# Giotto and the famous circle **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [November 10, 2000, 1:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/giotto-and-the-famous-circle/40569 "2000-11-10T01:28:49Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 9\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Johanna](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johanna/32/8318_2.png) [@Johanna](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johanna)\ **Post date:** [November 10, 2000, 1:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/giotto-and-the-famous-circle/40569/1 "2000-11-10T01:28:49Z")
I was wondering if anyone else in history besides Giotto was capable of drawing a perfect circle freehand. (The legend goes: > [@](#): > > Vasari tells the story of how Pope Boniface VIII sent a messenger to Giotto with a request for samples of his work. Giotto > dipped his brush in red and with one continuous stroke painted a perfect circle. He then assured the messenger that the worth of > this sample would be recognized. When the pope saw it, he “instantly perceived that Giotto surpassed all other painters of his > time.” –from the WebMuseum) While Giotto is renowned by art historians for being the first artist in the Middle Eages to depict the human form naturalistically from life, it’s the legend of the freehand circle that has captivated the imagination. Can anyone else do it? ---
**Author:** ![bibliophage](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bibliophage/32/7615_2.png) [@bibliophage](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bibliophage)\ **Post date:** [November 10, 2000, 2:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/giotto-and-the-famous-circle/40569/2 "2000-11-10T02:43:40Z")
I guess it depends on how “perfect” you want your circles to be. Nobody can really draw a perfect circle. A circle is a hypothetical shape not _perfectly_ reproducible even with a pair of compasses or any other manmade device. For what it’s worth, Jan Prins was said to be able to do it. See [http://www.lanka.net/lakehouse/1998/03/29/fea09.html](http://www.lanka.net/lakehouse/1998/03/29/fea09.html) ---
**Author:** ![omni-not](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/8dc957/32.png) [@omni-not](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/omni-not)\ **Post date:** [November 10, 2000, 4:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/giotto-and-the-famous-circle/40569/3 "2000-11-10T04:17:18Z")
So could Pierre Laplace, it would seem. [http://scoop.crosswinds.net/books/tapestry.html](http://scoop.crosswinds.net/books/tapestry.html) ---
**Author:** ![capybara](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/capybara/32/202_2.png) [@capybara](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/capybara)\ **Post date:** [November 10, 2000, 5:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/giotto-and-the-famous-circle/40569/4 "2000-11-10T05:35:04Z")
Take anything Vasari says with a grain of salt. The perfect circle thing is an old, old trope in artistic biography, repeated ad nauseum-- I think it was used with Zeuxis or Apelles (one or the other. . . maybe both) in Pliny, etc. The one about painting something so realistic that the birds mistake it for real and start pecking at the painted grapes, or when the competing artist tries to pull back the cloth covering the painting. . . and surprise, the cloth’s painted!, is also mighty old. ---
**Author:** ![capybara](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/capybara/32/202_2.png) [@capybara](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/capybara)\ **Post date:** [November 10, 2000, 5:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/giotto-and-the-famous-circle/40569/5 "2000-11-10T05:38:01Z")
Oh, I think it also appears closer to Giotto, too, perhaps even again in Vasari. . . I feel like it was with a Venetian, Giorgione, perhaps, but whoever, was “discovered” as a sheep herder drawing perfect circles in the dirt out in the country. Maybe I’ll look for this tomorrow. ---
**Author:** ![ZenBeam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/3ab097/32.png) [@ZenBeam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ZenBeam)\ **Post date:** [November 10, 2000, 1:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/giotto-and-the-famous-circle/40569/6 "2000-11-10T13:30:43Z")
I knew someone who won a portable PC many years ago by drawing a nearly perfect circle on an etch-a-sketch. ---
**Author:** ![mongrel\_8](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/e274bd/32.png) [@mongrel\_8](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mongrel_8)\ **Post date:** [November 10, 2000, 3:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/giotto-and-the-famous-circle/40569/7 "2000-11-10T15:57:14Z")
A little off the subject but I had a social studies teacher who without looking could take a piece of chalk and draw what appeared to be a perfect circle very quickly. Needless to say it was quite amazing. ---
**Author:** ![capybara](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/capybara/32/202_2.png) [@capybara](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/capybara)\ **Post date:** [November 11, 2000, 3:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/giotto-and-the-famous-circle/40569/8 "2000-11-11T03:45:42Z")
Back to my pedantic posts-- sorry, I realized that the reason the shepherd-boy story seemed so close to Giotto was because it WAS Giotto, earlier in Vasari’s account. Doh. I’m impressed by the etch-a-sketch thing. All the wasted hours of my childhood. . . Along with trying to get a spirograph to work well. ---
**Author:** ![Reboot42](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/5f9b8f/32.png) [@Reboot42](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Reboot42)\ **Post date:** [November 11, 2000, 8:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/giotto-and-the-famous-circle/40569/9 "2000-11-11T08:51:33Z")
It has been said that only an insane person can draw an absolutely straight line freehanded. I don’t know about circles.