Cimabue

Giovanni Cimabue (c. 1240–1302), also called Cenni di Pepo or Cenni di Pepi, was a Florentine painter and mosaic designer. While his work was strongly shaped by Byzantine traditions, he is often seen as one of the first major Italian artists to move away from the Italo-Byzantine style. His figures have more natural proportions and his shading is more refined, giving a greater sense of depth than was typical in medieval art. The painter and historian Giorgio Vasari claimed that Cimabue taught Giotto, the pioneering artist of the Italian Proto-Renaissance, but many modern scholars doubt this, pointing to earlier records that contradict it.

Not much is known about Cimabue’s early life. Vasari’s *Lives of the Most Excellent Painters, Sculptors, and Architects* is a key source, but its reliability is questionable. Born in Florence, he died in Pisa. Art historian Hayden Maginnis suggests he may have trained in Florence under masters connected to Byzantine art. Pietro Toesca attributed the *Crucifixion* in San Domenico in Arezzo to Cimabue, dating it to around 1270. This is the earliest known work linked to him that breaks from the Byzantine style. In it, Christ’s body is bent, and the clothing features gold striations introduced by Coppo di Marcovaldo.

By about 1272, Cimabue was documented in Rome. Soon after, he made another *Crucifix* for the Florentine church of Santa Croce. This piece, damaged in the 1966 Arno flood and later restored, was larger and more advanced than the Arezzo version, showing naturalistic touches possibly inspired by Nicola Pisano. According to Vasari, while traveling from Florence to Vespignano, Cimabue found the ten-year-old Giotto drawing sheep on a smooth stone with a rough rock. He asked the boy to come stay with him, and Giotto agreed with his father’s permission. Vasari adds that during his apprenticeship, Giotto painted a fly on the nose of a portrait Cimabue was working on; the teacher tried to brush it away several times before realizing the trick. Most scholars now reject this story, citing earlier sources that say otherwise.

Around 1280, Cimabue painted the *Maestà* for San Francesco in Pisa, now in the Louvre. This work set a style later followed by artists like Duccio di Buoninsegna (whose *Rucellai Madonna* was once wrongly credited to Cimabue) and Giotto. Other works from this period, said to have strongly influenced Giotto, include a *Flagellation* (Frick Collection), mosaics for Florence’s Baptistery (mostly restored), the *Maestà* at Santa Maria dei Servi in Bologna, and the *Madonna* in the Pinacoteca of Castelfiorentino. A workshop piece, possibly from a bit later, is the *Maestà with Saints Francis and Dominic* in the Uffizi.

Under Pope Nicholas IV, the first Franciscan pope, Cimabue worked in Assisi. In the Lower Basilica of San Francesco, he painted a fresco of *Madonna with Child Enthroned, Four Angels and St Francis*. The left side is lost but may have shown St Anthony of Padua (the painting’s authorship has recently been questioned on technical and stylistic grounds). He was then hired to decorate the apse and transept of the Upper Basilica, while Roman artists worked on the nave. His cycle includes scenes from the Gospels and the lives of the Virgin Mary, St Peter, and St Paul. These paintings are in poor condition due to oxidation of the bright colors he used.

The *Maestà of Santa Trinita*, dated to about 1290–1300, was painted for Florence’s Santa Trinita church and is now in the Uffizi. Its softer expressions suggest Giotto’s influence, as Giotto was already active as a painter. Cimabue spent his final years, 1301 to 1302, in Pisa. There, he was asked to finish a mosaic of *Christ Enthroned* in the cathedral’s apse, started by Maestro Francesco. Cimabue created the part showing St John the Evangelist, the only surviving work firmly documented as his. He died around 1302.

Vasari, quoting a contemporary, described Cimabue as “a nobler man than anyone knew” but also “so haughty and proud” that if anyone pointed out a mistake in his work, or if he noticed one himself, he would destroy it immediately, no matter how valuable. His nickname “Cimabue” means “ox-head,” but may also mean “one who crushes the views of others,” from the verb *cimare* (to top, shear, or blunt). This second meaning comes from similar comments about Dante, who was also known for being contemptuous of criticism.

History has long seen Cimabue as the last figure of an era overshadowed by the Renaissance. In 1543, Vasari wrote that Cimabue “was, in one sense, the principal cause of the renewal of painting,” but added that “Giotto truly eclipsed Cimabue’s fame just as a great light eclipses a much smaller one.” In Canto XI of Dante’s *Purgatorio*, the poet laments how quickly public interest in Cimabue faded in the face of Giotto’s artistic revolution. Cimabue himself does not appear in the poem.