Contemporary with Giunta of Pisa, were Guido of Siena and Buonaventura Berlinghieri of Lucca. The former was illuminator and painter : a Madonna in the Malevolti chapel in the church of San Domenico at Siena, engraved in Lastri's Etruria Pittrice,' has very great merit for its period. Siena had many other painters about this time, and they were even constituted as a civil body in 1250. Ugolino of Siena, says Vasari, painted pictures and chapels in every part of Italy ; he died at an advanced age in 1339. Buenaventura Berlinghieri of Lucca painted in 1236; there was also a Diodato of Lucca, who was living in 1283.
A very superior painter to those already Mentioned, and one who added also much to the practical technic of painting, was Margaritone of Arezzo, an older painter than Cimabue. At the church of Santa Croce, at Florence, there is a crucifixion by Margaritone, which is placed near one by Cimabue ; and although Margaritone's is less finished in execution than Cimabue's, the difference is not so great that the title of painter should be denied to the former if given to the latter. The portrait or picture of San Francesco di Assisi in the church of Sargiano, near Arezzo, dressed in the habit of a monk, with all the faults of the time, has a grand expression, and is a very remark able production ; it is marked Margarit' de Aretio pinycbat : an inscription which probably indicates a Greek source of instruction, directly or indirectly.
The earliest painter in Florence was apparently Maestro Bartolomeo, who painted in 1236. An Annunciation, which he painted in the church de' Servi, has been attributed to Cavallini, the scholar of Giotto. Another predecessor of Cimabue was Andrea Tafi, born in 1213 ; he was the scholar of Apollonius, a Greek, whom he assisted in some mosaics in San Giovanni, at Florence. Vasari terms Tafi the first restorer of mosaic in Tuscany : he was also a painter.
A painter of somewhat more merit and much more fame than any of the preceding, was Giovanni Cimabue, born at Florence in 1240, through the partiality of Vasari, or his neglect of research, commonly called the father of modern painting. He was architect and painter ; he greatly improved the proportions of the human figure in design ; inspired his figures with more life than his predecessors ; and excelled them in grace of execution and in richness of colouring : his works are, notwithstanding, strictly of the Byzantine style. Cimabue is said by some to have learned painting of Giunta Pisano, whom he assisted in his frescoes at Assisi, in 1253, in his thirteenth year ; Vasari says that he learned of some Greeks who were employed to decorate the church of Santa Maria Novella at Florence. One of his earliest and most
remarkable pictures is the Colossal Madonna, now in the Academy at Florence, formerly in the church of Santa Trinith ; but his greatest works are those in the upper church of San Francesco at Assisi. Cimabue excelled chiefly in male beads, to which he has sometimes given a truth and grandeur of expression that have never been much surpassed. Contemporary with Cimabue, but somewhat younger, was Ducio di Buoninsegna of Siena, famous in his time : he painted great works in the cathedral of that place, which are in part still extant : also a remarkable altar-piece for the same church, which is still preserved there ; it was painted in 1303 and 1311, and when completed was carried in procession to the cathedral. It was painted on both sides, but is now cut into two. One side, the former front, is a Madonna and infant Christ, surrounded by angels ; on the other side, or former back, there is a series of small pictures illustrating the history of the Passion, all containing many figures, executed with surprising industry, skill, and judgment, when compared with the majority of the works of his contemporaries.
Caddo Gaddi of Florence, born in 1239, was also one of the most distingushed artists of this period. He was celebrated for his works in mosaic, of which there are still specimens in the cathedrals of Florence and of Pisa He worked also at Rome, but the great mosaics of St. John Lateran and in Santa Maria Maggiore are the work of Nino da Turrita, an earlier master, and the most celebrated of his time. The mosaics of the tribune of San Giovanni at Florence were executed by Turrita, who finished them in 1225.
That of discovering and cultivating the abilities of Giotto was not one of the least services of Cimabue. [Glom), in Ihoo. Div.] Giotto surpassed all his predecessors, and he added as much to the art of his master Cimabue as Cimabue had added to that of the Greeks. In the mature works of Giotto there are no traces of the Byzantine style : they made an epoch in painting; and from his time Florence dates its preponderance in the history of Tuscan art, If Cimabue, says Lanzi, may be termed the Michel Angelo of his age, Giotto may be termed its Rafii1clle. Great as was the fame of Cimabue, says Dante, it was rendered obscure by that of Giotto. Dante and Giotto were friends, and the great poet celebrated the painter in some well known lines (' Purgatorio,' xi. 32).