CIMABUE Cenni di Pepo called Cimabue, as can be seen from the introductory verses of Dante, was considered, in those times, the most important Italian painter. His importance as a forerunner of the "new manner" of painting is without dispute, but, probably, his fame is tied to the tradition that has handed him down as Giotto’s teacher. Vasari himself followed that tradition in his "Lives". We go back to consult his words in order to tell this tale : "..Cimabue, going one day, on business, from Florence to Vespignano, met a boy who, while his flocks were grazing, on a plate both flat and shiny, with a pointed stone, portrayed a sheep , so naturally, without having learned from others but from nature. Stopping, Cimabue was astonished and asked him if he wanted to go with him. Giotto replied that if his father agreed he would willingly go. His father gave him permission and was happy for him to go to Florence with Cimabue. There, in a short time, helped by nature and taught by Cimabue, not only the boy equalled the manner of his teacher but became so good.." Cimabue, Giotto’s teacher then? Probably not, but almost certainly they did meet, at least in Assisi, where Cimabue worked too, in the church of St. Francis. It is, therefore, plausible that he had some influence on Giotto. It is known, for sure, that Cimabue also worked in Rome and in Pisa. A painter of remarkable sensitivity, he, in time, deepened a sort of pictorial research that, leaving the closed Byzantine line, went towards more accentuated plastic and expressive values. Born approximately 1240, he died in 1302.