Florence. His repute had reached its zenith—he was crowned with all earthly honours. He died in the year 1300, "having achieved," says Vasari, "little less than the resurrection of painting from the dead." He left many pupils, the most celebrated being Giotto, whose greatness and whose art-tastes, bringing him nearer the views of more modern critics, have possibly done something towards diminishing the glory of Cimabue. An Italian critic, writing a few years after the painter's death, remarks of him, "He knew more of the noble art than any other man. He was so arrogant and proud, withal, that if any discovered a fault in his work, or if he perceived one himself (as will often happen to the artist who fails, from the defects in the materials that he uses, or from insufficiency of the instrument with which he works), he would instantly destroy that work, however costly it might be." The portrait of Cimabue is in the chapter of Santa Maria Novella, painted by Simon of Siena. Few of the remains of Cimabue give any fair criterion of his genius. Decay is rendering his great influence upon art little more than traditional. That his repute was very great in his time; that, dating from him, all that is beautiful and noble in art fairly commences; that his immediate successors paid him the greatest homage—all these testify to the eminence of the painter. Cimabue painted in fresco and distemper, oil not being in his time employed as a medium.—W. T.
CIMAROSA, Domenico, a musician, was born at Aversa in the kingdom of Naples, December 17, 1749, and died at Venice, January 11, 1801. His father was a mason, who, obtaining employment in the erecting of the royal palace at Naples, removed to that city during the infancy of Domenico. There he set up his abode in a miserable dwelling in the neighbourhood of his occupation, which was contiguous to the church of S. Severo; and his wife was engaged as laundress to the fathers of the convent connected with this establishment. Domenico was sent to a free school belonging to the convent, where he showed uncommon aptitude for such limited instruction as the place afforded; but the death of his father, by a fall from the building on which he was at work, before the completion of the boy's seventh year, led to an important change in his prospects. Padre Polcano, the organist of the convent—partly from compassion for the extreme indigence of the widow, partly from interest in the ability of the son—took Domenico under his particular care, for the purpose of advancing his education. In his hours of leisure this worthy man found his chief pleasure in music; and it was in listening to his playing on the harpischord in his cell, that the remarkable genius of the young Cimarosa received its first impetus. Perceiving the indications of unusual musical talent in his little client, the monk began to teach him his favourite art, for which he was repaid by his satisfaction at the boy's rapid progress. The statement appears to be incorrect that Aprili was at any time Cimarosa's master; the reverend convent organist taught him entirely until the year 1761, and then made successful interest for his admission into the conservatorio of S. Maria di Loretto. Here he successively studied under Manna (afterwards organist at the cathedral at Naples), Antonio Sacchini, and finally Feneroli, from whom he learnt composition according to the principles of Durante. He derived also great advantage from the counsels of the famous Nicolo Piccini, whose attention was drawn to him by the manifestation of his talent, and who regarded him with the kindliest feeling of friendship. This master was the first who comprehended a long continuous dramatic action in an unbroken piece of music, constituting the extensive finale of an opera; and from his personal advice no less than from his example, Cimarosa acquired the art of construction in this form of composition which, more than anything else, gives dignity and importance to theatrical music.
Cimarosa began his public career with an opera called "Le Stravaganze del Conte," which was produced at the Teatro dei Fiorentini in Naples in 1772, with success, which was due entirely to the merit of the music, since it had the disadvantage of an extremely weak libretto. Happier in the choice of his next poem, the young composer more than confirmed the good impression of his first essay, when in the following year he brought out another opera, from the reception of which his reputation rose so high, that he was now engaged to write as rapidly as his wonderfully fertile invention could produce; and a long succession of his operas obtained paramount popularity in all the theatres of Italy "Il Fanatico per gli antichi Romani," produced at Naples, 1777, is said to have been the earliest dramatic work in which Piccini's principles of construction were transferred from the finale to duets and trios, and in which the whole of the action was thus embodied in music, instead of the music being, as in the earlier lyrical dramas, a series of episodical arias and other pieces that, at most, illustrated the scenic situation, without aiding in the progress of the drama. Cimarosa was invited to all the chief cities to write for their theatres; his singular fecundity made him ever ready with new ideas, the spontaneous freshness of which is intrinsic evidence of his natural facility of production, and of this his rapidity, and the great number of his works, afford equally striking proof. One of his most brilliant successes was "Il Convito di Pietra," produced at Venice in 1781; after the first performance of which, the audience formed a procession to escort the composer to his home, with many hundred flambeaux—the subject being the same as that of Don Giovanni, and the frequent comparison that has been made between the genius of Cimarosa and Mozart, point particular attention to this remarkable triumph. "Il Sacrifizio d'Abramo" (an aria from which still holds its place in the programmes of classical concerts in London), seems to have been produced at Naples about 1786. On the return of Pæsiello to Naples in 1785, from an engagement of nine years at the court of Petersburg, the Empress Catherine II. wished his equally distinguished townsman Cimarosa to replace him, and made him liberal offers accordingly to visit the Russian capital; it was not, however, till 1789 that he made up his mind to accept these proposals. In this year he started by sea on his way to his new engagement, but was obliged by a tempest to put in at Leghorn. This accident brought him under the notice of the duke of Tuscany, who invited him to his palace, where he paid him the highest honours, singing several of his compositions at a concert, he appointed him to direct; and dismissed him with costly presents to himself and his wife. Proceeding to Austria, the traveller was inconvenienced by the confiscation of his baggage at the custom-house; his reputation, however, drew friends around him in this dilemma, and procured him the restitution of his property. He then went to Vienna, and was received with marked distinction at the court, and the emperor personally made gifts of valuable jewellery to his wife and himself. He arrived at Petersburg in the December of this year, and was at once installed as director of the imperial opera, and chamber musician to the empress. During his residence in Russia, he wrote four operas, a cantata, and an immense number of detached compositions; and he was there loaded with such honours as only Muscovite munificence confers on an artist, the chief of which was that the Emperor Paul I. officiated as godfather to one of his children. The poor mason's son was now elevated, through the exercise of his genius, to the greatest eminence a commoner can enjoy; his merit acknowledged throughout Europe, and himself signalized by the kindliest courtesies of the greatest potentate. The breaking out of the war with Russia, in the course of the third year of his stay, brought, however, this period of his career to a summary close. Though the opera was dismembered, Cimarosa received proposals to remain in a private appointment at the court; the excitement of a life before the public had, however, become necessary to him, added to which his health was impaired by the severity of the climate, which contrasted too strongly with the genial temperature of his native hind; and he therefore quitted Russia in 1792. He now went to fill the post of director of the court opera at Vienna, where he produced the work which had a success, not only greater than any other of Cimarosa's, but scarcely paralleled in the annals of the lyric stage—the work, moreover, which has held its place permanently in public favour through all the variations of taste till the present day. This was "Il Matrimonio Segreto," which, on the first night of its performance, so enraptured the audience that the emperor, who was one of them, commanded the repetition of the entire opera on the same evening. In 1793, upon the accession of the Emperor Francis, Salieri was reinstated in the office he had left, when Cimarosa was appointed to it, who, however, resigned it under most honourable circumstances, receiving a costly present from the emperor, and leaving the memory of his remarkable success. Returning to Naples, Cimarosa there reproduced, with some additions, "Il Matrimonio Segreto," which was there performed for a greater number of successive nights than any other opera has been in an Italian city, where the nightly-repented visits of the
