Cimabue's Madonna Carried in Procession

A brightly coloured procession of figures escorts The Rucellai Madonna altarpiece (Uffizi, Florence) through the streets of Florence. The scene is based upon a story from the 'Lives of the Artists' by Giorgio Vasari who wrote, 'this work was an object of so much admiration to the people of that day - they having then never seen anything better - that it was carried in solemn procession, with the sound of trumpets and other festal demonstrations, from the house of Cimabue to the church'. The altarpiece was commissioned in 1285 by a Dominican fraternity, the Company of Laudesi, and although Vasari attributed the panel to Cimabue, it is now known to be by Duccio di Buoninsegna, who is named in the contract. Cimabue, wearing white and crowned with a laurel wreath, leads his pupil Giotto by the hand. On the far right Dante, leaning against a wall with his back to the viewer, watches the procession. King Charles of Anjou is probably the mounted figure bringing up the rear. Various other artist contemporaries of Cimabue make up the rest of the crowd carrying the trestle upon which the altarpiece sits. In depicting a biographical incident from the life of a Renaissance artist, Leighton was following a fashion which began in the early nineteenth century in France with artists such as Ingres, who in 1814 painted Raphael in his studio with his muse, 'La Fornarina' (Fogg Art Museum, Harvard). Such paintings often emphasised the innate genius of the artist along with the nurturing of this talent by a gifted master (as in this case between Cimabue and Giotto), and were undoubtedly influenced by the publication of such works as Vasari's 'Lives' which was translated into French in 1805 and English in 1850 by Mrs Jonathan Foster. Although born in Yorkshire, Frederic Leighton began his formal art education in Frankfurt at the Städelsches Kunstinstitut, where he first trained under J.D. Passavant then under Eduard von Steinle. It was Steinle who instilled in his protégé an interest in Medievalism and early Italian art - the tutor's list of paintings that Leighton should see during a visit to Florence included works by Cimabue, Giotto, Masaccio, Uccello, Gozzoli, Ghirlandaio and Botticelli. It was also Steinle who suggested Leighton first visit Rome, and who provided an introduction to Peter Cornelius (1783 - 1867), one of the last remaining Nazarenes still living in the city. The influence of the Nazarene tradition, with its careful depiction of nature, its interest in fresco and its reverence for the purity of early art is evident in Cimabue's Madonna, although the religious function of art, which is typically a key message of Nazarene works, is of less importance in this painting than is the subject of art history itself - and in particular the notion of artistic 'progress' over time. The painting was displayed at the Royal Academy Exhibition of 1855, where it was purchased by Queen Victoria at a private viewing before the opening day for six hundred guineas. She wrote in her diary, 'There was a very big picture, by a young man, called Leighton, his 1st attempt, at the age of 20. It is a beautiful painting quite reminding one of a Paul Veronese, so bright & full of lights. Albert was enchanted with it - so much so that he made me buy it. The young man's father, said that his future career in life would depend on the success of this picture' (Journal, 3 May, 1855). The painting no doubt appealed to Prince Albert due to its reference to early Italian art, together with its highly finished surface and extraordinary attention to detail. Leighton made a large number of preparatory drawings for the painting, and also consulted pattern books in an attempt to achieve accuracy for the historical costume. Compositionally, it is carefully constructed in a geometric manner evocative of Renaissance principles of harmony, the wall being two-thirds the height of the picture and the adult figures being two-thirds the height of the wall. Cimabue and Giotto also cross hands at the precise horizontal centre point. Prince Albert's immediate interest in the painting exemplifies the Prince's talent for spotting artists early in their career - this was the first painting ever exhibited by Leighton, who went on to become one of the most successful artists of the second half of the nineteenth century, as well as a leader of the later Victorian art establishment and the first artist to be raised to a peerage. Moreover, Prince Albert's interest in the painting was not a response to positive critical reception but instead was based on his own instinct - indeed it was as a result of the royal purchase that the painting was brought to the critics' attention. Signed centre left: FL (in monogram)