c. 1267–1337

Painter
Architect

Significance.

Even during his lifetime, this Tuscan artist was credited with innovations that created a new style in Italian art. Giotto is mentioned in the works of Dante, Petrarch, and Boccaccio as a figure of the highest importance. In the fifteenth century Lorenzo Ghiberti, the Florentine sculptor, enhanced Giotto's reputation further in his writings, and in the sixteenth, Giorgio Vasari stated a version of the Giotto legend that would persist for centuries. He admired Giotto for his lifelike style of painting, for abandoning the traditions of Gothic stylization, and for his rise from humble beginnings to a position of eminence among all European artists. In truth, however, not every feature of this "Giotto legend" was accurate, nor can every feature—such as his humble birth—be verified by documentary sources. Like many figures of the fourteenth century, many aspects of Giotto's life are shrouded in...