Editing Cimabue (section)

==Life==
[[File:Cimabue (attr.), tavola di san francesco, museo della porziuncola.jpg|thumb|upright|left|[[St. Francis of Assisi]]]]
Little is known about Cimabue's early life. One source that recounts his career is Vasari's ''[[Lives of the Most Excellent Painters, Sculptors, and Architects]]'', but its accuracy is uncertain.   
[[File:San Francesco Cimabue.jpg|thumb|300px|Fresco in the Lower Basilica of Assisi]]

He was born in Florence and died in [[Pisa]]. Hayden Maginnis speculates that he could have trained in Florence under masters who were culturally connected to [[Byzantine art]]. The art historian [[Pietro Toesca]] attributed the ''[[Crucifix (Cimabue, Arezzo)|Crucifixion]]'' in the church of [[San Domenico, Arezzo|San Domenico]] in [[Arezzo]] to Cimabue, dating around 1270, making it the earliest known attributed work that departs from the Byzantine style.<ref>{{Cite book|title=Art in Renaissance Italy|last1=Paoletti|first1=John T.|last2=Radke|first2=Gary M.|publisher=Laurence King Publishing|year=2005|page=51}}</ref> Cimabue's Christ is bent, and the clothes have the golden striations that were introduced by [[Coppo di Marcovaldo]].

Around 1272, Cimabue is documented as being present in [[Rome]],<ref>{{Cite book|title=A Short History of Italian Painting|last1=Van Vechten Brown|first1=Alice|last2=Rankin|first2=William|publisher=J.M. Dent & Sons, ltd.|year=1914|pages=41}}</ref> and a little later he made another ''[[Crucifix (Cimabue, Santa Croce)|Crucifix]]'' for the Florentine church of [[Santa Croce, Florence|Santa Croce]].<ref>{{Cite news|title=Carpentry and Symmetry in Cimabue's Santa Croce Crucifix|last=Brink|first=Joel|date=October 1978|work=The Burlington Magazine|issue=907|volume=120}}</ref> Now restored, having been damaged by the [[1966 Arno River flood]], the work was larger and more advanced than the one in [[Arezzo]], with traces of naturalism perhaps inspired by the works of [[Nicola Pisano]].

According to Vasari, Cimabue, while travelling from Florence to Vespignano, came upon the 10-year-old Giotto (c. 1277) drawing his sheep with a rough rock upon a smooth stone. He asked if Giotto would like to come and stay with him, which the child accepted with his father's permission.<ref name=World/> Vasari elaborates that during Giotto's apprenticeship, he allegedly painted a fly on the nose of a portrait Cimabue was working on; the teacher attempted to sweep the fly away several times before he understood his pupil's prank.<ref name=World>{{cite book |last=Eimerl |first=Sarel |others=et al |title=The World of Giotto: c. 1267–1337 |url=https://archive.org/details/worldofgiottoc100eime |url-access=registration |publisher=Time-Life Books |year=1967 |isbn=0-900658-15-0 |pages=[https://archive.org/details/worldofgiottoc100eime/page/82 82], 85}}</ref> Many scholars now discount Vasari's claim that he took Giotto as his pupil, citing earlier sources that suggest otherwise.<ref name="Hayden B.J. Maginnis 2004"/>

Around 1280, Cimabue painted the ''[[Maestà (Cimabue)|Maestà]]'', originally displayed in the church of [[San Francesco, Pisa|San Francesco]] at [[Pisa]], but now at the [[Louvre Museum|Louvre]].<ref>{{Cite book|title=Tuscany & Umbria|last1=Maxwell|first1=Virginia|last2=Leviton|first2=Alex|last3=Pettersen|first3=Leif|publisher=Lonely Planet|year=2010|pages=364}}</ref> This work established a style that was followed subsequently by numerous artists, including [[Duccio di Buoninsegna]] in his ''[[Rucellai Madonna]]'' (in the past, wrongly attributed to Cimabue) as well as Giotto. Other works from the period, which were said to have heavily influenced Giotto, include a ''[[Flagellation of Christ|Flagellation]]'' ([[Frick Collection]]),<ref>Holly Flora (2006), ''Cimabue and Early Italian Devotional Painting'' (The Frick Collection).</ref> mosaics for the [[Baptistery of Florence]] (now largely restored), the ''Maestà'' at the [[Basilica di Santa Maria dei Servi|Santa Maria dei Servi]] in [[Bologna]] and the ''Madonna'' in the Pinacoteca of [[Castelfiorentino]]. A workshop painting, perhaps assignable to a slightly later period, is the ''Maestà with Saints Francis and Dominic'' now in the [[Uffizi]].<ref name=":1">{{Cite web |title=Madonna Enthroned with the Child, St. Francis, St. Dominic, and two Angels attributed to Cimabue |url=https://www.uffizi.it/en/artworks/cimabue-madonna-enthroned |access-date=2 March 2024 |website=Uffizi Galleries}}</ref>

