Giotto and His Diary

Giotto is a comic written by Claudia Tulifero and illustrated by Francesco Frongia, published by Kleiner Flug in 2017. It tells of the working days on a building site run by the master and of his private life. The comic freely interprets the actual diary written by Giotto between March and April 1325. It also describes his design for the Bardi Chapel, the first to the right of the main chapel in Florence’s Basilica of Santa Croce. Six scenes depict episodes from Saint Francis’s life, accompanied by figures of Franciscan saints. They were painted on dry plaster: unlike fresco, this technique applies colour to a wall after the plaster has dried. The Bardi Chapel is currently under restoration, so Giotto’s Stories of Saint Francis will not be visible for the duration of the work. Next to the Bardi Chapel is the Peruzzi Chapel, which also contains a cycle of paintings by Giotto on dry plaster, dated to around 1318–1322 and dedicated to Saint John the Evangelist and Saint John the Baptist. The Peruzzi Chapel can be visited with the admission ticket to the Basilica of Santa Croce.