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OF THE MOST EMINENT PAINTERS,

SCULPTORS, AND ARCHITECTS.

PART FIRST.

CIMABUE, PAINTER, OF FLORENCE.
[1240.-1302.]

THE overwhelming flood of evils by which unhappy Italy had been submerged and devastated, had not only destroyed whatever could properly be called buildings, but, a still more deplorable consequence, had totally exterminated the artists themselves,* when, by the will of God, in the year 1240, Giovanni Cimabue, of the noble family of that name,† was born, in the city of Florence, to give the first light to the art of painting. This youth, as he grew up, being considered by his father and others to give proof of an acute judgment and a clear understanding, was sent to Santa Maria Novella to study letters under a relation, who was then master in grammar to the novices of that convent. But Cimabue, instead of devoting himself to letters, consumed the whole day in drawing men, horses, houses, and other various fancies, on his books and different papers,- —an occupation to which he felt himself impelled by nature; and this natural inclination was favoured by fortune, for the governors of the city had invited certain Greek painters to Florence, for the purpose of restoring the art of painting, which had not merely degenerated, but was altogether lost. These artists, among other works, began to paint the chapel of the Gondi, situate next the principal chapel, in Santa Maria Novella, the roof and walls of which are now almost entirely destroyed by time,

* An extravagant exaggeration. But Vasari himself, recalling to mind the different sculptors, architects, and painters, who were exercising their art when Cimabue was born, has virtually retracted these expressions, against which many writers have protested. See Lanzi, History of Painting. London, 1847.

† Called also Gualtieri. See Baldinucci, vol. i.

For the various opinions respecting these Greek or Byzantine works, see Rumohr, Ital. Forsch.. Lanzi, History of Painting, etc.

-and Cimabue, often escaping from the school, and having already made a commencement in the art he was so fond of, would stand watching those masters at their work, the day through. Judging from these circumstances, his father, as well as the artists themselves, concluded him to be wellendowed for painting, and thought that much might be hoped from his future efforts, if he were devoted to that art. Giovanni was accordingly, to his no small satisfaction, placed with those masters. From this time he laboured incessantly, and was so far aided by his natural powers, that he soon greatly surpassed his teachers both in design and colouring. 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 that he acquired, and by the works which he performed. Of this we have evidence in Florence, from the pictures which he painted there, as, for example, the front of the altar of Santa Cecilia,* and a picture of the Virgin, in Santa Croce, which was, and is still, attached to one of the pilasters on the right of the choir.† After this he painted a small picture of St. Francis, in panel, on a gold ground, drawing it, a new thing in those times, from nature, § with such means as he could obtain, and placing around it the whole history of the saint in twenty small pictures, full of minute figures, on a ground of gold.

*This picture was removed from the church of Santa Cecilia to that of San Stefano, and finally to the Gallery of the Uffizj, in Florence. --Florentine edition of 1846.

† Mentioned also by Cinelli, who says that it was removed from the place in which Vasari saw it, when the church was newly decorated, nor is it now known whither it has been conveyed.-Ed. Flor. 1846.

The Roman edition of 1759, tells us that this picture was still in good preservation, in the chapel of St. Francis, in the church of Santa Croce. Lanzi does not consider it to be the work of Cimabue. See History of Painting.

§ Here we are not to understand that Cimabue painted from the saint himself, who had then been dead many years, but from some living model. Della Valle, speaking on this subject, remarks that, in Assisi, Giunta Pisano also painted the Frate Elia from nature; and this may be literally true, since the Frate Elia was a contemporary of Giunta Pisano.

Having afterwards undertaken to paint a large picture in the abbey of the Santa Trinita in Florence, for the monks of Vallombrosa, he made great efforts to justify the high opinion already formed of him, and evinced improved powers of invention in that work, and displayed a fine manner in the attitudes of the Virgin, whom he depicted with the child in her arms, and with numerous angels, in the act of worship, around her; on a gold ground. The picture being finished, was placed by the monks over the high-altar of the church, whence, being afterwards removed to give place to that work of Alexis Baldovinetti,* which remains there to this day, it was placed in a smaller chapel of the south aisle of the same church.

