Cimabue

Santa Trinita Maestà, 1280–1285, Uffizi Gallery, Florence.

Giovanni Cimabue (Italian: [tʃimaˈbuːe]),[1] c. 1240 – 1302,[2] was an Italian painter and designer of mosaics from Florence. He was also known as Cenni di Pepo[3] or Cenni di Pepi.[4]

Although heavily influenced by Byzantine models, Cimabue is generally regarded as one of the first great Italian painters to break from the Italo-Byzantine style.[5] Compared with the norms of medieval art, his works have more lifelike figural proportions and a more sophisticated use of shading to suggest volume. According to Italian painter and historian Giorgio Vasari, Cimabue was the teacher of Giotto,[2] the first great artist of the Italian Proto-Renaissance. However, many scholars today tend to discount Vasari's claim by citing earlier sources that suggest otherwise.[6]

  1. ^ "Cimabue". Collins English Dictionary. HarperCollins. Retrieved 12 May 2019.
  2. ^ a b Giorgio Vasari. Lives of the Artists. Translated with an introduction and notes by J.C. and P Bondanella. Oxford: Oxford University Press (Oxford World's Classics), 1991, pp. 7–14. ISBN 978-0-19-953719-8.
  3. ^ Joseph F. Clarke (1977). Pseudonyms. BCA. p. 38.
  4. ^ J. A. Crowe; G. B. Calvalcaselle (1975). A History of Painting in Italy; Umbria, Florence and Siena from the Second to the Sixteenth Century. Vol. 1. AMS Press. p. 202.
  5. ^ Fred Kleiner (2008). Gardner's Art through the Ages: A Global History. Vol. 2. Cengage Learning EMEA. p. 502.
  6. ^ Hayden B.J. Maginnis (2004). "In Search of an Artist". In Anne Derbes; Mark Sandona (eds.). The Cambridge Companion to Giotto. Cambridge. pp. 12–13.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)