Madonna with or without saints, to whom he gives an air of calm contentment. Among his best works are: Madonna and Saints (1492), Conegliano Duomo; Madonna with Saints, in the Louvre; Baptism of Christ, S. Giovanni, Bragora (1494); Incredulity of St. Thomas, Madonna with Saints, Venice Academy; Madonna with Saints (2), Parma Gallery; St. Mark curing Anianus, Berlin Museum; St. Peter Martyr, Brera, Milan. Other examples in the galleries of Modena, Munich, etc.—C. & C., N. Italy, i. 232; Ch. Blanc, Ecole vénitienne; Vasari, ed. Mil., iii. 645, 663; Burckhardt, 82, 500; Lübke, Gesch. ital. Mal., i. 545.
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CIMABUE, GIOVANNI, born in Florence
in 1240,
died there
about 1302.
Florentine
school; of a
noble Florentine
family, the
Cimabui; pupil,
according
to Vasari, of
certain Greek
painters, called
to Florence by the government to revive
painting, who worked in the Cappella de'
Gondi of S. M. Novella, where Cimabue attended
school. But Florence had painters
and miniaturists, such as Rustici (1166),
Marchisello (1191), Fidanza (1224), and
Bartolommeo (1236), long before Cimabue's
birth, and a street called the Via de' Pittori,
which proves that the calling of Greek
painters to restore art was as unnecessary
as it is incredible. Also the chapel in S. M.
Novella, where they are said to have painted,
is contemporary with the church which was
erected in 1279, when Cimabue was thirty-nine
years old. Cimabue's fame is due first
to his superior gifts, which enabled him to
begin to cast off the fetters of Byzantinism;
second, to the fact that he was the master
of Giotto; and third, because his name is
mentioned by Dante. His most certain work
is his famous Madonna de' Rucellai in the
Capella Rucellai, S. M. Novella, which Charles
of Anjou is said to have been taken to see
(1267), and for which the quarter of the
city where it was painted is said by Vasari
to have been named the Borgo Allegri, a
name given before 1301, but whether in
honour of the picture or not is uncertain.
The personage in a white and gold costume
painted by Simone di Martino in the Cappella
dei Spagnuoli, whose head we have
engraved, though designated by Vasari as
Cimabue, is probably a French cavalier,
perhaps the so-called Duke of Athens, Walter
de Brienne, whilom tyrant of Florence.
Among the supposed works of Cimabue
are: Madonna with angels, Florence
Academy; Crucifix and a Madonna, sacristy,
S. Croce; Madonna with Angels, National
Gallery, London; Madonna with Angels,
Louvre; mosaic, Saviour enthroned between
the Virgin and St. John, properly
called the Majesty, Duomo, Pisa; frescos, S.
Francesco, Assisi, on three walls, left transept,
and in choir, Upper Church; Evangelists,
central ceiling of transept; Four
Doctors of the Church, ceiling near portal,
do.; colossal Madonna with Angels, west
side over altar of Crucifixion, south transept
wall, Lower Church.—Vasari, ed. Mil., i.
247; C. & C., Italy, i. 201; Seguier, 43;
Burckhardt, 488, 494; Baldinucci, i. 21;
Lübke, Gesch. ital. Mal., i. 90.
CIMABUE'S MADONNA, PROCESSION
OF, Sir Frederick Leighton, Buckingham
Palace, London. Cimabue's famous picture
of the Madonna de' Rucellai carried in procession
through the streets of Florence to S.
