Cimabue is considered the “father of Western painting,” yet he has long been overshadowed by successive Early Italian Renaissance artists. The revelatory new exhibition at the Louvre, titled “A New Look at Cimabue: At the Origins of Italian Painting” (through May 12, 2025), restores Cimabue and his work in the art historical canon both literally and figuratively.
The impetus for the show, the first of its kind at the Louvre, stems from the conservation of two Cimabue pictures in the Museum’s collection: “The Virgin and Child in Majesty, surrounded by six angels” and “Christ Mocked.” That the latter work existed at all was a surprise; it was only discovered in 2019. Scholars believe it was originally part of an eight-panel diptych painted around 1280. Today, just three panels are known, and the Louvre has reunited them for the first time in this exhibit.
