A Boy Named Giotto Read Free Books and Download eBooks
A sparkling celebration of the pre-Renaissance master Centuries ago, a shepherd boy drew pictures of his sheep in the sand and on stones. Today, everyone knows him as Giotto, the pre-Renaissance master whose magnificent frescoes illuminate the Church of St. Francis in Assisi and the Scrovegni Chapel in Padua. In A Boy Named Giotto, Paolo Guarnieri tells a story of how young Giotto might have been apprenticed to the great master Cimabue and taught how to paint frescoes. In legendary fashion, Cimabue, as any other artist of the times might have done, realizes that the student has outdone the master and will subsequently find a permanent place of honor in the history of art. Bimba Landmann's stunning paintings, with highlights of glittering gilt, call to mind the work of Giotto but exude a style that is distinctly Landmann's own.
Hardcover: 32 pages
Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux (BYR) (October 21, 1999)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 0374309310
ISBN-13: 978-0374309312
Product Dimensions: 12.4 x 9 x 0.4 inches
Shipping Weight: 1 pounds
Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars See all reviews (9 customer reviews)
Best Sellers Rank: #1,111,228 in Books (See Top 100 in Books) #100 in Books > Children's Books > Biographies > European #389 in Books > Children's Books > Biographies > Art #2480 in Books > Children's Books > Arts, Music & Photography > Art
Age Range: 5 and up
Grade Level: Kindergarten and up
Beautiful illustrations accompany the story of Giotto, an eight-year-old shepherd-boy who had a natural talent for drawing. The story begins with a daydreaming Giotto, a sheep-shepherd boy, who draws on anything he can find such as rocks and in dirt, and with anything he can find, such as chalk or charcoal. His talents go unnoticed by his family and he is scolded for neglecting his shepherding duties, which at one point in the story, resulted in losing a lost sheep. He meets the painter, Cimabue, and learns that there is such a thing as paint and the people paint on wood panels just for the sake of making art. Cimabue asks Giotto's parents to let him become his apprentice and they refuse. Giotto is kept shepherding sheep at home for seven more years, and then his parents let him receive art instruction from Cimabue. Cimabue teaches Giotto how to paint a fresco (not an easy task) and as the book closes, we see Giotto going on to start a new assignment: painting the fresco at a church dedicated to Saint Francis. The story ends there, nothing more is said of how his life turned out and of the many wonderful works of art he produced, or that this sheep shepherd born in poverty ended up a wealthy man.Some parents may not like that the parents come across in a negative way when they refuse to let their eight year old boy leave them to go into apprenticeship with Cimabue. The father states he wants him to stay home to work as a shepherd (with no positive messages about the value of a child helping their family make a living). The mother says she feels he is too young, and for some reason, it comes across in an overly protective way. I got the impression that the parents were being stupid not to let their very talented son leave for an apprenticeship at age eight.
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