😉 Hello dear readers! “Giotto di Bondone: biography and creativity, video” – about the life of the Italian artist, architect, founder of the Protorenaissance era. Years of life 1266 – 1337.
For centuries, people from all over the world have admired the paintings and frescoes of the great artist, founder of realism, Giotto di Bondone. Many, regardless of their country of residence, after viewing the paintings of this master on the Internet, have an irresistible desire to visit Italy.
In particular, Florence is the birthplace of the artist. Breathe in the air he breathed, walk the streets where the master walked in search of lost inspiration.
Cimabue
No one could have imagined that a boy named Giotto, a peasant son who grazed other people’s livestock to help his family, would become a famous artist in the future. A lucky chance helped him to break out into the people. Fate brought him together with the famous artist of that time, Cimabue, in the vicinity of Florence.
Cimabue accidentally meets a young man who is enthusiastically drawing something not far from a grazing flock of sheep. Coming closer to the stranger, Cimabue sees that the drawing has been worked out in detail.
Seeing an unfamiliar man, the young man greets him cordially. He notices that the stranger is studying the drawing he has just made with great interest. Giotto shares with a stranger what he loves to paint more than anything else.
Cimabue (left) and Giotto (right)
The stranger is imbued with sympathy for the young man and says that in fact he is an artist. Cimabue invites the guy to go to his painting classes.
The young man was happy with this offer. But he was temporarily forced to give up everything connected with drawing. His parents decided to send him to the school of weavers to learn weaving skills. The craft was not to his liking. Two years later, he left school.
Florence
The school of weavers was over. And the guy went to Florence to fulfill his dream of painting lessons from an incomparable master. In Florence, he quickly found Cimabue’s workshop and became his apprentice.
Very little time passed and Cimabue began to notice that his student had surpassed his teacher in many ways. He had not yet succeeded in understanding human anatomy and perspective, but he already saw the world in three dimensions.
None of the artists of that time saw the world the way Giotto saw him. It was a breath of fresh air in the world of painting.
Apparently, the young artist’s first serious works were closely tied to religion. His earliest independent works are frescoes in the church of Assisi.
Then he painted several icons according to the Old Testament. These icons caused a real shock among the clergy. They were very different in style of writing from the usual frescoes of Byzantium.
Sculpture by Giotto on the facade of the Uffizi Gallery, Florence
Giotto was a contemporary and close friend of the poet and thinker Dante (1265-1321). Quite possibly he was the first reader of his immortal Divine Comedy. As Giotto’s contemporaries wrote, he had a sharp mind, knew how and loved to joke with friends. He never intervened in any political conflicts.
Unlike many artists who were already recognized posthumously, fame found Giotto during his lifetime. He paints temples, palaces and houses of the most noble lords. In 1334, the great master was appointed chief architect of Florence. Giotto’s ashes rest in the Cathedral of Santa Maria del Fiore.
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