Author Description

Definitive and richly illustrated, this volume is the first extensive examination of Cimabue's work to appear in English in more than thirty years. Cimabue (c. 1240-1302) was the most admired artist of his time in Tuscany and Central Italy. His paintings and mosaics are seen by some as the last great flowering of Medieval art, and by others as the first works of the Renaissance. The earthquakes that shook Central Italy in late 1997 struck hardest at the legacy of Cimabue, crumbling his brilliantly-colored paintings in the vault of the Upper Basilica of San Francesco in Assisi. The tragic Florentine flood of 1966 had already destroyed much of the master's famous Santa Croce Crucifix. But in this book a combination of archival and newly commissioned photographs - including pictures of the Assisi vault shot just moments before its collapse - offer a complete panorama of the artist's works, before flood or earthquake damage, and before and after recent restorations.