Cimabue: References & Edit History

The earliest literary reference to Cimabue is to be found in Dante’s Divine Comedy, “Purgatorio,” canto XI, verses 94–96. The earliest biography, although somewhat fanciful in details, is that by Giorgio Vasari in Vite . . . , vol. 1 (1550?; Eng. trans., Lives of the Most Eminent Painters, Sculptors, and Architects, 1852–59 and later). All subsequent biographies rely upon Vasari, with the addition of a few documentary references. Among recent works Roberto Salvini’s article in the Encyclopedia of World Art, vol. 3, col. 614–619 (1960), sums up recent opinion and summarizes Salvini’s monograph (in Italian; 1946) on the artist. Edward B. Garrison, Italian Romanesque Panel Painting (1949), provides a means of comparing Cimabue with his contemporaries. Eve Borsook, The Mural Painters of Tuscany, from Cimabue to Andrea del Sarto (1960), places Cimabue in the context of the fresco tradition in Italy. Eugenio Battisti, Cimabue (1963; Eng. trans. 1967), refers to the standard literature on the artist but is more concerned with the social and religious environment in which Cimabue worked.