Cimabue

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Crucifix (1287-88) Panel, 448 x 390 cm
Basilica di Santa Croce, Florence

Cenni di Pepo (Giovanni) Cimabue (c 1240 in Florence, Italy — c 1302 in Florence, Italy) also known as Bencivieni Di Pepo or in modern Italian, Benvenuto Di Giuseppe, was a Florentine painter and creator of mosaics. He is also known as the artist who discovered Giotto and with him moved towards treating figures as individuals. Cimabue is generally thought of as the last great painter working in the Byzantine tradition. The art of this time showed scenes and styles that appeared relatively flat. Cimabue was a pioneer in the move towards naturalism, as his figures showed more life-like proportions and shading. His works influenced later artists such as Giotto.

Not much is known about his life, there being little surviving documentation. His life was described in Giorgio Vasari's The Lives of the Most Excellent Painters, Sculptors, and Architects, widely regarded as the first art history book, though it was completed over 200 years after Cimabue's death. Although it is one of the few early records we have of him, its accuracy is undetermined. It says:

Instead of studying his letters, Cimabue spent all his time covering his paper and his books with pictures showing people, horses, houses, and various other things he dreamt up.

[edit] Works

Judging by the commissions that he received, Cimabue appears to have been a highly regarded artist in his day. While Cimabue was at work in Florence, Duccio was the major artist, and perhaps his rival, in nearby Siena. Cimabue was commissioned to paint two very large frescoes for the Basilica of St Francis of Assisi. They are on the walls of the transepts a Crucifixion and a Deposition. Both paintings have the Cross at the centre and are filled with numerous figures. Unfortunately these works are now a dim shadow of the glory that they once were. During occupancy of the building by invading French troops, straw caught alight, severely damaging the frescoes. The white paint was partially composed of silver, which oxidised and turned black, leaving the faces and much of the drapery of the figures in negative.

The Madonna of St Francis

Another sadly damaged work is the great Crucifix of Santa Croce reproduced on this page. It was the major work of art that was lost in the flood in Florence in 1966. Much of the paint from the body and face washed away.

Among Cimabue's few surving works are the Madonna of San Trinita, which is housed, with Duccio's Rucellai Madonna and Giotto's Ogni Santi Madonna, in the Uffizi Gallery. In the Lower Church of Saint Francis of Assisi is a most precious fresco. It shows The Madonna and Christ Child enthroned with angels and Saint Francis. It is claimed to be a work of Cimabue's old age.

Two additional, very fine paintings of Cimabue are now to be seen in New York at the Frick Collection. The Flagellation of Jesus was purchased by the Frick in 1950 and long held of uncertain authorship, possibly Duccio. But in 2000 the National Gallery in London acquired a Virgin and Child with many similarities (size, materials, red borders, incised margins, etc.) The two pictures are now thought to be parts of one work, diptych or triptych altarpiece, and their attribution to Cimabue is fairly secure.

While the Flagllation is owned by the Frick (and is the only Cimabue resident in the United States), the Virgin and Child is here temporarily. For a short time the two can be viewed side-by-side. I recommend this.

The pair are believed to date from 1280.