<previous Giotto craft came about at a time of economic boom when city officials or aristocrats could commission beside the Roman Church. It is around that time that Europe was building its Gothic churches and that the technique of fresco was revived¹. Giotto main technique was the Buon Fresco that is used throughout the Renaissance.

In Buon-Fresco the pigments mixed with water are painted on the wet plaster of sand and lime and sometimes marble dust. Those pigments are finaly cemented into position by the conversion of the lime, by combination with the carbonic acid gas in the air into calcium carbonate.

The wall is progressively plastered as the artist executes segments after segments of the art work. True fresco may be recognized by the division of the painted surface into joints that might appear long after and show successive pieces of applied fresh plaster(See the outline of a joint on the picture on the right).

1. Buon Fresco was practized by early civilizations such as those of the late Minoan period, the Etruscans and Romans (Pompeian wall paintings). The Mexican muralist Diego Rivera used it more recently in Mexico City.