only panel
painting by Giotto that has been
universally accepted by scholars, despite
the fact that it is undocumented. It was
painted for the church of the Ognissanti
(all saints) in Florence, which was built by
an obscure religious order, known as the
Humiliati.[33] It is a large painting (325 x
204 cm), and scholars are divided on
whether it was made for the main altar of
the church, where it would have been
viewed primarily by the brothers of the
order, or for the choir screen, where it
would have been more easily seen by a lay
audience.[34]
Ognissanti Madonna, (c. 1310) Tempera on wood,
325 by 204 centimetres (128 by 80 inches) Uffizi,
Florence

He also painted around the time the

Dormition of the Virgin, now in the Berlin
Gemäldegalerie, and the Crucifix in the
Church of Ognissanti.[35]
The Nativity in the Lower Church, Assisi

Peruzzi and Bardi Chapels at Santa

Croce
…

According to Lorenzo Ghiberti, Giotto

painted chapels for four different
Florentine families in the church of Santa
Croce, but he does not identify which
chapels.[36] It is only with Vasari that the
four chapels are identified: the Bardi
Chapel (Life of St. Francis), the Peruzzi
Chapel (Life of St. John the Baptist and St.
John the Evangelist, perhaps including a
polyptych of Madonna with Saints now in
the Museum of Art of Raleigh, North
Carolina) and the lost Giugni Chapel
(Stories of the Apostles) and the Tosinghi
Spinelli Chapel (Stories of the Holy
Virgin).[37] As with almost everything in
Giotto's career, the dates of the fresco
decorations that survive in Santa Croce
are disputed. The Bardi Chapel,
immediately to the right of the main
chapel of the church, was painted in true
fresco, and to some scholars, the
simplicity of its settings seems relatively
close to those of Padua, but the Peruzzi
Chapel's more complex settings suggest a
later date.[38]

The Peruzzi Chapel is adjacent to the Bardi

Chapel and was largely painted a secco.
The technique, quicker but less durable
than true fresco, has resulted in a fresco
decoration that survives in a seriously-
deteriorated condition. Scholars who date
the cycle earlier in Giotto's career see the
growing interest in architectural expansion
that it displays as close to the
developments of the giottesque frescoes
in the Lower Church at Assisi, but the Bardi
frescoes have a new softness of colour
that indicates the artist going in a different
direction, probably under the influence of
Sienese art so it must be later.[39]

The Peruzzi Chapel pairs three frescoes

from the life of St. John the Baptist (The
Annunciation of John's Birth to his father
Zacharias; The Birth and Naming of John;
The Feast of Herod) on the left wall with
three scenes from the life of St. John the
Evangelist (The Visions of John on
Ephesus; The Raising of Drusiana; The
Ascension of John) on the right wall. The
choice of scenes has been related to both
the patrons and the Franciscans.[40]
Because of the deteriorated condition of
the frescoes, it is difficult to discuss
Giotto's style in the chapel, but the
frescoes show signs of his typical interest
in controlled naturalism and psychological
penetration.[41] The Peruzzi Chapel was
especially renowned during Renaissance
times. Giotto's compositions influenced
Masaccio's frescos at the Brancacci
Chapel, and Michelangelo is also known to
have studied them.

The Bardi Chapel depicts the life of St.

Francis, following a similar iconography to
the frescoes in the Upper Church at Assisi,
dating from 20 to 30 years earlier. A
comparison shows the greater attention
given by Giotto to expression in the human
figures and the simpler, better-integrated
architectural forms. Giotto represents only
seven scenes from the saint's life, and the
narrative is arranged somewhat unusually.
The story starts on the upper left wall with
St. Francis Renounces his Father. It
continues across the chapel to the upper
right wall with the Approval of the
Franciscan Rule, moves down the right
wall to the Trial by Fire, across the chapel
again to the left wall for the Appearance at
Arles, down the left wall to the Death of St.
Francis, and across once more to the
posthumous Visions of Fra Agostino and
the Bishop of Assisi. The Stigmatization of
St. Francis, which chronologically belongs
between the Appearance at Arles and the
Death, is located outside the chapel, above
the entrance arch. The arrangement
encourages viewers to link scenes
together: to pair frescoes across the
chapel space or relate triads of frescoes
along each wall. The linkings suggest
meaningful symbolic relationships
between different events in St. Francis's
life.[42]
Campanile di Giotto (Florence)

