Cimabue
Cimabue (Italian:
Although heavily influenced by Byzantine models, Cimabue is generally regarded as one of the first great Italian painters to break from the
Life
Little is known about Cimabue's early life. One source that recounts his career is Vasari's Lives of the Most Excellent Painters, Sculptors, and Architects, but its accuracy is uncertain.
He was born in Florence and died in Pisa. Hayden Maginnis speculates that he could have trained in Florence under masters who were culturally connected to Byzantine art. The art historian Pietro Toesca attributed the Crucifixion in the church of San Domenico in Arezzo to Cimabue, dating around 1270, making it the earliest known attributed work that departs from the Byzantine style.[7] Cimabue's Christ is bent, and the clothes have the golden striations that were introduced by Coppo di Marcovaldo.
Around 1272, Cimabue is documented as being present in
According to Vasari, Cimabue, while travelling from Florence to Vespignano, came upon the 10-year-old Giotto (c. 1277) drawing his sheep with a rough rock upon a smooth stone. He asked if Giotto would like to come and stay with him, which the child accepted with his father's permission.[10] Vasari elaborates that during Giotto's apprenticeship, he allegedly painted a fly on the nose of a portrait Cimabue was working on; the teacher attempted to sweep the fly away several times before he understood his pupil's prank.[10] Many scholars now discount Vasari's claim that he took Giotto as his pupil, citing earlier sources that suggest otherwise.[6]
Around 1280, Cimabue painted the
During the
The
Cimabue spent the last period of his life, 1301 to 1302, in Pisa. There, he was commissioned to finish a mosaic of Christ Enthroned, originally begun by Maestro Francesco, in the apse of the city's cathedral. Cimabue was to create the part of the mosaic depicting St John the Evangelist, which remains the sole surviving work documented as being by the artist.[17] Cimabue died around 1302.[18]
Character
According to Vasari, quoting a contemporary of Cimabue, "Cimabue of Florence was a painter who lived during the author's own time, a nobler man than anyone knew but he was as a result so haughty and proud that if someone pointed out to him any mistake or defect in his work, or if he had noted any himself... he would immediately destroy the work, no matter how precious it might be."[19]
The nickname Cimabue translates as "bull-head" but also possibly as "one who crushes the views of others", from the Italian verb cimare, meaning "to top", "to shear", and "to blunt". The conclusion for the second meaning is drawn from similar commentaries on Dante, who was also known "for being contemptuous of criticism".[20]
Legacy
History has long regarded Cimabue as the last of an era that was overshadowed by the Italian Renaissance. As early as 1543, Vasari wrote of Cimabue, "Cimabue was, in one sense, the principal cause of the renewal of painting," with the qualification that, "Giotto truly eclipsed Cimabue's fame just as a great light eclipses a much smaller one."[19]
In Dante's Divine Comedy
In Canto XI of his
O vanity of human powers,
how briefly lasts the crowning green of glory,
unless an age of darkness follows!
In painting Cimabue thought he held the field
but now it's Giotto has the cry,
so that the other's fame is dimmed.
Market
On 27 October 2019, The Mocking of Christ, was sold for €24m (£20m; $26.6m), a price the auctioneers described as a new world record for a medieval painting. The picture had been located in the kitchen of a home in northern France, and its owner had been unaware of its value.[23]
Gallery
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Crucifix (c. 1267–1271), San Domenico, Arezzo
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Hypothetical reconstruction of the Diptych
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Virgin and Child with Two Angels (c. 1280), National Gallery, London
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The Mocking of Christ (Cimabue) (c. 1280), sold at auction for €24m in 2019
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The Flagellation of Christ (c. 1280), Frick Collection, New York
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Attributed to Cimabue, Maestà (c. 1280–1285), Santa Maria dei Servi, Bologna
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Castelfiorentino Madonna (c. 1283–1284), Museo di Santa Verdiana, Castelfiorentino
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The Last Supper
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Madonna Enthroned with the Child, St Francis and four Angels (detail)
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Maestà of Santa Trinita, (detail) Prophet
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Detail of the Santa Croce Crucifix showing Apostle John
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Detail of mosaic Christ enthroned with the Virgin and St John showing St. John the Evangelist
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Cimabue Self Portrait
References
Citations
- ^ "Cimabue". Collins English Dictionary. HarperCollins. Retrieved 12 May 2019.
