Poets and thinkers
Cimabue
A painter recalled by Oderisi in Purgatorio (XI 94) as the peak of the figurative tradition later surpassed by Giotto, in a parallel with the transition from Guinizelli to Cavalcanti in poetry.
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Cimabue is mentioned by Oderisi, an illuminator from Gubbio, in the discourse on the vanity of artistic glory. According to the notes on the canto, Oderisi was born in Gubbio, died in 1299, and worked mainly in Bologna in the second half of the century, where Dante probably knew him; Oderisi was a master and innovator, and compares himself to Cimabue in painting and to Guinizelli in poetry, marking the passage from archaic art to the new modern style. The note on Giotto clarifies that the comparison between Cimabue and Giotto is placed alongside that between the two Guidi (Guinizelli, the initiator of the dolce stil novo, and Cavalcanti, Dante's «first friend»), within a broader discourse on the ephemeral flourishing of human fame.
In the text
Linked verses
1 verses| Cantica | Canto | Verso | Testo | Open verse |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Purgatory | Canto XI | 94 | Credette Cimabue ne la pittura | Open verse |