Later works and death

Engraving after a portrait of Dante by Giotto

In 1328 the altarpiece of the Baroncelli
Chapel, Santa Croce, Florence, was
completed. Previously ascribed to Giotto, it
is now believed to be mostly a work by
assistants, including Taddeo Gaddi, who
later frescoed the chapel.[43] The next year,
Giotto was called by King Robert of Anjou
to Naples where he remained with a group
of pupils until 1333. Few of Giotto's
Neapolitan works have survived: a
fragment of a fresco portraying the
Lamentation of Christ in the church of
Santa Chiara and the Illustrious Men that
is painted on the windows of the Santa
Barbara Chapel of Castel Nuovo, which are
usually attributed to his pupils. In 1332,
King Robert named him "first court
painter", with a yearly pension. Also in this
time period, according to Vasari, Giotto
composed a series on the Bible; scenes
from the Book of Revelation were based
on ideas by Dante.[44]

After Naples, Giotto stayed for a while in

Bologna, where he painted a Polyptych for
the church of Santa Maria degli Angeli and,
according to some sources, a lost
decoration for the Chapel in the Cardinal
Legate's Castle.[9] In 1334, Giotto was
appointed chief architect to Florence
Cathedral. He designed the bell tower,
known as Giotto's Campanile, begun on
July 18, 1334. It was not completed
entirely to his design.[1] Before 1337, he
was in Milan with Azzone Visconti, but no
trace of works by him remain in the city.
His last known work was with assistants'
help: the decoration of Podestà Chapel in
the Bargello, Florence.[1]

In his final years, Giotto had become

friends with Boccaccio and Sacchetti, who
featured him in their stories. Sacchetti
recounted an incident in which a civilian
commissioned Giotto to paint a shield with
his coat of arms; Giotto instead painted
the shield "armed to the teeth", complete
with a sword, lance, dagger, and suit of
armor. He told the man to "Go into the
world a little, before you talk of arms as if
you were the Duke of Bavaria," and in
response was sued. Giotto countersued
and won two florins.[45] In The Divine
Comedy, Dante acknowledged the
greatness of his living contemporary by
the words of a painter in Purgatorio (XI,
94–96): "Cimabue believed that he held
the field/In painting, and now Giotto has
the cry,/ So the fame of the former is
obscure."[10] Giotto died in January 1337.

Burial and legacy

According to Vasari,[9] Giotto was buried in
the Cathedral of Florence, on the left of the
entrance and with the spot marked by a
white marble plaque. According to other
sources, he was buried in the Church of
Santa Reparata. The apparently-
contradictory reports are explained by the
fact that the remains of Santa Reparata
are directly beneath the Cathedral and the
church continued in use while the
construction of the cathedral proceeded in
the early 14th century.

During an excavation in the 1970s, bones

were discovered beneath the paving of
Santa Reparata at a spot close to the
location given by Vasari but unmarked on
either level. Forensic examination of the
bones by anthropologist Francesco
Mallegni and a team of experts in 2000
brought to light some evidence that
seemed to confirm that they were those of
a painter, particularly the range of
chemicals, including arsenic and lead,
both commonly found in paint, which the
bones had absorbed.[46] The bones were
those of a very short man, little over four
feet tall, who may have suffered from a
form of congenital dwarfism. That
supports a tradition at the Church of Santa
Croce that a dwarf who appears in one of
the frescoes is a self-portrait of Giotto. On
the other hand, a man wearing a white hat
who appears in the Last Judgement at
Padua is also said to be a portrait of
Giotto. The appearance of this man
conflicts with the image in Santa Croce, in
regards to stature.[46]

Forensic reconstruction of the skeleton at

Santa Reperata showed a short man with
a very large head, a large hooked nose and
one eye more prominent than the other.
The bones of the neck indicated that the
man spent a lot of time with his head tilted
backwards. The front teeth were worn in a
way consistent with frequently holding a
brush between the teeth. The man was
about 70 at the time of death.[46] While the
Italian researchers were convinced that
the body belonged to Giotto and it was
reburied with honour near the grave of
Filippo Brunelleschi, others have been
highly sceptical.[47] Franklin Toker, a
professor of art history at the University of
Pittsburgh, who was present at the original
excavation in 1970, says that they are
probably "the bones of some fat
butcher".[48]

