Giotto

by Luciano Bellosi

Vita e opere del pittore Giotto

Genres: Art

120 pages, Paperback

First published November 1, 1980

About the author

Luciano Bellosi (7 July 1936 – 26 April 2011) was an Italian art historian.

Bellosi joined the University of Siena in in 1979 as professor of Medieval Art History, heading the department 1983-1986. He retired from the University in 2002. His essay on the young Bellini, “Giovanni Bellini and Andrea Mantegna,” in Mantegna in 1431-1506, appeared in the catalog of the exhibition in 2008.

Reviews

[Brittany Gillen · Rating 4 out of 5]

I am not a huge art book reader, but I love Giotto’s work in Italy, so I picked this up in Assisi. It turned out to be a great choice in that it is easy to understand and follow and has fabulous pictures. It can at times get a bit tedious in details the reader cannot see without being in Italy, but it makes a very clear case for Giotto’s important contributions to art in the early 14th century. The emotion his figures express is what has always drawn me to him, and I did not realize how revolutionary this was for his time.

[Hannah Trower · Rating 3 out of 5]

Thorough academic treatment of Giotto's masterpieces, with clear and detailed descriptions of the works in question. Dry and dense, would recommend to specialists or to people who just really love Giotto specifically, but there are probably other, more recent texts that would be more appealing to a general audience. Would have liked more details on Giotto's life in addition to his works (context behind why he painted where he painted when he painted there, for instance), but it's a great book for the purpose I needed (read for class). Wow, has art reproduction for publication improved in the past 40-odd years.