GIOTTO DI BONDONE
The triptych (pictured with three compartments) takes its name from Cardinal Jacopo of Stefaneschi Caetani, who made him run to the ancient basilica of S. Peter. It is painted on both sides since it was to be seen by both the priest and the faithful. On the back side that is facing the apse depicts Christ enthroned with angels and Cardinal Stefaneschi between the Crucifixion of St. Peter on the left and the Martyrdom of St. Paul's right hand in the predella below the Madonna and Child Enthroned with Two Angels and the twelve apostles. The front facing the faithful are represented S. Peter Enthroned with Cardinal Stefaneschi, holding his hands a model of the triptych, and Pope Celestine I in the central panel, side, S. James and S. Paul left, S. And St. John the Evangelist Andrea to right of the dais is only one compartment with three saints. The painting was executed by Giotto with the assistance of the workshop between 1315 and 1320 .
Giotto di Bondone was born in 1266 in Vicchio in Mugello (near Florence). Influenced by a pupil of Cimabue and Cavallini is praised by Dante, Petrarch and Boccaccio.Already in 1300, Giotto di Bondone enjoyed wide renown as a painter and an architect. His art, shocking modernity, was the model for subsequent generations, until the Renaissance. Rare and are variously interpreted the documents on its participation in the construction of the Upper Church of San Francesco in Assisi. Recently some critics have again questioned the authenticity of the famous stories of St. Francis (1296-1304), while others will emphasize the traditional attribution to Giotto, considered unique at that time to be able to paint with such nature of truth, but most of space and perspective, and recognizing the collaboration of a highly specialized shop, with broad representation of Roman painters. The years around 1300 are full of commitments. In Santa Maria Novella Crucifix Giotto leaves the monumental where Christ is depicted, away from traditional norms, most human suffering and, after the Dominicans, the Benedictines also require the painter work for the altar of their church in Florence (Altarpiece Badia, today Uffizi). During a brief stay in Rimini, Giotto painted, in addition to the lost frescoes, a crucifix for the local church of San Francesco. In 1303 he moved to Padua, where Giotto expects the decoration of the Scrovegni Chapel (Stories of Joachim and Anna, the Virgin Stories, Stories of Christ, Judgement, Allegories of Vice and Virtue). Between 1307 and 1308 is in Assisi, engaged in the decoration of the chapel of Mary Magdalene, then to Florence where he painted the Madonna of the Uffizi Ognissanti and the frescoes in the Peruzzi Chapel (1315-1320) and Bardi (1320-1325) in Santa Croce . Dating is still uncertain actions by Giotto and his workshop in St. Peter's Basilica in Rome, commissioned by Cardinal Jacopo Stefaneschi: the altarpiece now in the Pinacoteca Vaticana, the mosaic of the Fighter, of which only two busts of angels and the lost frescoes of ' apse.