References
Footnotes
 a. The year of his birth is calculated
from the fact that Antonio Pucci, the
town crier of Florence, wrote a poem
in Giotto's honour in which it is stated
that he was 70 at the time of his
death. However, the word "seventy"
fits into the rhyme of the poem better
than any longer and more complex
age so it is possible that Pucci used
artistic license.[1]

Citations

1. Sarel Eimerl, The World of Giotto,

Time-Life Books.
2. "Giotto's date of birth differs widely in
the sources, but modern art
historians consider 1267 to be the
most plausible, although the years up
to 1275 cannot be entirely
discounted." Wolf, Norbert (2006).
Giotto di Bondone, 1267–1337: The
Renewal of Painting. Hong Kong:
Taschen. p. 92. ISBN 978-
3822851609
3. Giotto at the Encyclopædia
Britannica
4. "Giotto" . Collins English Dictionary.
HarperCollins. Retrieved June 1,
2019.
5. "Giotto" (US) and "Giotto" . Oxford
Dictionaries UK Dictionary. Oxford
University Press. Retrieved June 1,
2019.
6. "Giotto" . Merriam-Webster
Dictionary. Retrieved June 1, 2019.
7. Hodge, Susie (November 2016). Art in
Detail: 100 Masterpieces (1 ed.). New
York: Thames & Hudson. p. 10.
ISBN 978-0-500-23954-4. "He worked
during the period described as Gothic
or Pre-Renaissance ..."
 8. Bartlett, Kenneth R. (1992). The
Civilization of the Italian
Renaissance. Toronto: D.C. Heath and
Company. ISBN 0-669-20900-7
(Paperback). p. 37.
9. Giorgio Vasari, Lives of the Artists,
trans. George Bull, Penguin Classics,
(1965), pp. 15–36
10. Hartt, Frederick (1989). Art: a history
of painting, sculpture, architecture.
Harry N. Abrams. pp. 503–506.
11. Sarel Eimerl, see below, cites Colbzs
le di Romagnano. However, the
spelling is perhaps wrong, and the
location referred to may be the site of
the present Trattoria di Romignano, in
a hamlet of farmhouses in the
Mugello region.
12. Michael Viktor Schwarz and Pia
Theis, "Giotto's Father: Old Stories
and New Documents", Burlington
Magazine, 141 (1999) 676–677 and
idem, Giottus Pictor. Band 1: Giottos
Leben, Vienna, 2004
13. Eimerl 1967, p. 85.
14. Hayden B.J. Maginnis, "In Search of
an Artist," in Anne Derbes and Mark
Sandona, The Cambridge Companion
to Giotto, Cambridge, 2004, 12-13.
15. Eimerl 1967, p. 106.
16. Giotto, and Edi Baccheschi (1969).
The complete paintings of Giotto.
New York: H.N. Abrams. p. 83.
OCLC 2616448
17. Eimerl 1967, pp. 95, 106–7.
18. Maginnis, "In Search of an Artist", 23–
28.
19. In 1312, the will of Ricuccio Pucci
leaves funds to keep a lamp burning
before the crucifix "by the illustrious
painter Giotto". Ghiberti also cites it
as a work by Giotto.
20. Sarel. A. Teresa Hankey, "Riccobaldo
of Ferraro and Giotto: An Update,"
Journal of the Warburg and Courtauld
Institutes, 54 (1991) 244.
21. Friedrich Rintelen, Giotto und die
Giotto-apokryphen, (1912)
22. See, for example, Richard Offner's
famous article of 1939, "Giotto, non-
Giotto", conveniently collected in
James Stubblebine, Giotto: The Arena
Chapel Frescoes, New York, 1969
(reissued 1996), 135–155, which
argues against Giotto's authorship of
the frescoes. In contrast, Luciano
Bellosi, La pecora di Giotto, Turin,
1985, calls each of Offner's points
into question.
23. Bruno Zanardi, Giotto e Pietro
Cavallini: La questione di Assisi e il
cantiere medievale della pittura a
fresco, Milan 2002; Zanardi provides
an English synopsis of his study in
Anne Derbes and Mark Sandona, The
Cambridge Companion to Giotto,
New York, 2004, 32–62.
24. See the complaint of the Eremitani
monks in James Stubblebine, Giotto:
The Arena Chapel Frescoes, New
York, 1969, 106–107 and an analysis
of the commission by Benjamin G.
Kohl, "Giotto and his Lay Patrons", in
Anne Derbes and Mark Sandona, The
Cambridge Companion to Giotto,
Cambridge, 2004, 176–193.
25. Schwarz, Michael Viktor, "Padua, its
Arena, and the Arena Chapel: a
