History and mythology
Most Renaissance art was still commissioned by the Church, with the greatest artists decorating churches and chapels for Popes and the aristocracy. Other patrons requested portraits, landscapes, scenes of Roman history and mythology. In this way, artists had the excuse to depict nudes, to show dynamism, detail and opulence and to represent nature accurately to surprise and impress viewers. As these Renaissance artists achieved recognition and rose above the status of craftsmen and artisans, they began to compete with each other, which spurred them on to even greater results.
timeline
c.1285–86
Maestà,
Cimabue
(
c
.1240–1302)
1304–06
Lamentation (The Mourning of Christ),
Giotto
(1267–1337)
c.1308–11
Maestà with Twenty Angels and Nineteen Saints,
Duccio
(
c
.1215–1319)
c.1395
Creation of the Wilton Diptych
1408
David,
Donatello
(
c
.1386–1466)
1420–30
Portrait of a Lady,
Robert Campin
(
c
.1375–1444)
1420–36
Dome for the Santa Maria del Fiore, Florence,
Filippo Brunelleschi
(
c
.1377–1446)
1426–28
Trinity with the Virgin, Saint John the Evangelist and Donors,
Masaccio
(1401–28)
1433–34
Annunciation,
Fra Angelico
(
c
.1387–1455)
1434
The Arnolfini Portrait,
van Eyck
(
c
.1390–1441)
1435
Descent from the Cross,
van der Weyden
(1399–1464)
c.1438–40
The Battle of San Romano,
Uccello
(
c
.1397–1475)
1445
First book printed in Europe,
Gutenburg
(
c
.1398–1468)
1450s
The Baptism of Christ,
Piero della Francesca
(
c
.1415–92)
c.1485
The Birth of Venus,
Botticelli
(1445–1510)
1490s
The Virgin and Child,
Bellini
(
c
.1430–1516)
c.1490–1500
Sacra Conversazione (Madonna and Child with Saints),
Mantegna
(1430–1506)
1491
The visitation,
Ghirlandaio
(1449–94)
c.1510
The Garden of Earthly Delights,
Bosch
(
c
.1450–1516)
CIMABUE
c.1240–1302 • GOTHIC, BYZANTINE STYLE
Madonna in Majesty (Maestà)
1285–6 TEMPERA ON PANEL
385 × 223 CM (151½ × 88 IN)
GALLERIA DEGLI UFFIZI, FLORENCE, ITALY
Originally on the high altar of the church of Santa Trinità in Florence, this panel still retains Byzantine traditions. Gothic painters reduced figures, faces and objects to repeated flat shapes, but Cimabue has also subtly individualized the facial features and used tone to show drapery and solidity.
Very little is known about the life and works of Cenni di Pepo—nicknamed “Cimabue,” meaning “bull-headed”—but he was one of the first Italian artists to begin to discard the formalism of Byzantine art.
It is difficult to appreciate today, when so many changes occur in art, how revolutionary minor adjustments were in the 13th century. An early account of Cimabue’s career suggests that his modifications made him the leading Italian painter of his generation, although its accuracy is uncertain as it was written more than 200 years after his death. His workshop in Florence was acknowledged as the finest, and he also worked in Tuscany, Assisi and Rome, where new religious and political reforms interested him.
Cimabue was one of the first painters to begin the change from the conventions of Byzantine art, but many of the works attributed to him are unsigned, damaged or now credited to Duccio. Only a mosaic of St. John in Pisa Cathedral has been confirmed as his, but many of the works attributed to him show his impact on the development of art in this period. Although he largely adhered to Byzantine tradition, Cimabue also incorporated traces of emotion and perspective into his paintings, and rather than depict everything as flat, began to introduce a more lifelike treatment to the traditional subjects.