DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.57409#0059
CIMABUE.
43
painter, and long dwelt in the house inhabited by his master,
in the Via del Cocomero. Cimabue was entombed in Santa
Maria del Fiore, the following epitaph being composed on
him by one of the Nini:
“ Credidit ut Cimabos picturae castra tenere
Sic tenuit, vivens, nunc tenet astra poli.”
I will not omit to observe, that if the greatness of Giotto,
his disciple, had not diminished the glory of Cimabue, his
fame would have risen still higher, as Dante remarks in his
Commedia, where, alluding, in the eleventh canto of the
Purgatorio, to this inscription on the tomb,* he says:
“ Credette Cimabue nella pintura
Tener lo campo, ed ora ha Giotto il grido,
Si che la fama di colui s’ oscura.”
Alluding to these verses, a commentator of Dante, who
wrote while Giotto was still living—ten or twelve years
after the death of Dante himself; that is, about the year
1334—has the following remarks. He is speaking of Cima-
bue, and these are his precise words: “ Cimabue, of Florence,
a painter of the time of our author, knew more of the noble
art than any other man; but he was so arrogant and proud
withal, that if any one discovered a fault in his work, or
if he perceived one himself (as will often happen to the
artist, who fails from the defects in the material that he uses,
or from insufficiency of the instrument with which he works),
he would instantly destroy that work, however costly it might
be. Giotto, of that same city of Florence, was, and is, the
most eminent of painters; and his works bear testimony for him
in Rome, in Naples, at Avignon, Florence, Padua, and many
other parts of the world.”f This commentary is now in the
hands of the Rev. Don Vincenzio Borghini, prior of the In-
nocents, a man not only illustrious for elevation of mind, for
goodness, and for learning, but also a lover of, and so well
vive that year. He died at Florence, and was buried in the church of
Santa Maria del Fiore.
* The contrary is the fact, since the epitaph must have been written
subsequently to those lines of Dante.
f This Commentary is that known to the learned under the title of
the “ Anonimo”. It was first published in Pisa by Alessandro Torri,
1827-30.—Fid. Flor
43
painter, and long dwelt in the house inhabited by his master,
in the Via del Cocomero. Cimabue was entombed in Santa
Maria del Fiore, the following epitaph being composed on
him by one of the Nini:
“ Credidit ut Cimabos picturae castra tenere
Sic tenuit, vivens, nunc tenet astra poli.”
I will not omit to observe, that if the greatness of Giotto,
his disciple, had not diminished the glory of Cimabue, his
fame would have risen still higher, as Dante remarks in his
Commedia, where, alluding, in the eleventh canto of the
Purgatorio, to this inscription on the tomb,* he says:
“ Credette Cimabue nella pintura
Tener lo campo, ed ora ha Giotto il grido,
Si che la fama di colui s’ oscura.”
Alluding to these verses, a commentator of Dante, who
wrote while Giotto was still living—ten or twelve years
after the death of Dante himself; that is, about the year
1334—has the following remarks. He is speaking of Cima-
bue, and these are his precise words: “ Cimabue, of Florence,
a painter of the time of our author, knew more of the noble
art than any other man; but he was so arrogant and proud
withal, that if any one discovered a fault in his work, or
if he perceived one himself (as will often happen to the
artist, who fails from the defects in the material that he uses,
or from insufficiency of the instrument with which he works),
he would instantly destroy that work, however costly it might
be. Giotto, of that same city of Florence, was, and is, the
most eminent of painters; and his works bear testimony for him
in Rome, in Naples, at Avignon, Florence, Padua, and many
other parts of the world.”f This commentary is now in the
hands of the Rev. Don Vincenzio Borghini, prior of the In-
nocents, a man not only illustrious for elevation of mind, for
goodness, and for learning, but also a lover of, and so well
vive that year. He died at Florence, and was buried in the church of
Santa Maria del Fiore.
* The contrary is the fact, since the epitaph must have been written
subsequently to those lines of Dante.
f This Commentary is that known to the learned under the title of
the “ Anonimo”. It was first published in Pisa by Alessandro Torri,
1827-30.—Fid. Flor