Giotto di Bondone

Hello! My name is Giotto. When I was a little boy, long, long ago, I did not go to school. Instead, I was a shepherd, which means I watched over fluffy sheep all day in the sunny fields. It was a quiet job, so I found a fun way to pass the time. I loved to draw. I would pick up a smooth, flat rock and use another sharp stone to scratch pictures of my sheep right onto it. I drew them eating grass, sleeping in the sun, and playing with each other. It was my favorite thing to do.

One day, a very famous painter named Cimabue was riding by and saw me drawing. He stopped and looked at my pictures on the rocks. He saw that my sheep looked so real, they could almost baa. He asked me if I wanted to come with him to his workshop in the big city of Florence and learn how to be a real artist. I was so excited. I said yes right away. In his workshop, I learned to mix bright colors and paint on wooden boards and big walls.

I loved painting more than anything. I got to paint giant pictures inside beautiful churches. These paintings were special because they told stories from the Bible. Back then, not many people could read books, so my paintings were like picture books on the walls for everyone to see. I made the people in my paintings look like they were really feeling things—happy, sad, and full of love. I lived a long and happy life filled with art. Even today, people can still visit those churches and see the colorful stories I painted on the walls so many years ago.