Giovanni Cimabue

Cimabue, Giovanni 

(real name, Cenni di Peno). Born circa 1240; died circa 1302. Italian painter, representative of the Florentine school of the late 13th century.

Cimabue worked in Assisi, Pisa, and Florence. Despite a number of innovations reminiscent of the work of Cavallini, Cimabue’s art as a whole developed within the framework of Byzantine tradition. Examples of his work are a cycle of frescoes in the Upper Church of St. Francis (c. 1290, Assisi), Crucifix (c. 1285, Uffizi Gallery, Florence), Crucifix and Madonna (1295, Santa Croce Museum, Florence), and the large altarpiece Madonna Enthroned (c. 1285, Uffizi Gallery). Cimabue’s paintings are distinguished by monumentality, compositional symmetry, precision of line, and refinement and decorativeness of palette. There is gold striation on the garments, and two-dimensional and three-dimensional renderings of figures and faces are combined.

REFERENCE

Battisti, E. Cimabue. Milan, 1963.