"Giotto was not only an artist of genius, not only a man who would deliver art from the formulae of medieval and Byzantine tradition into the new world of realism, but also a real man who had lived, loved and cried".

- from 'What Makes Great Art' by Andy Pankhurst & Lucinda Hawksley, published by Apple Press, 2012.

As inspiration for our March Saturday class we examined the work of the great Italian Renaissance master, Giotto di Bondone (b.c.1266-d.1337). We discovered during the slide talk, that began our painting & drawing days, how he inspired the great masters from Michelangelo to Matisse, and possibly.... to ourselves!!

"When I see the Giotto frescoes at Padua I do not trouble myself to recognise which scene of the life of Christ I have before me, but I immediately understand the feeling from it, for it is in the lines, the composition, the colour".

- Henri Matisse.