Giotto

c. 1267 – 8 January 1337

Giotto di Bondone was an Italian painter and architect from Florence, regarded as the decisive founder of Western pictorial realism and a forerunner of the Renaissance. His fresco cycle in the Scrovegni Chapel in Padua broke with the flat Byzantine style by giving figures weight, space, and emotion. Late in life he was appointed chief architect of Florence Cathedral, beginning its famous campanile.

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Well-documented people whose lives overlapped with Giotto.

Life events

Born near Florence
c. 1267

Giotto was born around 1267, traditionally at Colle di Vespignano in the Mugello region near Florence, though some sources suggest a date closer to 1276.

Source: en.wikipedia.org
Birth ✓
Trained as a painter, traditionally under Cimabue
c. 1280

According to a tradition recorded by Vasari, the young Giotto was discovered drawing sheep and apprenticed to the Florentine master Cimabue; the story cannot be verified.

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Worked on the frescoes of the Basilica of St Francis at Assisi
c. 1290

In the 1290s Giotto is widely believed to have worked at Assisi, where the Legend of St Francis fresco cycle is traditionally attributed to him, though the attribution is debated.

Career ?
Painted the Scrovegni Chapel frescoes in Padua
c. 1303 – c. 1305

Around 1303-1305 Giotto frescoed the Scrovegni (Arena) Chapel in Padua with scenes of the lives of the Virgin and Christ, his undisputed masterpiece.

Source: en.wikipedia.org
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Painted the Ognissanti Madonna
c. 1310

Around 1310 Giotto painted the monumental Ognissanti Madonna altarpiece, now in the Uffizi in Florence.

Source: en.wikipedia.org
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Frescoed the Bardi and Peruzzi chapels in Santa Croce
c. 1320

In the 1320s Giotto decorated the Bardi and Peruzzi family chapels in the Florentine church of Santa Croce with scenes from the lives of St Francis and the two St Johns.

Source: en.wikipedia.org
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Worked in Naples for King Robert of Anjou
1328 – c. 1333

From 1328 to about 1333 Giotto worked at the court of King Robert of Naples, who named him a member of the royal household.

Source: en.wikipedia.org
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Appointed chief architect of Florence Cathedral
12 April 1334

On 12 April 1334 Florence appointed Giotto capomaestro of the cathedral works and city fortifications, and that year he began the cathedral's bell tower, known as Giotto's Campanile.

Source: en.wikipedia.org
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Died in Florence
8 January 1337

Giotto died in Florence on 8 January 1337, with the campanile still under construction.

Source: en.wikipedia.org
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