Giovanni Cimabue, also known as Cenni di Pepo or Cenni di Pepi, was an Italian painter and designer of mosaics from Florence.
Paintings by Cimabue
Santa Trinita Maestà (1290)
The Santa Trinita Maestà (Italian: Maestà di Santa Trinita) is a panel painting by the Italian medieval artist Cimabue, dating to c. 1290–1300. Originally painted for the church of Santa Trinita, Florence, where it remained until 1471, it is now in the Uffizi Gallery of Florence, Italy. It represents the Madonna enthroned with the Christ Child, who are surrounded by eight angels and, below, four half portraits of prophets.
The commissioning client of the painting is unknown, but they could have been a member of the order of Vallombrosians, who governed the Santa Trinita at the time, or a member of another religious order that intended the painting for another destination.
Maestà (Cimabue) (1300)
The Maestà is a painting by the Italian artist Cimabue, executed around 1280 and now in the Musée du Louvre in Paris.
It was acquired by the Louvre in 1813 as part of Napoleonic looting of artworks in Italy, together with Giotto's Saint Francis Receiving the Stigmata, also from the church of San Francesco in Pisa.
Maestà of Santa Maria dei Servi (1280)
The Maestà of Santa Maria dei Servi is a tempera and gold on panel painting by Cimabue or his workshop, dating to c.1280-1285, between his Louvre Maestà (c.1280) on the one hand and the Assisi frescoes (1288–1292) and the Santa Trinita Maestà (c.1290-1300) on the other. It is named after the church of Santa Maria dei Servi in Bologna, where it hangs.
It was later repainted and has a fake inscription as well as several candle burns. Enrico Podio restored it in 1936-1937 and Ottorino Nonfarmale in 1977. As with many other paintings it reproduces Islamic textiles, in particular the thin strip of fabric covering the upper edge of the throne, with a pseudo-Arabic inscription whose "characters" are very similar to those on a Syrian ceramic of the same date now in the Victoria and Albert Museum.
The Mocking of Christ (Cimabue) (1280)
The Mocking of Christ (or Christ Mocked) is a small 13th-century panel painting by the Italian artist Cimabue, in tempera on a poplar panel. It depicts the mocking of Jesus and is one of three panels known from Cimabue's Diptych of Devotion.
It was discovered in the kitchen of an elderly woman in northern France. In October 2019 it sold at auction for €24 million, a record for an artwork predating the 16th century. It is believed to be the first work by Cimabue to have been auctioned. Following an export ban, it was acquired by the Louvre in 2023.
Virgin and Child with Two Angels (Cimabue) (1280)
The Virgin and Child with Two Angels is a panel painting by the Italian artist Cimabue in egg tempera on a poplar panel, dated to c. 1280. It has been held by the National Gallery in London since 2000.
The painting measures 25.6 cm × 20.8 cm (10.1 in × 8.2 in). It depicts the Virgin and Child seated together on a throne, accompanied by two angels with long feathered wings. The composition is based on Byzantine models, but modified for a Western European audience: the throne has become three-dimensional, and the figures of the Virgin and Child are more human and less stylised than similar traditional Byzantine icons such as the Hodegetria.
Christ Enthroned with the Virgin and Saint John (1301)
Christ Enthroned with the Virgin and Saint John (Italian: Cristo in trono tra la Vergine e san Giovanni) is a mosaic in the apse of Pisa Cathedral. It is famous for the depiction of John the Evangelist, the last work by the Italian medieval artist Cimabue. It is also the only work of his which is dated and has historical documentation attributing it to Cimabue.
Cimabue took over the work on the mosaic after Francesco da Pisa, who completed the figure of Christ. Cimabue worked on the mosaic for 94 days until 19 February 1302 and was specifically stated to have finished the figure of Saint John by that date. The whole mosaic, including the figure of the Virgin, was only completed by a third artist, Vincino da Pistoia, in 1321, almost 20 years after Cimabue's death.
Castelfiorentino Madonna (1283)
The Castelfiorentino Madonna is a tempera-and-gold-on-panel painting attributed to the Italian painter Cimabue, dating to c.1283–1284. Showing a half-length Madonna Odigitria-type Madonna, it originally hung in the collegiate church of Santi Lorenzo e Leonardo but now hangs in the Museo di Santa Verdiana in Castelfiorentino.
Over time it has been attributed to various artists, particularly Duccio di Buoninsegna due to its similarities with his Crevole Madonna or Cimabue or a collaboration between the two. After a 1930–1931 restoration by Giorgina Lucarini it was more precisely attributed to Cimabue by most art historians, including Miklos Boskovitz and Luciano Bellosi, the two main experts on medieval Tuscan art, drawing on Duccio's slightly earlier Crevole Madonna. There is also a theory that a young Giotto could have contributed to the work.
The Flagellation of Christ (Cimabue) (1280)
The Flagellation of Christ is a panel painting by the Italian artist Cimabue, in egg tempera and gold leaf on a poplar panel, dated to c. 1280. It has been held by the Frick Collection in New York since 1950, and is the only painting by Cimabue in the United States. The Frick Collection acquired the painting from the Knoedler gallery in Paris in 1950. Previously, it had been owned by the antiques dealer M. Rolla at the end of the 19th century, inherited by G. Rolla, and then sold to the art dealer Eduardo Moratilla.
The painting depicts the flagellation of Christ, an episode in the Passion. In the painting, Christ, naked but for a loincloth, is bound to a marble column that rises up the centre of the scene, dividing it into two halves. He is being flogged by two figures, one to either side, in clothing of jarringly cheerful colours. The anguished Christ regards the viewer calmly. Tall city buildings in the background are depicted with Byzantine reverse perspective frame the scene. The figure of Christ is heavily influenced by that in Cimabue's Santa Croce Crucifix, while the torturers in bright clothing recall the Sienese School and the stylised background buildings the Roman school, the latter influence already taken on by Cimabue's workshop in the Lives of the Apostles in the Upper Basilica at Assisi.
Vision of Angels at the Four Corners of the Earth (1277)
Cimabue, angeli ai quattro canti della terra
Saint Francis (1290)
Cimabue (attr.), tavola di san francesco, museo della porziuncola
Diptych of Devotion
The Diptych of Devotion was a small altarpiece in tempera and gold on poplar panel, painted in the 1280s by Cimabue. It is thought to have originally consisted of two panels, each with four scenes from the life and passion of Christ. These are thought to have been split up for the art market in the 19th century.
Only three scenes from the left panel are known to have survived: the Virgin and Child with Two Angels (National Gallery, London), the Mocking of Christ (Louvre, Paris) and the Flagellation of Christ (Frick Collection, New York).