User:Ch106/Cimabue

Cimabue, born in 1920, was one of the last great painters of the Byzantine Age, and helped start the transition into Reniassance painting.

Background
Cimabue was a great Italian artist, thought by Dante to be the best in his youth. Cimabue, or Cinni di Pepi, helped pioneer the Italian Renissance with fellow artists Duccio and Giotto. Cimabue helped transition Italian art from the Byzantine Era into the more modern area focusing on three dimensional space and nature. Cimabue in his lifetime painted mosaics for the Duomo Cathedral depicting Saint John the Evangelist, frescos for the Lower Church of S. Francesco, and the painting The Virgin and Child and Two Angels.

In Dante's Divine Comedy
Cimabue, while not in Purgatory, is mentioned by Oderisi, who encounters Dante in the terrace of Pride. Cimabue serves to represent the fleeting nature of fame, as he is surpassed by another later in Dante's life.