Giotto

==Early life and career==
[[File:Giotto di Bondone - Legend of St Francis - 5. Renunciation of Wordly Goods - WGA09123.jpg|thumb|alt=One of the ''Legend of St. Francis'' frescoes at Assisi|One of the ''Legend of St. Francis'' frescoes at [[Assisi]], the authorship of which is disputed.]]
Tradition says that Giotto was born in a farmhouse, perhaps at Colle di Romagnano or Romignano.<ref>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]].</ref> 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.<ref>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.</ref> His father's name was Bondone. Most authors accept that Giotto was his real name, but may have been an abbreviation of Ambrogio (''Ambrogiotto'') or Angelo (''Angelotto'').<ref name="Sarel">Sarel Eimerl, ''The World of Giotto'', Time-Life Books.</ref>

In his ''[[Lives of the Most Excellent Painters, Sculptors, and Architects]]'' 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.<ref name="Vasari"/> 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.{{sfn|Eimerl|1967|p=85}} Many scholars today are uncertain about Giotto's training and consider Vasari's account that he was Cimabue's pupil a legend; they cite earlier sources that suggest that Giotto was not Cimabue's pupil.<ref>Maginnis, Hayden B.J., "In Search of an Artist", in Anne Derbes and Mark Sandona, ''The Cambridge Companion to Giotto'', Cambridge, 2004, 12–13.</ref> The story about the fly is also suspect because it parallels [[Pliny the Elder]]'s anecdote about [[Zeuxis (painter)|Zeuxis]] painting grapes so lifelike that birds tried to peck at them.<ref>{{cite web |last1=Dalivalle |first1=Antonia |title=Giotto's Fly and the Birth of the Renaissance |url=https://thecultural.me/giottos-fly-and-the-birth-of-the-renaissance-572248 |website=thecultural.me |publisher=Recreyo Ltd. |access-date=20 September 2021 |date=10 May 2019}}</ref>

Vasari also relates that when [[Pope Benedict&nbsp;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.{{sfn|Eimerl|1967|p=106}} 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.<ref name="Vasari"/>

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.<ref name="Sarel"/><ref>Giotto, and Edi Baccheschi (1969). ''The complete paintings of Giotto''. New York: H.N. Abrams. p. 83. {{OCLC|2616448}}</ref> 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.{{sfn|Eimerl|1967|p=106}}
The [[Archbasilica of St. John Lateran]] houses a small portion of a fresco cycle, painted for the [[Jubilee (Christian)|Jubilee]] of 1300 called by [[Boniface VIII]]. He also designed the ''[[Navicella (mosaic)|Navicella]]'', a mosaic that decorated the facade of [[Old St Peter's Basilica]]. In this period Giotto also painted the ''[[Badia Polyptych]]'', now in the [[Uffizi]], Florence.<ref name="Vasari"/>

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 better-known Giotto, including those frescoes now attributed to the [[Master of Isaac]]. 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 ''[[:File:Cimabue 016.jpg|Crucifixion]]'' (c.&nbsp;1283). No known works by Giotto contain this medium. However, Giotto's panel painting of the ''[[Saint Francis Receiving the Stigmata (Giotto)|Stigmatization of St. Francis]]'' (c.&nbsp;1297) includes a motif of the saint holding up the collapsing church, previously included in the Assisi frescoes.{{sfn|Eimerl|1967|pp=95, 106–07}}

The authorship of a large number of panel paintings ascribed to Giotto by Vasari, among others, is as broadly disputed as the Assisi frescoes.<ref>Maginnis, "In Search of an Artist", 23–28.</ref> 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 {{convert|5|m|abbr=off}} high.<ref name="Vasari"/> It has been dated to about 1290 and is thought to be contemporary with the Assisi frescoes.<ref>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.</ref> Earlier attributed works are the ''San Giorgio alla Costa Madonna and Child'', now in the [[Diocesan museum|Diocesan Museum]] of [[Santo Stefano al Ponte]], Florence, and the signed panel of the ''Stigmatization of St. Francis'' housed in the [[Louvre]].
[[File:Giotto. the-crucifix-1310-17. 430х303 cm. Rimini, Tempio Malatestiano.jpg|thumb|upright|alt=The ''Crucifixion'' altarpiece at Tempio Malatestiano Rimini |The ''Crucifixion'' of [[Rimini]]]]
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..."<ref>Sarel. A. Teresa Hankey, "Riccobaldo of Ferraro and Giotto: An Update", ''Journal of the Warburg and Courtauld Institutes'', 54 (1991), 244.</ref> Since the idea was put forward by the German art historian {{ill|Friedrich Rintelen|de|Friedrich Rintelen (Kunsthistoriker)}} in 1912,<ref>Rintelen, Friedrich, ''Giotto und die Giotto-apokryphen'' (1912).</ref> 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",<ref>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.</ref> 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''.<ref>Zanardi, Bruno, ''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.</ref> There are many differences between it 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.<ref name="Sarel"/>

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 [[Tempio Malatestiano|Church of St. Francis]].<ref name="Vasari"/> It influenced the rise of the Riminese school of [[Giovanni Baronzio|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.<ref name=Sarel/>