Italian 1267-1337 Giotto Galleries Giotto di Bondone (c. 1267 ?C January 8, 1337), better known simply as Giotto, was an Italian painter and architect from Florence. He is generally considered the first in a line of great artists who contributed to the Italian Renaissance. Giotto's contemporary Giovanni Villani wrote that Giotto was "the most sovereign master of painting in his time, who drew all his figures and their postures according to nature. And he was given a salary by the commune [of Florence] in virtue of his talent and excellence." The later 16th century biographer Giorgio Vasari says of him "...He made a decisive break with the ...Byzantine style, and brought to life the great art of painting as we know it today, introducing the technique of drawing accurately from life, which had been neglected for more than two hundred years." Giotto's masterwork is the decoration of the Scrovegni Chapel in Padua, commonly called the Arena Chapel, completed around 1305. This fresco cycle depicts the life of the Virgin and the life of Christ. It is regarded as one of the supreme masterpieces of the Early Renaissance. That Giotto painted the Arena Chapel and that he was chosen by the commune of Florence in 1334 to design the new campanile (bell tower) of the Florence Cathedral are among the few certainties of his biography. Almost every other aspect of it is subject to controversy: his birthdate, his birthplace, his appearance, his apprenticeship, the order in which he created his works, whether or not he painted the famous frescoes at Assisi, and where he was eventually buried after his death.  Related Paintings of Giotto :. | St Peter Enthroned | The Meeting at the Golden Gate | Scenes from the Life of St John the Baptist | The Raising of Drusiana,Cappella Peruzzi | Road to Calvary |
Related Artists:
COUSTENS, Pieter
Flemish painter (active 1453-1487 in Bruges and Brussels)
Baron Gerard
There have been three baronies created for descendants of the Gerard family who resided at Bryn, Ashton in Makerfield, Lancashire and Kingsley, Cheshire in the 13th century. The title Baron Gerard of Gerards Bromley, was created in the Peerage of England on 21 July 1603 for Sir Thomas Gerard (d. 1617), son of Sir Gilbert Gerard (d. 1593) Attorney General between 1559 and 1581 and Master of the Rolls in 1581, who acquired estates at Gerards Bromley and Hilderstone, Staffordshire. The first Baron was Lord President of Wales between 1610 and 1617. The barony passed in direct line of succession until the death of the fifth Baron in 1684 when it passed to his second cousin Charles, and upon his death without a male heir , to his brother Philip Gerard, a Jesuit priest who died childless in 1773 when the barony expired. The title of Baron Gerard of Bryn in the County Palatine of Lancaster, was created in the Peerage of the United Kingdom in 1876 for Sir Robert Gerard, 13th Baronet. The title followed the line of the first Baron's eldest son until the death of the latter's grandson, the fourth Baron, in 1992. He was succeeded by his second cousin once removed, the fifth and present holder of the barony. He is the great grandson of Captain the Hon. Robert Joseph Gerard-Dicconson, second son of the first Baron. A Gerard Baronetcy had been created in the Baronetage of England in 1611 for Thomas Gerard, Member of Parliament for Liverpool, Lancashire, and Wigan who was a direct descendant of the family of Bryn. He was succeeded by his son, the second Baronet. He also represented Liverpool in the House of Commons. His son, the third Baronet, was a Royalist during the Civil War and spent a large part of his estate in in his support for King Charles I. His great-great-great-grandson was the aforementioned thirteenth Baronet, who was elevated to the peerage in 1876. For the title Baron Gerard of Brandon, in the County of Suffolk, created in 1645 for a great-grandson of Sir Gilbert Gerard (mentioned above), see Earl of Macclesfield.
Memmo di Filippuccio
1433 - 1494