Cimabue's celebrated Madonna is carried in procession through the streets of Florence
|
| Cimabue's Celebrated Madonna is carried in procession through the streets of Florence Cimabue's Celebrated Madonna is Carried in Procession through the Streets of Florence |
|---|
| Frederic Leighton , 1853–1855 |
| Oil on canvas |
| 222 × 521 cm |
| National Gallery , London |
Cimabue's Celebrated Madonna ( Cimabue's Celebrated Madonna is Carried in Procession through the Streets of Florence ) is a monumental historical paintings of the English painter Frederic Leighton (1830-1896). He created it in the years 1853 to 1855 and achieved his artistic breakthrough with it.
history
The Vasaris report
Giorgio Vasari (1511–1574) tells in his book of artist biographies Le vite de più eccellenti architetti, pittori et scultori in the section on Cimabue the genesis of the Rucellai Madonna by Santa Maria Novella , a Maestà- type image of the Virgin Mary on the threshold in the late Gothic style to the renaissance . The picture was regarded as a work by Cimabue until the 19th century, but is now identified as a work by Duccio di Buoninsegna . Vasari's anecdotal narrative reflects the artistic and religious importance attached to this image two and a half centuries after it was created.
|
“Fece poi nella chiesa di Santa Maria Novella una tavola, dentrovi una Nostra Donna, la quale è posta in alto, fra la cappella de 'Rucellai e de' Bardi da Vernia, con alcuni angeli intorno ad essa, ne i quali, ancora che egli avesse la vecchia maniera greca, tuttavolta si vede che e 'tenne il modo et il lineamento della moderna. Fu quest'opera di tanta maraviglia ne 'populi di quel tempo, per non essersi veduto infino allora meglio, che di casa sua con le trombe perfino in chiesa fu portata, con solennissima processione, et egli premio straordinario ne ricevette. E dicesi che, mentre Cimabue ditta tavola dipigneva in certi orti vicin 'a Porta S. Piero, non per altro che per avervi buon lume e buon aere, e per fuggire la frequenzia de gli uomini, passò per la città di Fiorenza il Re Carlo Vecchio di Angiò, figliuolo di Lodovico, il quale andava al possesso della Sicilia chiamatovi da Urbano Pontefice, nimico capital di Manfredi, e che fra le molte accoglienze fattegli da gli uomini di quella città, e 'lo condussero a vedere la tavola di Cimabue la quale, per ciò ch'ancora non era stata veduta da alcuno, mostrandosi al re, subito vi concorsero tutti gli uomini e tutte le donne di Fiorenza, con grandissima festa e con la maggior calca del mondo. " |
“Then he [Cimabue] in the church of Santa Maria Novella made a panel with a Madonna on it, which is placed above between the chapel of the Rucellai and the chapel of the Bardi da Vernia , surrounded by a few angels, although he is still the old one Greek style of painting, but sees that he adopted the style and lines of modernity. This work aroused such astonishment among contemporaries, because up until then it had never been seen anything better that it was carried from his house with the sound of a trumpet to the church in a ceremonial procession, and he received an extraordinary reward for it. And it is said that when Cimabue painted this picture in a garden near Porta S. Piero, in order to have good light and fresh air and to avoid the rush of people, King Charles of Anjou , the son of Louis , came through Florence , called by Pope Urban , Manfred's main enemy , on his way to take possession of Sicily, and that the citizens of the city, in addition to the many receptions they prepared for him, also led him to the picture of Cimabue. When this, which no one had seen before, was shown to the king, all the men and women of Florence immediately flocked there, with the greatest festivity and the greatest crowd. " |
Origin and effect of Leighton's picture
Frederic Leighton, who belonged to the English nobility , was sent to Italy to study art as a boy. In Germany he came into contact with the religious art of the Nazarenes . Both made him receptive to the processional scene described by Vasari, in which the glorification of the Madonna is combined with the glorification of a work of art in the historical coloring of the Renaissance .
Leighton started the picture when he was 23 in Rome . He worked on the large-format and detailed painting for three years. In 1855 it was exhibited at the Royal Academy of Arts and received rave reviews. On the very first day of the exhibition, Queen Victoria bought the work of the hitherto unknown artist for 600 guineas , according to her diary at the instigation of her husband Prince Albert . Today it hangs on loan from the British Queen in the entrance hall of the National Gallery in London.
Image description
The oil painting, over five meters wide, combines Vasari's processional narrative with the Karl von Anjou episode and turns the scene into an apotheosis of painting . It shows the celebrated image from the side in a greatly foreshortened perspective on a garland-adorned support frame with two candlesticks in the procession of people moving from right to left and then towards the viewer in front of a gray-white wall and a house with a balcony and spectators. Behind the wall is a Tuscan landscape and in the distance a Renaissance church and a palazzo, perhaps Santa Maria Novella and the Palazzo Vecchio , but without attention to detail. The center of the painting is not the image of Mary, but the laurel-crowned Cimabue, holding his pupil, the boy Giotto , by the hand . The other participants in the procession are women, men and children in elegant clothing. Behind the altar boy with the lecture cross , flanked by two girls scattering flowers, follows the bishop with two deacons . Musicians play drums , zithers and violins , but no trumpets. The porters are the Florentine Duecento artists Arnolfo de Lapo , Gaddo Gaddi , Andrea Tafi , Niccolò Pisano , Buonamico Buffalmacco , Simone Memmi , and the poet Dante Alighieri as a spectator on the right edge of the picture . The visible part of the procession ends with Karl von Anjou in royal costume on a white horse.
Individual evidence
- ↑ Vasari's Cimabue biography
- ↑ Leighton orientates itself only approximately on the Rucellai Madonna in the arrangement and posture of the people and especially through the upper edge of the throne backrest, but instead of the still strongly iconic model shows a pure Renaissance Madonna.
Web links
- Entry on nationalgallery.org.uk , key facts (English)