CIMABUE, che-ma-bool, Giovanni, Ital ian artist : b. Florence 1240; d. there about 1302, Two Greek artists, who were invited to Florence by the Senate to paint a chapel in the church of Santa Maria Novella, were his first masters. Although these artists handled the pencil awkwardly, they however taught him, according to ancient tradition, the proportions which the Greek artists had observed in their imitations of the human figure. Attentive to their instructions, Cimabue studied principally the fine antique statues. He was the first to point out to succeeding painters the elements of the beau ideal, the memory of which had been extinguished during several centuries of disorder. It is true the paintings of Cimabue do not exhibit that harmonious distribution of light and shade which forms the chiaroscuro. His coloring is dry, flat and cold; the outlines of his figures intersect each other on a blue, green or yellow ground, according to the effect which he had in view. He had no idea of linear and aerial perspective. His paintings are, properly speaking, only monochromes. But these faults, which are to be attributed to the infancy of the art, are compensated for by beauties of a high order—a grand style, ac curate drawing, natural expression, noble grouping and a fine disposition of his drapery. His best paintings are in the church of Santa Maria Novella at Florence, and in the Sacro Convento at Assisi. He may be considered the link between the ancient and modern schools of painting. Cimabue evinced a generous appre ciation of Giotto, whom tradition says he dis covered drawing figures on the smooth surface of a rock while tending his sheep, and whom he took with him to Florence, and instructed with such success that the pupil soon excelled his master. It should be added that there is very little corroborating testimony regarding the works attributed to him by Vasari, and a de structive critic wrote in the Nineteenth Cen tury for March 1903. "All, then, that we know
about this Cenni di Pepi is that he was a dis tinguished Florentine artist; that he was nick named Cimabue; that he flourished in the closing years of the 13th century and the early years of the 14th, and that he executed a mosaic and an altarpiece at Pisa, of which the latter has disappeared and the former has been en tirely renewed." CIMAROSA,
Domenico, Italian composer: b. Aversa, near Naples, 17 Dec. 1749; d. Venice, 11 Jan. 1801. He received his first musical instruction from Sacchini, en tered the conservatory of Loretto, where he imbibed the principles of the school of Durante, and studied with great assiduity. He soon dis-• played his superiority in the (Sacrificio di Ab ramo,) the
and other composi tions. At the age of 25 he had already gained the applause of the principal theatres of Italy. He was invited to Saint Petersburg (where he remained four years) and to several German courts to compose heroic and comic operas. In the latter he particularly distinguished himself by the novelty, warmth, humor and liveliness of his ideas, and by a thorough acquaintance with stage effects. Among his 120 operas the most celebrated are 'Penelope' ; 'GB Orazj e
and
among the opere serie • and among the vivre buff e,