Very similar to Cimabue, Giotto lived in Florence, Italy. Many speculate Giotto was Cimabue's pupil, although there is no evidence to show this. Giotto was one of the first artists who depicted human emotions within his religious subjects. His influence from his artwork set the western art on a path to the Renaissance.

While other artists at this time copied ideas and style from earlier painting, Giotto introduced his own style of making images more natural which depicted the realistic style of the religious stories. Similar to Cimabue and Duccio, Giotto also wasn't using the Byzantine or the Gothic style in his art but was moving away from it.

Born in Florence, Italy within a farming family, He spent most of his time in Florence but also worked in Naples, Padua, Bologna, Assisi and Rome.

Giotto was known for mastering the unique technique of painting called the Fresco method. Fresco is a painting technique where pigments mixed with water are applied directly onto wet lime plaster on walls or ceilings. As the plaster dries, it chemically bonds with the pigments, creating a durable painting that becomes part of the wall itself. This technique by him became so well known that the amount of work he got required several assistants to complete them. Several patrons of his included many wealthy merchants, bankers including the Pope, the king of Naples and the monks from Assisi.

Other than his unique fresco style, his innovative style of artwork was known to place his characters in the natural looking locations that related to the real world. Such a style immediately related to the common people and it was easy to interpret this art by people then. He emphasised his characters to portray the shape and the weight of their bodies under heavy clothing using light and shadow. People then and till now are aware of his lack of portrayal specific to the anatomy and perspectives of his figures i.e they were not portrayed as decorative and symbolic but instead as worldly.

Giotto was known for bringing out his figures, people often referred to his artwork as alive, physically and emotionally. This was his way of telling the biblical stories in a simple, new and a humanist way which became a source of entertainment, enlightenment and education.

By moving away from the stylised formality of artistic tradition and giving his figures greater movement and credibility, his work had a profound influence on European art.