About The Artist - Giotto di Bondone (1267 - January 8, 1337)

Giotto was an Italian painter and one of the early contributors to the Italian Renaissance.

About The Painting - The Ognissanti Madonna

The Ognissanti Madonna is the only painting of Giotto where he has used panel painting quite impressively. Giotto was tremendously influenced by another Italian painter Cimabue and it shows in the painting. Giotto was so influenced that he used similar styles, colors and composition as used by Cimabue in his painting The Madonna in Majesty.

There is one important aspect of the painting that stands apart from Cimabue's style and that is the unique manner in which Giotto has made Madonna's face look starkly human. Giotto with his unique ability to use frescos and use of details has uplifted the aura surrounding The Ognissanti Madonna.

This is one of his prized paintings and represents his advanced style in thinking, observation, imagination and realism. One of the most amazing aspects of his paintings is the way he has shown different figures in active poses that details the sense of freedom even in a group. Each figure apart from Madonna stands apart in this painting especially with a halo painted around their head.

Although a distinct and unique painting, The Ognissanti Madonna is one of the several religious paintings that Giotto had created. The most important part of all his paintings is the magnificence of the colors used by him. In this painting he had deliberately made Madonna's garb darker than the light background so that it stands out. The essence of Giotto's paintings was to make the main subject in the painting stand out so that people and art critics can associate with the theme.

Giotto had used a lot of sculptural figures in his paintings as well as church frescos. The unique characteristic associated with the sculptural figures is that they have been drawn using compressed settings and natural elements. This can be seen in The Ognissanti Madonna and the main idea was to make this painting look like a stage set. This is one of the creative aspects that can be seen in most of Giotto's paintings.