Tradition says the story starts in the 1200s with a shepherd boy drawing pictures of his sheep on a rock. Cimabue, the master Florentine painter, sees the boy, recognizes his talent, and invites him to apprentice under him in his work shop. The boy, Giotto di Bondone, would come to be recognized as the first great contributor in what we now refer to as the “Italian Renaissance.”

What Cimabue saw in Giotto were the seeds of reinvention. For hundreds of years, the traditional Byzantine style reigned. Giotto changed the story. Maybe it started with the simple rock drawing. As Giorgio Vasari once said, “[H]e made a decisive break with the crude traditional Byzantine style, and brought to life the great art of painting as we know it today, introducing the technique of drawing accurately from life, which had been neglected for more than two hundred years.”

He breathed new life into figures. With a subtle, but influential shift, Giotto produced facial expressions and depicted scenes in a way that made his pieces feel more alive — more human.

Reinvention is about bringing our evolving stories to life. It is about conquering the crude and expressionless narratives that confine us and prevent our stories from provoking understanding and reaching audiences.

Giotto changed the way we respond to art by changing the story. His story felt more real — more accurate. And, because it did, his art ushered in a movement that changed the world. How can we, in this critical time of reinvention, tell authentic stories that will resonate with our audiences and birth new beginnings?

Posted at 2:08pm and tagged with: storytelling, reinvention,.