Cimabue Florentine Artist par excellence
Cimabue as he is most often referred to is a famous Italian artist of the Byzantine period. He is also known as Cenni di Peppi or Cenni di Pepo. He was born in Florence sometime between 1240 and 1245 (the exact date is unknown) and was a contemporary of Dante.
Cimabue was a popular artist and painted many frescoes in churches in Florence and also in Italy. Some of his important works are showcased in art galleries like the Santa Trinita Madonna at the Uffizi in Florence. In the National Gallery of Art, Washington you can find four of his famous works. They are tempera on panel and depict the Madonna and scenes of Christ with famous saints like Saint John, Saint Peter and Saint James. The Virgin and Child Enthroned with Two angels is part of the collection in the National Gallery of Art in London. The Madonna and Child in Majesty surrounded by Angels hangs at the Louvre in Paris and the Virgin and Child at the Courtauld Institute of Art Gallery, London.
Cimabue strove to break away from the sharp lines and stylized regulations of Byzantine art and renew pictorial reality in his paintings. By emphasizing visual presence he represented space, fluidity, body and light in such a way as to influence fourteenth century art and artists mostly notably his famous student Giotti.
He has worked with tempera on wood and also on mosaic. Some of his important works are part of many churches and cathedrals. He was the artist who created Saint John which is part of a larger mosaic in the Cathedral at Pisa. He is also the mosaicist for a series of frescoes in the San Francesco Church in Assisi depicting scenes from the New Testament and also a magnificent but badly damaged Crucifix in the Church of San Croce in Florence.
He died in 1302 leaving behind his work and his mentoring of students which have rightly earned him a place in Florentine history and art.