“Me Guido de Senis diebus depinxit amoenis
  Quem Christus lenis nullis velit angere poenis."[1]

Next we may refer to the two colossal Madonnas by Cimabue, preserved at Florence.  The first, which was painted for the Vallombrosian monks of the S. Trinita, is now in the gallery of the academy.  It has all the stiffness and coldness of the Byzantine manner.  There are three adoring angels on each side, disposed one above another, and four prophets are placed below in separate niches, half figures, holding in their hands their prophetic scrolls, as in the old mosaic at Capua, already described.  The second is preserved in the Ruccellai chapel, in the S. Maria Novella, in its original place.  In spite of its colossal size, and formal attitude, and severe style, the face of this Madonna is very striking, and has been well described as “sweet and unearthly, reminding you of a sibyl.”  The infant Christ is also very fine.  There are three angels on each side, who seem to sustain the carved chair or throne on which the Madonna is seated; and the prophets, instead, of being below, are painted in small circular medallions down each side of the frame.  The throne and the background are covered with gold.  Vasari gives a very graphic and animated account of the estimation in which this picture was held when first executed.  Its colossal dimensions, though familiar in the great mosaics, were hitherto unknown in painting; and not less astonishing appeared the deviation, though slight, from ugliness and lifelessness into grace and nature.  “And thus,” he says, “it happened that this work was an object of so much admiration to the people of that day, they having never seen anything better, that it was carried in solemn procession, with the sound of trumpets and other festal demonstrations, from the house of Cimabue to the church, he himself being highly rewarded and honoured for it.  It is further reported, and may be read in certain records of old painters, that, whilst Cimabue was painting this picture, in a garden near the gate of San Pietro, King Charles the Elder, of Anjou, passed through Florence, and the authorities of the city, among other marks of respect, conducted him to see the picture of Cimabue.  When this work was thus shown to the King it had not before been seen by any one; wherefore all the men and women of Florence hastened in crowds to admire it, making all possible demonstrations of delight.  The inhabitants of the neighbourhood, rejoicing in this occurrence, ever afterwards called that place Borgo Allegri; and this name it has ever since retained, although in process of time it became enclosed within the walls of the city.”

[Footnote 1:  The meaning, for it is not easy to translate literally, is “Me, hath painted, in pleasant days, Guido of Siena, Upon whose soul may Christ deign to have mercy!”]

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