liturgical ensemble," in Journal of the
Warburg and Courtauld Institutes Vol.
73, 2010, 39–64.
26. Anne Derbes and Mark Sandona, The
Usurer's Heart: Giotto, Enrico
Scrovegni, and the Arena Chapel in
Padua, University Park, 2008; Laura
Jacobus,Giotto and the Arena Chapel:
Art, Architecture and Experience,
London, 2008; Andrew Ladis, Giotto's
O: Narrative, Figuration, and Pictorial
Ingenuity in the Arena Chapel,
University Park, 2009
27. Kérchy, Anna; Liss, Attila; Szönyi,
György E., eds. (2012). The Iconology
of Law and Order (Legal and
Cosmic). Szeged: JATEPress.
ISBN 978-963-315-076-4.
28. Wolf, Norbert (2006). Giotto. Hong
Kong; Taschen. p. 34.
ISBN 3822851604.
29. The remaining parts (Stigmata of St.
Francis, Martyrdom of Franciscans at
Ceuta, Crucifixion and Heads of
Prophets) are most likely from
assistants.
30. Finished in 1309 and mentioned in a
text from 1350 by Giovanni da Nono.
They had an astrological theme,
inspired by the Lucidator, a treatise
famous in the 14th century.
31. Gardner, Julian (1974). "The
Stefaneschi Altarpiece: A
Reconsideration". Journal of the
Warburg and Courtauld Institutes. 37:
57–103. doi:10.2307/750834 .
JSTOR 750834 .
32. White, 332, 343
33. La 'Madonna d'Ognissanti' di Giotto
restaurata, Florence, 1992; Julia I.
Miller and Laurie Taylor-Mitchell, "The
Ognissanti Madonna and the
Humiliati Order in Florence", in The
Cambridge Companion to Giotto, ed.
Anne Derbes and Mark Sandona,
Cambridge, 2004, 157–175.
34. Julian Gardner, "Altars, Altarpieces
and Art History: Legislation and
Usage," in Italian Altarpieces, 1250–
1500, ed. Eve Borsook and Fiorella
Gioffredi, Oxford, 1994, 5–39; Irene
Hueck, "Le opere di Giotto per la
chiesa di Ognissanti," in La 'Madonna
d'Ognissanti' di Giotto restaurata,
Florence, 1992, 37–44.
35. Duncan Kennedy, Giotto's Ognissanti
Crucifix brought back to life , BBC
News, 2010-11-05. Accessed 2010-
11-07
36. Ghiberti, I commentari, ed. O
Morisani, Naples 1947, 33.
37. Giorgio Vasari, Le vite de' più
eccellenti architetti, pittori, et scultori
Italiani ed. G. Milanesi, Florence,
1878, I, 373–374.
38. L. Tintori and E. Borsook, The Peruzzi
Chapel, Florence, 1965, 10; J. White,
Art and Architecture in Italy,
Baltimore, 1968, 72f.
39. C. Brandi, Giotto, Milan, 1983, 185–
186; L.Bellosi, Giotto, Florence, 1981,
65, 71.
40. Tintori and Borsook; Laurie Schneider
Adams, "The Iconography of the
Peruzzi Chapel". L’Arte, 1972, 1–104.
(Reprinted in Andrew Ladis ed., Giotto
and the World of Early Italian Art New
York and London 1998, 3, 131–144);
Julie F. Codell, "Giotto's Peruzzi
Chapel Frescoes: Wealth, Patronage
and the Earthly City," Renaissance
Quarterly, 41 (1988) 583–613.
41. Long, Jane C. (2011). "11. Parallelism
in Giotto's Santa Croce Frescoes".
Parallelism in Giotto's Santa Croce
Frescoes. Push Me, Pull You. Brill.
pp. 327–353.
doi:10.1163/9789004215139_032 .
ISBN 978-9004215139..
42. The concept of such linkings was
first suggested for Padua by Michel
Alpatoff, "The Parallelism of Giotto's
Padua Frescoes", Art Bulletin, 39
(1947) 149–154. It has been tied to
the Bardi Chapel by Jane C. Long,
"The Program of Giotto’s Saint
Francis Cycle at Santa Croce in
Florence", Franciscan Studies 52
(1992) 85–133 and William R. Cook,
"Giotto and the Figure of St. Francis",
in The Cambridge Companion to
Giotto, ed. A. Derbes and M. Sandona,
Cambridge, 2004, 135–156.
43. Giotto, Andrew Martindale, and Edi
Baccheschi (1966). The Complete
Paintings of Giotto. New York: Harry
N. Abrams. p. 118.
OCLC 963830818 .
44. Eimerl 1967, p. 158.
45. Eimerl 1967, p. 135.
46. IOL, September 22, 2000
47. "Critics slam Giotto burial as a grave
mistake" . Business Report.
Independent Online. Sapa-AP. 8
January 2001.
 48. Johnston, Bruce (6 January 2001).
"Skeleton riddle threatens Giotto's
reburial" . Telegraph.co.uk. Retrieved
23 March 2018.

