Cimabue's Celebrated Madonna
| Cimabue's Celebrated Madonna | |
|---|---|
| Full title: Cimabue's Celebrated Madonna is carried in Procession through the Streets of Florence | |
Frederic Leighton, 1st Baron Leighton | |
| Year | 1853–1855 |
| Medium | Oil on canvas |
| Dimensions | 222 cm × 521 cm (87 in × 205 in) |
| Location | The National Gallery, London |
Cimabue's Celebrated Madonna, originally called Cimabue's [Celebrated] Madonna [is] Carried in Procession through the Streets of Florence,[1] is an oil painting by English artist Frederic Leighton. Measuring more than two metres tall and more than five metres wide, the canvas was painted by Leighton from 1853 to 1855 in Rome as his first major work.[2]
Since 1988 the work has been displayed in the
National Gallery, London, on long-term loan from the Royal Collection, where it was long hung prominently, high above the main vestibule, directly beyond the entrance to the gallery,[3] but more recently it has been in Room 45.[citation needed] In 2018 it was displayed at the top of the Sainsbury Wing staircase.[4]
Leighton House has an oil sketch for the painting, and several preparatory drawings.[5]
Description
The picture shows a scene from the 16th century
Charles of Anjou.[2]
The Madonna depicted, seen at a very narrow angle in the centre of the painting, is actually not by Cimabue, but instead it is the Uffizi Gallery in Florence.
-
The Rucellai Madonna by Duccio di Buoninsegna -
Detail from Leighton's painting, rectified projection of the Madonna -
The Santa Trinita Maestà by Cimabue
Reception
The painting was an immediate success for Leighton when he presented it at the 1855 summer exhibition of the
William Rossetti, was not as enchanted: "His picture has largeness, but not greatness; style, but not intensity; design rather than thought; arrangement rather than conception: it is individual, not specially original."[10]
Notes
- ^ "Arnolfo di Lapo" was the name given by Vasari for Arnolfo di Cambio, and was named as "di Lapo" in the original exhibition catalog.
Notes
- ISBN 146556120X, 9781465561206, google books
- ^ a b c d "Cimabue's Celebrated Madonna". nationalgallery.org.uk. Retrieved 17 March 2013.
- ^ "Virtual Tour". nationalgallery.org.uk. Archived from the original on 15 April 2013. Retrieved 19 March 2014.
- ^ "Rehanging the Sainsbury Wing". The Burlington Magazine. 160 (1388). November 2018. Retrieved 11 March 2021.
- The Art Fund
- ^ Monkhouse 1899, p. 94.
- ^ Clark 2009, p. 81.
- ^ Barker 1999, p. 181.
- ^ Barrington 1906, p. 191.
- ^ Rossetti 1867, p. 254.
References
- Barker, Emma (1999). "Case Study 5: Academic into Modern: Turner and Leighton". In Perry, Gillian and Colin Cunningham (ed.). Academies, Museums, and Canons of Art. Yale University Press. p. 268. ISBN 0300077432.
- Barrington, Emilie Isabel Wilson (1906). The Life, Letters and Work of Frederic Leighton, vol. 2. Harvard University.
- Clark, Robert (2009). Dark Water: Art, Disaster, and Redemption in Florence. Random House. p. 368. ISBN 978-0767926492.
- Monkhouse, William Cosmo (1899). British Contemporary Artists. New York: Charles Scribner's Sons. p. 266.
- Rossetti, William Michael (1867). Fine Art, Chiefly Contemporary: Notices Reprinted, with Revisions. Macmillan & Company. p. 392.