Revisiting Cimabue: medieval Italian painting on show at the Musée du Louvre

The history of painting is rich, diverse and complex. If some artists stand out more than others, it's hard to say who is truly indispensable, and who isn't. But Cimabue, an Italian painter from the 13th century, is one of the cornerstones of painting. Cimabue, a 13th-century Italian painter, is nevertheless one of the cornerstones of painting, an artist who revolutionized his art and took painting into a new era.

The Musée du Louvre is organizing a first-ever retrospective dedicated to this artist, whose name remains largely unknown today. It's time to put the spotlight back on this Italian painter, who helped bring naturalism to Western painting.

The exhibition Revoir Cimabue, on view from January 22 to May 12, 2025, brings together some forty paintings and works. Two paintings in particular are on show: La Dérision du Christ, a painting classified as a National Treasure, and long kept in private homes, and the Maestà, a work just restored, which is considered " the birth certificate of Western painting. " But what does this mean? How is Cimabue revolutionary?

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The painter Cenni di Pepe, known as Cimabue, is little known to art historians. Little information has come down to us. His art, however, has fascinated artists of every generation. In medieval Italy, art was mainly used to depict religious figures and scenes. These sacred beings cannot perfectly resemble humans, so they are often depicted deformed, with exaggerated features.

Cimabue decided to bring more realism to his works. His first act of revolutionary painting can be found in the Maestà. More subtle and varied colors, light and shade, gradations, more natural and emotional expressions... The painter sought to give depth and a new dimension to his art.

Always breaking with the conventions of his time, Cimabue also decided to renew his treatment of the great themes of painting, to modernize subjects that had been painted a thousand times. He dressed his figures in the fashion of the day, seeking to bring these mystical beings closer to the viewer.

The exhibition also highlights Cimabue's great influence on his contemporaries. His modernity can be seen in the work of other Italian painters, and his style and subjects can be felt in the paintings of his colleagues and those who followed.

Come and discover this revolutionary painter in a new exhibition at the Musée du Louvre.