Sources …

Eimerl, Sarel (1967). The World of

Giotto: c. 1267–1337 . et al. Time-Life
Books. ISBN 0-900658-15-0.
Previtali, G. Giotto e la sua bottega
(1993)
Vasari, Giorgio. Le vite de più eccellenti
pittori, scultori e architetti (1568)
— —. Lives of the Artists, trans. George
Bull, Penguin Classics, (1965) ISBN 0-
 14-044164-6
White, John. Art and Architecture in Italy,
1250 to 1400, London, Penguin Books,
1966, 2nd edn 1987 (now Yale History of
Art series). ISBN 0140561285

Further reading
Bandera Bistoletti, Sandrina, Giotto: catalogo
completo dei dipinti (I gigli dell'arte; 2)
Cantini, Firenze 1989. ISBN 88-7737-050-5.
Basile, Giuseppe (a cura di), Giotto: gli
affreschi della Cappella degli Scrovegni a
Padova, Skira, Milano 2002. ISBN 88-8491-
229-6.
Bellosi, Luciano, La pecora di Giotto, Einaudi,
Torino 1985. ISBN 88-06-58339-5.
de Castris, Pierluigi Leone, Giotto a Napoli,
Electa Napoli, Napoli 2006. ISBN 88-510-
0386-6.
Flores D'Arcais, Francesca, Giotto. New York:
Abbeville. 2012. ISBN 0789211149.
Frugoni, Chiara, L'affare migliore di Enrico.
Giotto e la cappella degli Scrovegni, (Saggi;
899). Einaudi, Torino 2008. ISBN 978-88-06-
18462-9.
Gioseffi, Decio, Giotto architetto, Edizioni di
Comunità, Milano 1963.
Gnudi, Cesare, Giotto, (I sommi dell'arte
italiana) Martello, Milano 1958.
Ladis, Andrew, Giotto's O: Narrative,
Figuration, and Pictorial Ingenuity in the
Arena Chapel, Pennsylvania State UP,
 University Park, Pennsylvania 2009.
ISBN 978-0271034072.
Meiss, Millard, Giotto and Assisi, University
Press, New York 1960.
Pisani, Giuliano. I volti segreti di Giotto. Le
rivelazioni della Cappella degli Scrovegni,
Rizzoli, Milano 2008; Editoriale Programma
2015, pp. 1–366, ISBN 978-8866433538.
Ruskin, John, Giotto and his works in Padua,
London 1900 (2rd ed. 1905)
Sirén, Osvald, Giotto and some of his
followers (English translation by Frederic
Schenck). Harvard University Press,
Cambridge (Mass.) 1917. (rist. New York
1975).

External links
Wikimedia Commons has media
related to Giotto di Bondone.

Giotto at the Encyclopædia Britannica

Page at Web Gallery of Art
smARThistory: The Epiphany
Giotto – Biography, Style and Artworks
Giotto in Panopticon Virtual Art Gallery
Video of Giotto's Scrovegni Chapel
BBC video about Giotto frescoes in the
Basilica of Santa Croce, Florence
Detailed history of Giotto and high
resolution photos of works (in Italian)
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