- ^ ISBN 978-0-19-953719-8.
- ^ Joseph F. Clarke (1977). Pseudonyms. BCA. p. 38.
- ^ J. A. Crowe; G. B. Calvalcaselle (1975). A History of Painting in Italy; Umbria, Florence and Siena from the Second to the Sixteenth Century. Vol. 1. AMS Press. p. 202.
- ^ Fred Kleiner (2008). Gardner's Art through the Ages: A Global History. Vol. 2. Cengage Learning EMEA. p. 502.
- ^ a b Hayden B.J. Maginnis (2004). "In Search of an Artist". In Anne Derbes; Mark Sandona (eds.). The Cambridge Companion to Giotto. Cambridge. pp. 12–13.
{{cite book}}
: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link) - ^ Paoletti, John T.; Radke, Gary M. (2005). Art in Renaissance Italy. Laurence King Publishing. p. 51.
- ^ Van Vechten Brown, Alice; Rankin, William (1914). A Short History of Italian Painting. J.M. Dent & Sons, ltd. p. 41.
- ^ Brink, Joel (October 1978). "Carpentry and Symmetry in Cimabue's Santa Croce Crucifix". The Burlington Magazine. Vol. 120, no. 907.
- ^ ISBN 0-900658-15-0.
- ^ Maxwell, Virginia; Leviton, Alex; Pettersen, Leif (2010). Tuscany & Umbria. Lonely Planet. p. 364.
- ^ Holly Flora (2006), Cimabue and Early Italian Devotional Painting (The Frick Collection).
- ^ a b "Madonna Enthroned with the Child, St. Francis, St. Dominic, and two Angels attributed to Cimabue". Uffizi Galleries. Retrieved 2 March 2024.
- ^ Havely, Nick (2004). Dante and the Franciscans: Poverty and the Papacy in the 'Commedia'. Cambridge University Press. p. 39.
- ^ Brooke, Rosalind B. (2006). The Image of St. Francis: Responses to Sainthood in the Thirteenth Century. Cambridge University Press. p. 352.
- ^ Paoletti, John T.; Radke, Gary M. (2005). Art in Renaissance Italy. Laurence King Publishing. p. 85.
- ISBN 9707250208.
- ^ Kleinhenz, Christopher (2004). Medieval Italy: An Encyclopedia. Routledge. pp. 223–224.
- ^ ISBN 0-19-281754-X.
- ^ Gibbs, Robert. "Cimabue". www.oxfordartonline.com. Retrieved 11 February 2017.
- ^ ISBN 0-385-49700-8.
- ISBN 0-385-49700-8.
- ^ "Masterpiece found in French kitchen fetches €24m". 27 October 2019 – via www.bbc.co.uk.
Sources
- Adams, Laurie Schneider (2001). Italian Renaissance Art. Boulder, Colorado: Westview Press. p. 420. ISBN 0-8133-3690-2.
- Rossetti, William Michael (1911). . Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 6 (11th ed.). p. 366-367.
- Vasari, Giorgio (1987). Lives of the Artists. Translated by George Bull. Penguin Classics. ISBN 9780140445008.
- Vaughn, William (2000). Encyclopedia of Artists. Oxford University Press. ISBN 0-19-521572-9.
External links
Media related to Cimabue at Wikimedia Commons
- Cimabue. Pictures and Biography
- Cimabue Santa Trinita Madonna (1280–1290) Archived 15 October 2014 at the Wayback Machine. A video discussion about the painting from smarthistory.khanacademy.org
- . . 1914.