Artists
Giotto di Bondone
- Country:
- Italy
- Birth year:
- 1267
- Death year:
- 1337
Giotto di Bondone (c. 1267? Colle di Vespignano, near Florence - 1337 Florence) was one of the most important pioneers of western art. This talented painter and architect was certainly in contact with Cimabue, and may have been his student. After 1229 he worked in ?assisi, and then in Rome, Padua, Naples, Milan and finally in Florence. there he was appointed master-builder of the cathedral in 1334. Giotto deviated completely from the Byzantine tradition, primarily as a result of the important stimulus he received from French Gothic sculpture. He rediscoverd corporeal plasticity and the monumental mode of viewing the human figure, and invented a new formal language of representing sacred events. His robed figures are depicted acting in landscapes and in rooms, so that the story is presented as contemporary reality. His work set in motion the entire stylistic tendencies of the 14th century, and continued to exert lasting influence over further developments within italian art. Major works by the artist include Crucifi, c. 1300, S. Maria Novella, Florence; The Allegories of the Order, c. 1317, Basilica inferior di San Francesco, Assisi; and St. Stephen, 1320-1329, Museo Horne, florence.