Giotto (c. 1267/77–1337)

Italian painter and architect. Widely considered the founder of modern painting, he had a profound influence on the development of European art. He broke away from the conventions of the Byzantine style and introduced a new naturalism, painting saints as real people, solid, lifelike, and expressive. His style gave a greater narrative coherence, dramatic power, and dignity to the depiction of biblical incidents. His main works are cycles of frescoes in churches in Florence and Padua.

Giotto was born in Vespignano, north of Florence, and was probably taught by Giovanni Cimabue. Becoming famous in his lifetime, he was given important commissions in Tuscany, Rome, and Naples. Most of this work is lost, but the series of frescoes that decorates the walls of the Arena chapel, Padua, is enough to establish him as one of the major figures of Western art. Painted 1303–06, these frescoes illustrate the life of Christ and the life of the Virgin Mary in 38 scenes. Giotto seems to have been influenced by the contemporary Roman painter Pietro Cavallini (c. 1250–c. 1330), the sculptors Nicola and Giovanni Pisano, and antique sculpture, but his figures display an unprecedented majesty and sense of form, and convey great dramatic power.

His sole surviving work as an architect is the bell tower (campanile) of Florence cathedral, begun in 1334, when he was made director of public works in Florence. It was unfinished at his death, and the design was later altered.

Giotto was long credited with the frescoes in the Upper Church of S Francesco in Assisi, painted between 1297 and about 1305, but these are now thought to be by other artists, despite their strong similarity to his known works. His other main work in fresco was the decoration of four chapels in Sta Croce in Florence, two of which survive. Various panel paintings are attributed to Giotto, chief among which is the Ognissanti Madonna (Uffizi, Florence), which brought a new naturalism and tenderness to depictions of the Virgin and Child. He also designed a huge mosaic of Navicella/The Ship of the Church in St Peter's basilica, Rome, but this has been much altered.

The art of Giotto, which was carried on by his pupils and successors, most notably by Masaccio, laid the foundation of the developments of the Italian Renaissance.