Giotto was a leading figure in the Florence of the early Renaissance who was not only an important artist but also a famous figure because of the fact that he wa mentioned by Dante in the Purgatorio. Still, Giotto remains a puzzling figure today because while he was discussed by many writers, those writers tended to underline his greatness as an artist and seldom discussed details of his career. Much of what is known of his life has been derived from administrative documents:
Those in Florence suggest that he was a successful property owner and well enough off to lend money to others. Those in Naples suggest that he was sufficiently personable to be accepted at the Angevin court there. Literary sources from the first half of the century suggest activity also at Rome, Avignon, Padua, Rimini, and Milan (Martindale, 1966, 5).
Many of the details of Giotto's life can only be inferred. Scholars look at the paintings he is known to have made at a middle stage in his life and extrapolate back to consider what he would have bene likely to have done ten years earlier. It is generally agreed today that Giotto must have been trained in some workshop based in the city of Rome, the most important center for wall painting in the late thirteenth century. On account mentions that there was work by Giotto in S. Francesco at Assisi about 1313, the same year as the mention of Giotto in the Purgatorio. This account unfortunately failed to mention which works in the church were Giotto's. It is possible that the work he did was later completely destroyed, but scholars who think otherwise have concentrated on the frescoes attributed to the workshops of the so-called "Isaac Master" and those of the so-called "St. Francis Master." The later frescoes in the church are strongly reminiscent of Giotto (Martindale, 1966, 6).
Giotto was the son of a farmer named Bondone in the rural region of Tuscany. Legend has it that the boy met the leading...