d the race of artists, a far more serious
matter. Then, as it pleased God, there was born in the year 1240 in
the city of Florence, Giovanni, surnamed Cimabue, of the noble family
of the Cimabui, to shed the first light on the art of painting. As he
grew up he appeared to his father and others to be a boy of quick
intelligence, so that he was accordingly sent to receive instruction
in letters to a relation, a master at S. Maria Novella, who then
taught grammar to the novices of that convent. Instead of paying
attention to his lessons, Cimabue spent the whole day in drawing men,
horses, houses, and various other fancies on his books and odd
sheets, like one who felt himself compelled to do so by nature.
Fortune proved favourable to this natural inclination, for some Greek
artists were summoned to Florence by the government of the city for
no other purpose than the revival of painting in their midst, since
that art was not so much debased as altogether lost. Among the other
works which they began in the city, they undertook the chapel of the
Gondi, the vaulting and walls of which are to-day all but destroyed
by the ravages of time. It is situated in S. Maria Novella, next the
principal chapel. In this way Cimabue made a beginning in the art
which attracted him, for he often played the truant and spent the
whole day in watching the masters work. Thus it came about that his
father and the artists considered him so fitted to be a painter that,
if he devoted himself to the profession, he might look for honourable
success in it, and to his great satisfaction his father procured him
employment with the painters. Then, by dint of continual practice and
with the assistance of his natural talent, he far surpassed the
manner of his teachers both in design and in colour. For they had
never cared to make any progress, and had executed their works, not
in the good manner of ancient Greece, but in the rude modern style of
that time. But although Cimabue imitated the Greeks he introduced
many improvements in the art, and in a great measure emancipated
himself from their awkward manner, bringing honour to his country by
his name and by the works which he produced. The pictures which he
executed in Florence bear testimony to this, such as the antipendium
to the altar of St Cecilia, and a Madonna in S. Croce, which was
then and still is fastened to a pillar on the right hand side of the
choir. Subsequently he painted on a panel a St Franci