Cimabue
Italian artist (1240–1302) / From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Giovanni Cimabue (Italian: [tʃimaˈbuːe]),[1] c. 1240 – 1302,[2] was an Italian painter and designer of mosaics from Florence. He was also known as Cenni di Pepo[3] or Cenni di Pepi.[4]
Although heavily influenced by Byzantine models, Cimabue is generally regarded as one of the first great Italian painters to break from the Italo-Byzantine style.[5] Compared with the norms of medieval art, his works have more lifelike figural proportions and a more sophisticated use of shading to suggest volume. According to Italian painter and historian Giorgio Vasari, Cimabue was the teacher of Giotto,[2] the first great artist of the Italian Proto-Renaissance. However, many scholars today tend to discount Vasari's claim by citing earlier sources that suggest otherwise.[6]