Everyone knows something about the Renaissance "big names" like Da Vinci and Michelangelo, but you may not know about some of the other important artists.I wanted to give you some information about the artists and paintings you'll see in Florence and decided to begin at the beginning with Cimabue (chim-a boo-ey).
Vasari begins his history of Renaissance artists with the life and work of Cenni di Pepe, (active 1272-1302), better known by his nickname, Cimabue. His nickname means 'Ox-head'. He was a contemporary of Dante, who refers to him in The Divine Comedy as an artist who was “believed to hold the field in painting” only to be eclipsed by Giotto's fame. Ironically enough, this passage, meant to illustrate the vanity of short-lived earthly glory, became the basis for Cimabue's fame. Picking up and elaborating on this reference, Vasari made him into the discoverer and teacher of Giotto and regarded him as the first in the long line of great Italian painters. He was said to have worked in the 'Greek', that is, the Byzantine manner, but to have begun the movement towards greater realism which culminated in the Renaissance.
Today most art historians place Cimabue not at the beginning of the Renaissance, but at the end of the medieval Byzantine style of painting. In fact, many see him as the culmination of the Italo-Byzantine tradition that had been going on for nearly a century in Tuscany.He exhibits the late medieval tendency to express emotion through background patterns of rich color and gold leaf as well as the exclusively religious subject matter.One of his most famous paintings, Enthroned Madonna and Child with Angels and Prophets, can be seen at the Uffizi Gallery in Florence.
Originally painted for the church of Santa Trinita in Florence,the work is over 12.5 feet high and would have towered over the altar, proclaiming the majesty of Mary and the Christ child. In Cimabue’s painting, Mary is seated on a sturdy, jeweled throne in her role as the Queen of Heaven. She gestures towards Christ who is shown as an embodiment of the miraculous “baby king,” childlike in size, but adult in his proportions, posture, and intelligence. The flat gold background and the angels reinforce the idea that this is heaven.
Round arches below the throne frame four Old Testament figures, Abraham, David, Jeremiah, and Isaiah, all holding scrolls that indicate their prophetic power. They all have typological meaning, that is, their placement is intended to show pictorially that they preceded Christ in time and are the foundation on which the Christian era rests. Abraham’s willingness to sacrifice his son, who is ultimately spared, is analogous to Christ’s death and resurrection. David’s triumph over Goliath parallels Christ’s victory over Satan. Isaiah and Jeremiah were prophets who were later interpreted as having foretold the coming of Christ. This painting, then, was meant to convey certain explicit messages about Christian belief. Note the overall flatness of the image, the lack of dimensionality, and the majesty, rather than realism, as well as the staggering amount of gold leaf.
