DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.69711#0040
Cimabue
1240-1302
Florentine
School
responded,
artists of those days who were alive and sensitive to their
era had to give expression to it. This caused the great
break between the Byzantine and the early Italian Primi-
tives. Cimabue, who was most closely associated with the
Byzantine school, forms the connecting link between the
old and the new. In his painting (Fig. 6) of a ‘Madonna
and Child Enthroned with Angels and Four Prophets,’
now in the Academia in Florence, we see the highest ex-
pression of the new spirit which Cimabue reached in break-
ing away from the Byzantine Art. The first achievement
of this break, in his picture of the Virgin for the Rucellai
Chapel of Santa Maria Novella, called forth such en-
thusiasm, because of the new vitality flowing forth from it,
that the picture was carried in triumph from the master’s
workshop to the church.
From records of that day we notice that to the people
of those times a much greater difference was felt between the
art of Cimabue and the Byzantine school than we are con-
scious of, who have been so deeply influenced by the later
men, for we cannot escape the impress of history or the men
who make it. The Byzantine Art was an art of symbolism
which had been evolved out of the early Greek Christian
Church. The Holy of Holies was something that could not
be expressed, except through symbolism. The human mind
could not grasp it in any other form. Christ had spoken in
parables and so the early Christian Church had turned to
parables in art, through symbolism. The public of that day,
I believe, felt that it was a sacrilegious act for Cimabue,
Duccio, Giotto and their followers to introduce the human
22 WESTERN ART AND THE NEW ERA
early Primitive Italians refused to be mere channels for
the continuation of tradition, but began to desire to give
expression to their own vital feeling of their
love for humanity. The spirit had fled from
the Byzantine Art, it had degenerated into mere
empty formalism to which the people no longer
A new spirit was making itself felt and the
1240-1302
Florentine
School
responded,
artists of those days who were alive and sensitive to their
era had to give expression to it. This caused the great
break between the Byzantine and the early Italian Primi-
tives. Cimabue, who was most closely associated with the
Byzantine school, forms the connecting link between the
old and the new. In his painting (Fig. 6) of a ‘Madonna
and Child Enthroned with Angels and Four Prophets,’
now in the Academia in Florence, we see the highest ex-
pression of the new spirit which Cimabue reached in break-
ing away from the Byzantine Art. The first achievement
of this break, in his picture of the Virgin for the Rucellai
Chapel of Santa Maria Novella, called forth such en-
thusiasm, because of the new vitality flowing forth from it,
that the picture was carried in triumph from the master’s
workshop to the church.
From records of that day we notice that to the people
of those times a much greater difference was felt between the
art of Cimabue and the Byzantine school than we are con-
scious of, who have been so deeply influenced by the later
men, for we cannot escape the impress of history or the men
who make it. The Byzantine Art was an art of symbolism
which had been evolved out of the early Greek Christian
Church. The Holy of Holies was something that could not
be expressed, except through symbolism. The human mind
could not grasp it in any other form. Christ had spoken in
parables and so the early Christian Church had turned to
parables in art, through symbolism. The public of that day,
I believe, felt that it was a sacrilegious act for Cimabue,
Duccio, Giotto and their followers to introduce the human
22 WESTERN ART AND THE NEW ERA
early Primitive Italians refused to be mere channels for
the continuation of tradition, but began to desire to give
expression to their own vital feeling of their
love for humanity. The spirit had fled from
the Byzantine Art, it had degenerated into mere
empty formalism to which the people no longer
A new spirit was making itself felt and the