Lesson 3
Gothic Period
Giotto Giotto di Bondone, JAH toh, (1267 – 1337) Giotto helped his father watch over the sheep. The sheep grazed in green fields all day so Giotto had lots of time as a young boy to think, dream, and to discover. Do you have a place to go where you can think or daydream with no particular purpose in mind? Young Giotto discovered that he had artistic talent in just such a place.
Young Giotto opened the fenced gate. His father’s sheep sprung forward, making their way to the best grasses and wild flowers, as they did each day. Giotto followed them and watched for a time, as his shepherd duties demanded. However, like all young boys assigned to such tiresome tasks, he spent most of his day climbing the green hills. He took great leaps from boulders that jutted out from the landscape. He threw stones at small targets he’d carved into huge boulders. One day, as he picked up a small rock to practice his aim, he noticed that the circles he’d scratched
onto the boulders looked like sheep. Giotto gazed at the sheep. Then a great impulse overtook him and turning a rock’s sharper edge outwa rd, he began scratching onto a flat stone . He scratched not circles, but sheep! “This is great fun!” he thought. Giotto was amazed at the way lines turned into pictures of the sheep that grazed on the hillside. In the days and years that followed, he filled the boulders with many pictures of sheep. He searched for large flat stones to draw on. These images he carried home with him. Giotto continued this practice each day until his skills became quite good. One day Cimabue, the famous painter we met in the last story, became curious about the boy who carried the stone tablets. He introduced himself and Giotto showed Cimabue his art on stone. His “talent impressed Cimabue so much that he made Giotto his apprentice” (Rabiner 193). As an apprentice, Giotto worked for Cimabue without pay, while he learned how to paint like an artist. Giotto practiced all that Cimabue taught him. He became a master painter, known for his fresco paintings.
11
Made with FlippingBook Digital Proposal Creator