Giovanni Cimabue (Cimabue Giovanni)

(ca. 1240 - ca. 1302)
Born c.. 1240. His real name Chenni di Pepo; nickname Cimabue means 'Bykogolovy'. He was the last Italian artist who worked in the Byzantine style. Those or other paintings attributed to him on the basis of stylistic comparison with mosaics, depicting St. John the Baptist from the apse of the cathedral in Pisa (the only work by Cimabue certified identity document), and the manner of St.. John of the Crucifixion to the fresco of the Upper Church in Assisi, which is considered one of the most beautiful of his creations.
Stylistic similarities with Crucifixion find some images that differ a great inner strength and expression. In the Upper Church in Assisi Cimabue style evident in most of blackened frescoes of the choir and transept. Among these murals: scenes of the Apocalypse, Assumption and Glorification of the Virgin Mary, the miracles and martyrdom of the apostles Peter and Paul, and the second large crucifix, now almost completely lost. In the right wing of the transept of the Lower Church is located roughly-written with a fresco depicting the Madonna on the throne and CB. Francis.

Best-known work of Cimabue, executed in the technique of tempera painting, is a big Madonna on the throne (written for the Church of St.. Trinity in Florence, now - in the Uffizi Gallery). The famous Madonna Rucellai now recognized as an early work of the masters of Siena, Duccio di Buoninsegna. Two wooden crucifix attributed to Cimabue, are in the church of San Domenico in Arezzo and in the museum of Santa Croce in Florence. Perhaps even one of his work - polyptych of the Washington National Gallery, but this attribution is not accepted.

Dante mentions in passing the artist in Purgatory (XI, 94-96: 'Brush Cimabue famous for one, and now Giotto honor without flattery, and painting that darkened'). Giorgio Vasari tells, . Madonna Rucellai was swept through the streets of Florence under the cheer of the crowd, as Cimabue Giotto met, . drawing a sheep on a rock, . and took it to his disciples, how Cimabue ruthlessly destroying their works, . if he did not like,
. Cimabue achieved great skill in creating a rigid, structural forms and clear, logically perfected songs. Died Cimabue app. 1302.