bad style. Certainly it was nothing
short of a miracle, in so gross and unskilful an age, that Giotto
should have worked to such purpose that design of which the men of
the time had little or no conception, was revived to a vigorous life
by his means. The birth of this great man took place in the year
1276, fourteen miles from Florence, in the town of Vespignano, his
father, who was a simple field labourer, being named Bondone. He
brought up Giotto as well as his position in life allowed. When the
boy had attained the age of ten years he exhibited, in all his
childish ways, an extraordinary quickness and readiness of mind,
which made him a favourite, not only with his father, but with all
who knew him, both in the village and beyond it. Bondone then set him
to watch a few sheep, and while he was following these from place to
place to find pasture, he was always drawing something from nature or
representing the fancies which came into his head, with a stone on
the ground or on sand, so much was he attracted to the art of design
by his natural inclination. Thus one day when Cimabue was going on
some business from Florence to Vespignano, he came upon Giotto, who,
while his sheep were grazing, was drawing one of them from life with
a pointed piece of stone upon a smooth surface of rock, although he
had never had any master but nature. Cimabue stopped in amazement at
the sight, and asked the boy if he would like to come and stay with
him. Giotto replied he would go willingly if his father would
consent. Cimabue lost no time in finding Bondone, who joyfully
consented and allowed his son to accompany Cimabue to Florence.
After his arrival there, assisted by his natural talent and taught by
Cimabue, the boy not only equalled his master's style in a short
time, but became such a good imitator of nature that he entirely
abandoned the rude Byzantine manner and revived the modern and good
style of painting, introducing the practice of making good portraits
of living persons, a thing which had not been in use for more than
two hundred years. And although there were some few portraits made in
this manner, as has been said above, yet they had not been very
successful, nor were they nearly so well executed as those of Giotto.
Among other portraits which he made, the chapel of the Podesta palace
at Florence still contains that of Dante Aligheri, his close
companion and friend, no less famous as a poet than Giotto then was
as a painter.