Friday, September 21, 2012

Cimabue: Maesta


Cimabue aka Bencivieni di Pepo was a famous artist in Florence. He was born in Firenze, Italy and died in Pisa, Italy. Cimabue is one of the first well- known Italian painters to escape from the Byzantine style. Consequently, this led to Vasari assumption of Cimabue teaching another painter known as Giotto. 
Cimabue first famous painting was the Crucifixion in San Domenico Church, in Arezzo. Once he gained more knowledge of works such as the Christus patiens by Giunta Pisano he left behind the Byzantine style.
Around year 1272 he made another Crucifixion for the Santa Croce church in Firenze, Italy. This time it was much bigger and couldn’t compare to his previous work in Arezzo. In addition, that year he painted the Maesta with Saints Francis and Dominic now at the Uffizi.

Maestà is the Italian word for "majesty". Cimabue’s painting representing the Madonna and her child baby Jesus uniting with angels and saints.  The Maesta came widespread in Rome during the late 12th and early 13th centuries. Which created a massive amount of attention on the veneration of Mary. The Maesta was inspired through frescos and put directly on plastered walls, as for paintings often they could be found on wooden altar panels. 

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