Giotto di Bondone Research Assignment Paper (Essay Sample)

Giotto di Bondone
As an old master, Giotto was an active painter during Proto-Renaissance and is considered as one of the pioneers of the Renaissance painting style. Giotto is best known for naturalistic paintings in Fresco (Galli, 2007). He majorly dwelt on painting traditional religious subjects, but he gave them an earthly and full blood life. As well, it is Giotto, who brought the breakthrough from the symbolism of Byzantine art style that had dominated the 13th and 14th centuries to realism era. Unlike the previous painters, Giotto’s artwork gave religious painting realism, real emotions and a three-dimensionality (Corrain, 1995). There are some paintings that Giotto did, but the major ones include paintings in the Arena Chapel in Padua, Kiss of Judas, the lamentation of Christ, Apparition at Arles and Bardi Chapel Frescoes among others. In all these artworks, Arena Chapel painting is considered the greatest example of religious paintings ever done because of its complexity and realism (Corrain, 1995).
In his early life, Giotto used the medieval style together with Gothic and Byzantine styles (Corrain, 1995). However, he kept experimenting tight brushwork to create subjects that were more realistic than the paintings of his time. For instance, the painting of the frescoes of St Francis at the Assisi Church is an illustration of the desire to change to realism. It is also noted that he is the pioneer of representational painting. Giotto decided to be painting his religious subjects in a solid and classicizing manner, while arranging them as if the viewer had a hand in the arrangement. This tone was unique and exceptional during Giotto’s time. Towards the end of his career, Giotto’s style kept on improving (Corrain, 1995). In his paintings at Peruzzi Chapel and Santa Croce Chapel, Giotto brought out the true Renaissance style through the use of chiaroscuro and manipulation of perspective. He used color, form and composition in a manipulative way, making his style more ornate. This is an aspect that brought the difference between him and his equals.
In an analysis of Giotto’s Bardi Chapel frescoes, Giotto makes use of the composition in a different way in comparison to the Byzantine artistic method of the time. Instead of stacking subjects on top of the other as it used to be, Giotto painted the dead saint and the mourners as if he was watching them from a distance (Benelli & Giotto, 2012). In the same paintings, Giotto used colorful robes and clothing to emphasize their life-like setting. Unlike the painters of his time, Giotto substituted his work with natural blue skies for ‘heavens’ shunning the gold ones used by medievalists. He used authenticity of colors to his subjects, making them real than the usual standard of dull colors used then. What is more, these paintings with selective colors communicated different tones and feelings.
The depictions of a human face on Giotto’s subjects and the emotions he set on them, also put him ahead of his contemporaries (Corrain, 1995). The facial expressions and gestures that Giotto used to communicate the grief, undertones of hope and suspense among the subjects. For example, in his ‘Massacre of the Innocent’ the soldier has a look of shame. The two young shepherds are looking aside as Joachim has a sad face. In these frescos, Giotto has developed a visual language that develops realism in a greater margin. In several other instances, Giotto sacrificed the dignity of his subjects to rightly portray their emotions. By doing so, he preserved their humanity in a great deal making the paintings outstanding for several centuries to come.
Moreover, Giotto stands as the greatest painter during his time through his outstanding manipulation of effects of light and shade (Nagel, 2012). His carefulness in choosing effects of light and shade breathed realism to his subjects. He sheds more light where necessary, especially the face. He understood that the face captured much attention from the viewer. Giotto also used shade and light to depict different settings. This was a unique style from the traditional sacred backgrounds. Through Giotto’s new adventures, his subjects gained life while on the wall. For instance, in his work ‘The Crucifixion’, Giotto did not paint the subjects in a flowy way but as real as possible. Through the use of light and s...