IntroductionThe Italian painters Cimabue (also known as Cenni di Pepo) and Giotto di Bondone both moved away from the medieval and Byzantine styles and advanced towards a human-centered proto-Renaissance style. Although each painter made this movement towards the Renaissance style, each did so in his own style and manner. Cimabue pursued a new naturalism that was a careful observation of the natural world; this aspect of his style challenged many of the major conventions of late medieval art. Giotto also pursued a naturalistic approach to representation based on observation. However, Giotto's break from late medieval conventions was more radical. Cimabue depicted figures with more realistic proportions and shades in the Madonna and Child Enthroned, Angels and Prophets (Madonna Trinita) and in the figure of Saint John. He also shows a realistic sense of space and volume in Trinita Madonna. In his dramatically powerful Crucifixion, Cimabue successfully unifies architectural space and painted pictorial space. On the other hand, Giotto wished to create a vivid and human interpretation of the divine subjects in the Kiss of Judas. Furthermore, Giotto's Madonna Enthroned (Madonna Ognissanti) displays realism, three-dimensionality and a sense of depth through the use of shadows. The figures in the Arena Chapel, which features elements of illusionistic painting, are depicted in an emotionally sensitive and naturalistic manner. These works respond to the way in which the works of Cimabue and Giotto differ and break away from the Byzantine style. Byzantine Art The Byzantine style in art was produced during the period of the Eastern Roman Empire. This movement began in 330 AD, when Emperor Constantine moved the capital of the Roman Empire from western to eastern Rome B...... middle of paper ......ian Late Medieval and Renaissance Art.” Southeastern College Art Reference Review 13, no. 4 (1999): 325-346. Polzer, Joseph. "On the chronology of Cimabue's work and the origin of pictorial depth in Italian painting of the late Middle Ages." Zograf 21, (2002): 119-143.Scott, Timothy. “The Kiss of Judas: Reflections on the Kiss of Judas by Giotto di Bondone (Arena Chapel, 1304-06) and The Betrayal of Christ by Duccio di Buoninsegna (Maestà Altarpiece, 1308-11).” Rubin, Patricia Lee. Giorgio Vasari: Art and History. Connecticut: Yale University Press, 1995.Vaughan, William. Biographical encyclopedia of artists. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2000.White, John. Art and architecture in Italy 1250-1400. Connecticut: Yale University Press, 1993. White, John. "Cimabue and Assist: working methods and historical-artistic consequences." History of art 4.4 (1981): 355-383.