Cimabue next painted in fresco at the hospital of the Porcellana,† at the corner of the Via Nuova, which leads into the Borgo Ogni Santi. On the front of this building, which has the principal door in the centre, he painted the Virgin receiving the annunciation from the angel, on one side, and Jesus Christ, with Cleophas, and Luke, on the other; all figures of the size of life. In this work he departed still more decidedly from the dry formal manner of his instructors, giving more life and movement to the draperies, vestments, and other accessories, and rendering all more flexible and natural than was common to the manner of those Greeks, whose works were full of hard lines and sharp angles, as well in mosaic as in painting. And this rude, unskilful, and common-place manner, the Greeks had acquired, not so much from study or of settled purpose, as from having servilely followed certain fixed rules and habits, transmitted through a long series of years, by one painter to another down to those times, while none ever thought of the amelioration of his design, the embellishment of his colouring, or the improvement of his invention. This work being completed, Cimabue was again summoned by the same prior, who had employed him for the works of Santa

*The picture of Baldovinetti was in its turn removed, to make way for Dandini's painting of the Trinity. The work of Cimabue is now in the Academy of the Fine Arts in Florence.

† So called from a prefect of that name, who governed the Hospital in the fourteenth century. It is almost needless to say that this painting is destroyed.

Croce, and he now painted for him a colossal crucifix on wood, which is still to be seen in that church.* The execution of this crucifix gave great satisfaction to the prior, who caused the artist to accompany him to his convent of San Francesco in Pisa, where Cimabue painted a picture of San Francesco. This was considered by the Pisans to be a work of extraordinary merit, having more beauty of expression in the head, and more grace in the draperies, than had ever been seen in the Greek manner up to that time, not only in Pisa, but in Italy.

Cimabue afterwards painted for the same church a large picture of the Virgin, with the Infant in her arms, and with angels around her, this also was on a gold ground; it was soon afterwards removed from the position it had first occupied to make way for the marble altar which now stands there, and was placed within the church, near the door, and on the left hand; for this work Cimabue obtained high praise, and was largely rewarded by the Pisans. In the same city of Pisa, he also painted, at the request of the then abbot of San Paolo in Ripa d'Arno, a small picture of St. Agnes, on panel, with the whole story of her life around her, in small figures; this picture is now over the altar of the Virgin in the above-named church.t The name of Cimabue becoming widely known by these labours, he was invited to Assisi, a city of Umbria, where, in company with certain Greek masters, he painted a portion of the vaulted roof in the lower church of San Franceso, together with the life of Jesus Christ and that of St. Francis, on the walls of the same church. In these works he greatly surpassed those Greek masters, and encouraged by this, he began alone to paint the upper church in fresco. In the apsis of the church,

*This Crucifix is now placed in the corridor leading from the church of Santa Croce to the chapel of the Pazzi, and is tolerably well pre served.-Schorn.

† All the pictures painted by Cimabue in Pisa have perished; but we know that the large picture of the Virgin, etc., was taken to Paris, where it has remained. There are still two paintings by Cimabue in the Louvre-the Virgin with Angels, and the Virgin with the Infant Jesus.

Cimabue here merits the praise, not of surpassing those Greek masters only, but also of improving on the manner of his instructor, Giunta Pisano.--Della Valle.

ner.

beyond the choir, he painted certain passages from the history of the Virgin, in four compartments, her death, when her soul is borne by Christ to Heaven upon a throne of clouds, -and her coronation, when he places the crown on her head in the midst of a choir of angels; numerous saints, male and female, standing below; works now nearly obliterated by time and dust. In the vaults of the roof, which are five, Cimabue depicted various historical scenes in like manIn the first, over the choir, he placed the four Evangelists, larger than life,* and so well done, that even in our days they are admitted to possess much merit, the freshness of colouring in the flesh-tints proving that painting in fresco was, thanks to the labours of Cimabue, beginning to make important advances. The second vault he adorned with golden stars on a ground of ultramarine. In the third he painted, in medallions, Jesus Christ, the Virgin Mother, St. John the Baptist, and St. Francis, that is, a figure in each medallion, and a medallion in each bay of the vault. Between this and the fifth vault, he painted the fourth, also in stars of gold on a ground of ultramarine, like the second. In the fifth he placed the four Doctors of the Church, and beside each of the Doctors stood a brother of one of the four principal religious orders; without doubt, a most laborious work, and executed with extreme diligence.+ When the vaults were completed, Cimabue next painted the upper part of the wall of the north aisle, also in fresco, through the whole length of the church. Near the high altar, and in the space between the windows entirely up to the roof, he painted eight historical pictures from the Old Testament, beginning with the early chapters of Genesis, and taking the most prominent events in due order. Around the windows, and to the point where they terminate in the gallery which encircles the interior of the building, he depicted he remaining portions of the Old Testament in eight other istorical scenes. Opposite to these pictures, and also in ixteen compartments, he painted the lives of the Virgin and f Jesus Christ; while on the end façade, below, over

*Of these figures no trace now remains. Schorn.

The paintings of the third and fifth vault are still well preserved. -Schorn.

Triforium.

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