Cimabue Distinguished Florentine Painter of 14th Century Italy

Cimabue is perhaps best known as the instructor of the renowned painter Giotto. Cimabue is also famous for his Madonnas, one of which was stolen from a private collection in Hartford, Connecticut in October 1907. Aside from his home in Florence Cimabue actively painted in Padua, Pisa and Assisi. Giotto was patronized by a Paduan moneylender named Enrico degli Scrovegni. In 1301 Cimabue painted the apse cathedral in Pisa. In 1303 his pupil, Giotto, completed the beautiful frescoes that adorn the walls of a small chapel in Pisa. The frescoes vividly illustrate the lives of the Virgin and Jesus Christ.