Gothic Painting Evolves

Giotto di Bondone (c. 1267-1337) transformed Gothic painting by introducing three-dimensional space and human emotion. His frescoes in the Scrovegni Chapel in Padua show figures with weight, volume, and genuine facial expressions. In the Lamentation, mourners grieve with individualized sorrow — no two faces show the same emotion.

For centuries, painters had followed the flat, formulaic conventions of the Byzantine tradition: gold backgrounds, stiff poses, and faces that repeated the same fixed expression. Giotto broke that mold. By giving his figures depth and real feeling, he pointed painting toward the Renaissance that would follow within a century.