Opera magazine

Giotto tondo
Curiosità

2026-01-08

January 8, 1337, marked the death of Giotto di Bondone

Master builder of the Opera del Duomo since 1334, in that same year Giotto began construction of the bell tower that bears his name

Giotto Renaissance

Today marks the anniversary of the death of one of the main architects behind the project of Piazza Duomo in Florence: Giotto di Bondone, better known simply as Giotto. Among the greatest Italian painters and architects of the Middle Ages, he was so highly regarded by his contemporaries that Boccaccio defined him as "the best painter in the world."

With his painting, which broke away from the patterns of the past, Giotto brought about a great revolution in figurative art, becoming an innovator of taste and style and a model of inspiration for the artists of the Renaissance. Born around 1266 to a peasant family in Colle di Vespignano at Vicchio in Mugello, near Florence, according to legend, Giotto was noticed by Cimabue while drawing his sheep on a stone while they were at pasture. Thus, around 1272, he became a pupil of the great painter, with whom he worked until 1290 when he opened his own workshop. At the turn of the 13th and 14th centuries, Giotto divided his time between Assisi and Rome, and during this period he reached his peak, becoming a highly acclaimed artist.

He returned to Florence around 1311, where he worked on the chapels of wealthy Florentine families, such as the Bardi Chapel and the Peruzzi Chapel in Santa Croce. During those same years, he also moved to Naples before finally returning to Florence in 1334, when he was appointed master builder of the Opera del Duomo. Here, he began work on the project most closely associated with him and which bears his name: the famous Bell Tower, of which he completed only the lower level with its bas-reliefs before his death on January 8, 1337. He was buried in the ancient Florentine cathedral, Santa Reparata.

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