Giotto di BondoneGiotto di Bondone (1267 - 1337)
Florentine painter and architect
Outstanding as a painter, sculptor, and architect, Giotto was recognized as the first genius of art in the Italian Renaissance
Giotto lived and worked at a time when people's minds and talents were first being freed from the shackles of medieval restraint
He dealt largely in the traditional religious subjects, but he gave these subjects an earthly, full-blooded life and force
The artist's full name was Giotto di Bondone
He was born about 1266 in the village of Vespignano, near Florence
His father was a small landed farmer
Giorgio Vasari, one of Giotto's first biographers, tells how Cimabue, a well-known Florentine painter, discovered Giotto's talents
Cimabue supposedly saw the 12-