During the [[pontificate]] of [[Pope Nicholas IV]], the first [[Franciscan Order|Franciscan]] pope,<ref>{{Cite book|title=Dante and the Franciscans: Poverty and the Papacy in the 'Commedia'|last=Havely|first=Nick|publisher=Cambridge University Press|year=2004|page=39}}</ref> Cimabue worked in [[Assisi]].<ref>{{Cite book|title=The Image of St. Francis: Responses to Sainthood in the Thirteenth Century|last=Brooke|first=Rosalind B.|publisher=Cambridge University Press|year=2006|pages=352}}</ref> At Assisi, in the [[transept]] of the Lower [[Basilica di San Francesco di Assisi|Basilica of San Francesco]], he created a [[fresco]] named ''Madonna with Child Enthroned, Four Angels and St Francis''. The left portion of this fresco is lost, but it may have shown [[Anthony of Padua|St Anthony of Padua]] (the authorship of the painting has been recently disputed for technical and stylistic reasons).<ref name=":1" /> Cimabue was subsequently commissioned to decorate the [[apse]] and the transept of the Upper Basilica of Assisi, in the same period of time that Roman artists were decorating the [[nave]]. The cycle he created there comprises scenes from the [[Gospel]]s, the lives of [[Mary, mother of Jesus|the Virgin Mary]], [[Saint Peter|St Peter]] and [[Paul the Apostle|St Paul]]. The paintings are now in poor condition because of oxidation of the brighter colours that were used by the artist.

[[File:Cimabue 025.jpg|thumb|250px|''[[Crucifix (Cimabue, Santa Croce)|Crucifix]]''[[Crucifix (Cimabue, Santa Croce)|, ''1287–1288'']], Panel, {{convert|448|x|390|cm|1|abbr=on}}, [[Basilica di Santa Croce di Firenze|Basilica di Santa Croce]], Florence]]


The ''[[Santa Trinita Maestà|Maestà of Santa Trinita]]'', dated to c. 1290–1300, which was originally painted for the church of [[Santa Trinita, Florence|Santa Trinita]] in [[Florence]], is now in the [[Uffizi Gallery]]. The softer expression of the characters suggests that it was influenced by Giotto, who was by then already active as a painter.<ref>{{Cite book|title=Art in Renaissance Italy|last1=Paoletti|first1=John T.|last2=Radke|first2=Gary M.|publisher=Laurence King Publishing|year=2005|pages=85}}</ref>

Cimabue spent the last period of his life, 1301 to 1302, in Pisa. There, he was commissioned to finish a mosaic of [[Christ enthroned with the Virgin and St John|Christ Enthroned]], originally begun by [[Maestro Francesco]], in the apse of the [[Pisa Cathedral|city's cathedral]]. Cimabue was to create the part of the mosaic depicting St [[John the Evangelist]], which remains the sole surviving work documented as being by the artist.<ref>{{cite book|last=White|first=John|title=Art and architecture in Italy 1250-1400|date=26 May 1993|publisher=Yale University Press|isbn=9707250208|page=175|edition=3rd Revised}}</ref> Cimabue died around 1302.<ref>{{Cite book|title=Medieval Italy: An Encyclopedia|last=Kleinhenz|first=Christopher|publisher=Routledge|year=2004|pages=223–224}}</ref>
{{Gallery
|File:Pisa - Duomo di Pisa - 2023-09-29 14-36-41 001.jpeg|The mosaic in its architectural context
|File:Cimabue 001.jpg|The figure of Saint John, the only documented work by Cimabue
}}