Cimabue
Cimabue, whose real name was likely Bencivieni di Pepo, is a significant figure in the history of Italian art, often recognized for his role in the transition from Byzantine to more naturalistic styles of painting in the late 13th century. Known by the nickname "Oxhead," his early life remains largely undocumented, but he showed exceptional talent from a young age, eventually becoming a student of Greek painters in Florence. His notable works include altarpieces and frescoes, such as the Madonna Enthroned and a famous crucifix for Santa Croce, which earned him considerable acclaim.
Cimabue significantly influenced later artists, particularly Giotto, who is often viewed as his successor. Although many works attributed to Cimabue have been reassessed and credited to other artists, his contributions to the art of painting are recognized as foundational, marking a shift towards realism and emotional expression in visual art. Cimabue's legacy is further solidified by his appointment to direct the construction of the Florence Cathedral, illustrating his importance not just as a painter but also as a key figure in the artistic community of his time. His work continues to be studied and celebrated for its innovation and impact on the trajectory of Western art.
On this Page
Cimabue
Italian painter
- Born: c. 1240
- Birthplace: Florence (now in Italy)
- Died: c. 1302
- Place of death: Florence (now in Italy)
Cimabue introduced a more naturalistic depiction of the human body into medieval painting and is commonly regarded as a transition figure between the relatively stiff Byzantine mode of painting and the freer style that evolved in Italy during the fourteenth century.
Early Life
Almost nothing is known of the early life of Cimabue (chee-MAHB-way), whose real name was apparently Bencivieni di Pepo. Cimabue, or “Oxhead,” is a nickname of unknown significance. The meager facts of Cimabue’s life and career are recorded in various documents and narratives, mostly in Italian, dating back as far as the painter’s lifetime. Ernst Benkard’s Das literarische Porträt des Giovanni Cimabue (1917; the literary portrait of Giovanni Cimabue) and the research of Karl Frey form the basis for examination of Cimabue’s life.
A few years after Cimabue’s death, the poet Dante wrote:
In painting Cimabue thought to hold
Several later commentators also mention Cimabue in connection with Giotto. Lorenzo Ghiberti’ Commentarii (c. 1447; The Commentaries of Lorenzo Ghiberti, 1948) tells of how Cimabue came on the youthful shepherd boy Giotto as he was drawing sheep on a rock and invited Giotto to become his student. Sixteenth century writers, especially Antonio Billi, continued to associate Cimabue with Giotto. Giovanni Battista Gelli referred to Cimabue’s “Greek” style and called him Italy’s first indigenous painter.
Although later scholars have rejected many of Giorgio Vasari’s attributions of paintings to Cimabue, his famous study, Le vite de’ più eccellenti architetti, pittori, et scultori italiani (1549-1550; Lives of the Most Eminent Painters, Sculptors, and Architects, 1850-1907), gives the fullest account of Cimabue’s accomplishments. Vasari relates that the young Cimabue was sent to the convent of Santa Maria Novella in Florence to study literature, but the boy spent all of his time sketching men, horses, and houses. The city fathers at that time had hired numerous Greek painters to renew the art of painting, and as they worked on the chapel near Santa Maria Novella, Cimabue would escape from school and watch the painting. His passion for painting and obvious aptitude led his father to withdraw him from school and put him in the service of the Greek painters. Vasari’s comment sums up the basis for Cimabue’s enduring reputation in art history:
From this time he labored incessantly, and was so far aided by his natural powers, that he soon greatly surpassed his teachers both in design and coloring. For these masters, caring little for the progress of art, had executed their works as we now see them, not in the excellent manner of the ancient Greeks, but in the rude modern style of their own day. Wherefore, though Cimabue imitated his Greek instructors, he very much improved the art, relieving it greatly from their uncouth manner, and doing honour to his country by the name he acquired, and by the works that he performed.
Life’s Work
According to Vasari’s account, Cimabue’s career began with several much-appreciated paintings in Florence, including the altar of Santa Cecilia, a Virgin Mary on one of the pilasters at Santa Croce, a panel depicting Saint Francis surrounded by twenty small pictures on a gold background, and a large Madonna with angels for the abbey of Santa Trinita. For the front of the hospital of the Porcellana, he did a fresco with life-size figures of the Virgin, Jesus Christ, and Luke. Vasari praises the innovative realism of this fresco and Cimabue’s imaginative advance beyond the rules of the Greek painters.
