Giotto was widely celebrated in his own lifetime. Portraits of Dante can be found in Florence in a restaurant in the old Palazzo dell’Arte dei Giudici e dei Notai (via del Proconsolo 16); in the Cappella della Maddalena at the Bargello, by Giotto and his workshop; and in the Cappellone degli Spagnoli, in the Santa Maria Novella complex, by … In Giotto Painting the Portrait of Dante, a watercolor and pencil work from 1859, Rossetti reenacted a scene he imagined in the aftermath of the 1839 discovery of Giotto’s portrait of Dante on a wall of the Bargello in Florence. He appears in works by his contemporary Dante as well as Boccaccio. Dante and Giotto were good friends and Julia Cartwright in The Painters of Florence relates this story. Dante Alighieri, by Giotto di Bordone, c. 1335. Italian painter. ON DANTE AND GIOTTO: THE SERIOUSNESS OF EVERYDAY LIFE Nothing happens in eternity. They do not repent - the time for repentance has passed Giotto was an admired architect. Author of Architecture of the Italian Renaissance; coauthor of A Dictionary of Art and Artists. Professor of the History of Art, Birkbeck College, University of London, 1967–80. Giotto, a giant of Italian Renaissance History, counted Dante as a friend and he was a contemporary of Duccio (1255/60-1318/9) and of Simone Martini (1284-1344) both from Siena. In the Inferno the sinners pursue their weary round of punishment, locked in the sins to which they consented during their tenure on earth. While Giotto presents a sanitized San Francesco, who is one with the church – the establishment – Dante presents another “sanitized” picture, where poverty signals fullness, freedom, openness to others, ability to empty one self and become the other – in short become “Christ-like” the field, and now it's Giotto they acclaim –. Vasari said of him, "Giotto restored the link between art and nature." Detail from a fresco in the Podestà Chapel in the Palazzo del Bargello by Giotto, who was considered by Dante to have revolutionized the art of painting in the 14th century: In painting Cimabue thought he held. Giotto di Bondone (c. 1267 – January 8, 1337), known mononymously as Giotto (Italian: [ˈdʒɔtto]) and Latinised as Giottus, was an Italian painter and architect from Florence during the Late Middle Ages. When the time comes for me to introduce my students to Giotto’s oeuvre I start with Quotes on Giotto di Bondone by famous artists and writers. When Dante visited Padua, in 1306, he found his friend Giotto living there with his wife, Madonna Ciutà, and his young family, and was honorably entertained by the painter in his own house. Dante and Giotto represent Art, the relations between the various men (but especially between Giotto and Dante) represent Friendship, and Beatrice and the women focus the subject of Love. This was due largely to the famous Italian poet Dante who proclaimed him the most important Italian artist, placing him above even Cimabue (originally Giotto's master) who was till then considered the great genius of 14 th century Italian painting. Dante Alighieri, in his Divine Comedy (Canto XI, lines 91–95), compares teacher to student, Cimabue to Giotto and writes… “O … The Fame of Giotto . Giotto was a much-sought-after artist during his lifetime. He worked during the "Gothic or Proto-Renaissance" period. His lifelike drawings astounded his contemporaries and his skill was legendary. Herein also lies the power of all literary creators of life, from Dante in his "Divina Commedia" to Balzac in the "Comédie Humaine". The earth is the true theatre of human choice and action. The genius of Giotto was brought into further prominence by the works he executed at Rome, whither he was called in 1298 by Cardinal Stefaneschi.