Although we have begun our study of the art of Italy with a review of
the Sienese School, which owes its importance to Duccio, the earliest
Italian picture in the Louvre is the _Madonna and Angels_ (No. 1260),
which may be accepted as a characteristic example of the type of
picture that passes under the name of Cimabue (1240?-1302).
Giovanni Cenni de’ Pepi, to give him his full name, has been hailed
as “the father of modern painting.” The Louvre _Madonna_, which was
formerly in the Church of San Francesco at Pisa, was carried off to
Paris by Napoleon, but not considered worth the trouble of repacking
when in 1815 the Allied Armies called upon the French to surrender
the pictorial spoils of war. It is known that Cimabue was working at
Pisa at the very end of his life, and, although he was engaged there
as mosaicist rather than as a painter, the _provenance_ of this large
painting, which is executed in tempera on panel, has to be taken
into account in any discussion as to its strict authenticity. It is
certainly reminiscent of the _Rucellai Madonna_, and shares much of
its character. The painter has repeated, with certain modifications,
the Byzantine type of Madonna, whose almond-shaped eyes and long, bony
fingers should be noticed. It has been freely restored.
From the same church in Pisa comes Giotto’s _St. Francis of Assisi
receiving the Stigmata_ (No. 1312). According to the descriptive
account handed down to us by the unveracious Vasari, Giotto (1266-1337)
was originally a shepherd boy whose latent talent was recognised by the
discerning Cimabue, who forthwith took him as his pupil and taught
him how to paint, the boy’s genius enabling him early to surpass his
master. Although it would be rash unquestioningly to accept this
archaic production as an authentic work by Giotto, it is one which any
national collection would treasure. It depicts the supreme event in
the life of St. Francis, when during his vision virtue passed from the
wounded hands, the wounded feet, and the wounded side of the Christ
into the same parts of the saint’s body. In the predella are three
scenes from the life of St. Francis: (_a_) _Pope Innocent III. dreaming
that St. Peter reveals to him that unless the Franciscan Order is
founded the Church_ (typified here by the Church of S. John Lateran in
Rome) _will fall down_; (_b_) _The Pope founding the Order_; and (_c_)
_St. Francis, wearing the brown robes of his Order, and preaching to
the birds_: “Whenas St. Francis spake these words to them, those birds
began all of them to open their beaks, and stretch their necks, and
spread their wings, and reverently bend their heads down to the ground,
and by their acts and by their songs to show that the Holy Father gave
them joy exceeding great.”