The Next Renaissance

Legend has it that Giotto di Bondone, the man who brought painting back to life, started out in the late 1200s as a simple farm boy. When Giotto was a lad, we’re told, his father made him deputy shepherd on the family property. This involved long hours of downtime, which Giotto would while away by sketching whatever he saw, wherever he could—on rocks, in the dirt, or in the sand. One day Cimabue, Florence’s greatest living painter, happened upon Giotto while out on business and found him drawing a sheep.