Giotto di Bondone
Giotto di Bondone revolutionized late medieval painting with solid, weighty figures, readable space, and human emotion—foundations of the Renaissance. For Old St. Peter’s he created the famed “Navicella” mosaic (surviving in fragments) and the “Stefaneschi Triptych,” works that joined monumental storytelling to sacred function. His Vatican presence signals the shift from Byzantine stylization to naturalism.
Artworks by Giotto di Bondone
in the Vatican Museums
#23
Stefaneschi Triptych
A double-sided altar for Old St Peter's: Saint Peter enthroned receives a kneeling donor; on the reverse, the martyrdoms of Peter and Paul. Giotto turns doctrine into weight, space, and human presence.
Giotto's solidity anchors early Trecento altarpieces.
#179
Fragment of Giotto's Navicella Mosaic (Angel)
A surviving angel from Giotto’s vast ‘Navicella’—the apostolic boat in storm—keeps the memory of a lost medieval masterpiece.
Rare surviving piece of Giotto’s celebrated ‘Navicella’ cycle.