Vasari then cites a colossal crucifix painted by Cimabue for the church of Santa Croce, an execution so praised that Cimabue was requested to complete some works in Pisa. His Pisan works brought him such renown that he was invited to Assisi to paint the roof and walls of the Church of Saint Francis. Vasari lauds the work at Assisi as “truly great and rich, and most admirably executed,” adding that private affairs called Cimabue back to Florence before the work was finished and that Giotto completed it many years later.
After his return to Florence, Cimabue worked on the cloister of Santo Spirito and then is said to have painted a picture of the Virgin for the Church of Santa Maria Novella, a work known as the Rucellai Madonna because it was suspended next to the Rucellai family chapel. Modern scholars, however, attribute this work to the Sienese painter Duccio di Buoninsegna, not Cimabue. Yet, according to Vasari, “it was carried in solemn procession, with the sound of trumpets and other festal demonstrations, from the house of Cimabue to the church, he himself being highly rewarded and honoured for it.”
As a result of the fame he had acquired, Cimabue was appointed, along with the artist Arnolfo Lapi, to direct the construction of Santa Maria del Fiore in Florence. Without further narration, Vasari relates that “at length” Cimabue died in Florence, leaving behind many disciples, most notably Giotto.
Significance
The life recounted by Vasari is brief, and, in addition to the Rucellai Madonna, many other works he ascribes to Cimabue have been attributed to others by modern scholars. Of the very few works attributed with confidence to Cimabue, the Madonna Enthroned that he painted for the Church of San Francesco in Pisa is judged one of his greatest. Napoleon Bonaparte appropriated it from Pisa as a prize of war, and it is now at the Louvre in Paris. It was painted at about the same time as the similar Rucellai Madonna, c. 1285, and its merits and its relationship to the Rucellai Madonna are still debated by scholars.
Scholar Alfred Nicholson provides an authoritative summation of Cimabue’s genius and influence:
He developed his peculiar idiom to its logical conclusion, and few could have approached the height of his argument. Moreover, the time was ripe for a closer observation and portrayal of man’s common inheritance the earthly and obvious. Thus the change for which the Romanized Giotto was so greatly responsible was both fortunate and inevitable. And though this by no means adequately explains the aesthetic greatness of Giotto’s art, it does much to explain its immediate popularity. But it was the overwhelmingly stimulating influence of Cimabue’s accomplishment that must have incited his late contemporaries, especially Giotto, to excel in other ways.
Bibliography
Battisti, Eugenio. Cimabue. University Park: Pennsylvania State University Press, 1967. Translated from the Italian, this work provides an overview of Cimabue’s life and work.
Bellosi, Luciano. Cimabue. New York: Abbeville Press, 1998. Bellosi discusses Cimabue’s beginnings, his painting style, and Florence, where the painter worked. Bibliography and index.
Chiellini, Monica. Cimabue. Florence: Scala Books, 1988. A biography of Cimabue that discusses his works and Italian art. Index.
Lavin, Marilyn Aronberg, and Irving Lavin. The Liturgy of Love: Images from the Song of Songs in the Art of Cimabue, Michelangelo, and Rembrandt. Lawrence, Kans.: Spencer Museum of Art, University of Kansas, 2001. Criticism and interpretation of the works of Cimabue, Michelangelo, and Rembrandt, particularly in regard to their depictions of the Song of Songs. Bibliography and index.
Nicholson, Alfred. Cimabue: A Critical Study. Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, 1932. Reprint. New York: Kennikat Press, 1972. An excellent, thorough study, replete with illustrations.
Van Marle, Raimond. The Development of the Italian Schools of Painting. 19 vols. The Hague: Martinus Nijhoff, 1923-1938. A scholarly and reliable history.
Vasari, Giorgio. Lives of the Most Eminent Painters, Sculptors, and Architects. Translated by Mrs. Jonathan Foster. Reprint. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1996. The famous history was originally published in the mid-sixteenth century.