750th Birthday of Giotto

Giotto's Campanile in Florence alongside a portrait of Giotto derived from a painting by Paolo Uccello; the inscription "GIOTTO" and the dates "1267" and "2017"; the country name "SAN MARINO", the initials of designer Luciana de Simoni and the "R" mintmark.

Giotto di Bondone is regarded as one of the most consequential innovators in European art history. Born around 1267 in Vespignano, Tuscany, he broke with the previously dominant Byzantine pictorial tradition and, for the first time, gave human figures physical presence, depth and emotional credibility. His fresco cycles in the Scrovegni Chapel in Padua and in the Upper Church of Assisi are regarded as milestones on the path to the Renaissance. Giotto also left a lasting architectural mark: the campanile at Florence Cathedral named after him, which he began to design around 1334, is among the most significant Gothic buildings in Italy. In the 16th century, Giorgio Vasari called him the re-founder of painting - a judgement that still resonates today.

San Marino's connection to Giotto is cultural in nature: the republic, surrounded entirely by Italian territory, shares with Tuscany and Umbria the common art-historical space in which Giotto's work was created and received. San Marino has issued its own commemorative coins since the introduction of the euro, regularly honouring figures and events of wider significance. On the 750th anniversary of Giotto's birth in 2017, the small state honoured the Florentine master with a 2-euro commemorative coin - a reference to the shared cultural heritage of the Italian-speaking world.