Maestà di Santa Trinita

Cimabue’s innovations included moving painting away from Byzantine flat depictions and stylized figures, favoring instead more realistic proportions and shading, as seen in the naturalistic drapery of the Virgin’s clothing and the placement of her feet suggesting movement. A more naturalistic treatment of space is also evident, as seen in the two lower angels, whose placement shows that they are clearly standing behind the towers before them, as their figures take on an aspect of three-dimensionality. A noted teacher, Cimabue trained Pacino di Bonaguida and was said to have discovered Giotto. As art critic John Haber wrote of Cimabue, “In his grand, multi-tiered architecture and spare, wiry human forms, he could serve as the culmination of past ages or the beginning of the new.”

Cimabue depicts the Madonna and Child enthroned in Heaven, seated upon an intricate gold throne that also suggests the architecture of Heaven, with its tower-like pillars. The two are flanked by angels, arranged symmetrically on either side, their hands holding the towers as if supporting them, while the faces of the first pair turn to the side, and the others above them turn toward the Virgin. Their wings create an overlapping pattern of color gradations illuminated by gold that both encloses and emphasizes the Madonna while leading the eye upward to her gaze at the apex of the triangle. Below, four prophets look out through a trio of arches, conveying the authority of tradition. 

This painting is tempera and gold foil on panel and is in The Uffizi Gallery, Florence, Italy