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Cimabue
Cimabue,
real name Bencivieni di Pepo (c. 1240-c.
1302), Italian painter and mosaicist, born
in Florence. He was one of the most
important artists of his time, breaking
with the formalism of Byzantine art, then
predominant in Italy, and introducing a
more lifelike treatment of traditional
subjects. He was the precursor of the
realism that developed in the early
Renaissance Florentine school of painting
founded by Giotto, and he is believed to
have been Giotto's teacher. Among
Cimabue's works are Crucifix (c. 1260, San
Domenico, Arezzo) and Madonna and Child
Enthroned (c. 1285, Uffizi Gallery,
Florence). He also made a mosaic of St
John (Pisa Cathedral) and, with
assistants, painted fresco cycles of
saints and apostles and scenes from the
Apocalypse in the upper and lower churches
of San Francesco in Assisi.
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