Giovanni Battista Cima, also called Cima da Conegliano (
c. 1459 – c. 1517), was an Italian
Renaissance painter, who mostly worked in
Venice. He can be considered part of the
Venetian school, though he was also influenced by
Antonello da Messina, in the emphasis he gives to landscape backgrounds and the tranquil atmosphere of his works.
Once formed his style did not change greatly. He mostly painted religious subjects, often on a small scale for homes rather than churches, but also a few, mostly small, mythological ones. He often repeated popular subjects in different versions with slight variations, including his Madonnas and Saint Jerome in a Landscape. His paintings of the Madonna and Child include several variations of a composition that have a standing infant Jesus, which in turn are repeated several times.
Biography
Giovanni Battista Cima was born at
Conegliano, then part of the
terrafirma of the
Republic of Venice but now part of the
province of Treviso, in 1459 or 1460. His father, who died in 1484, was a cloth-shearer (cimator), hence the family surname.[1]
In 1488 the young painter was at work at
Vicenza; in 1492 he established himself at
Venice, but by the summer of 1516 he had returned to his native place. Cima married twice, his first wife, Corona, bore him two sons, the older of whom took Holy orders at
Padua. By Joanna, his second wife, he had six children, three being daughters.[1]
His oldest painting inscribed with a date is the Madonna of the Arbour (1489; now in Museum of Vicenza). This picture is done in distemper and savours so much of the style of
Bartolomeo Montagna, who lived at Vicenza from 1480, as to make it highly probable that Cima was his pupil. Even in this early production Cima gave evidence of the serious calm, and almost passionless spirit that so eminently characterized him. Later he fell under the influence of
Giovanni Bellini and became one of his ablest successors, forming a happy, if not indispensable link between this master and
Titian.[1]
According to the 1913 Catholic Encyclopedia:
At first his figures were somewhat crude, but they gradually lost their harshness and gained in grace while still preserving the dignity. In the background of his facile, harmonious compositions the mountains of his country are invested with new importance. Cima was one of the first Italians to assign a place for
landscape depiction, and to formulate the laws of atmosphere and of the distribution of light and shade. His Baptism of Christ in the church of
San Giovanni in Bragora, in Venice (1492), gives striking evidence of this. The colouring is rich and right with a certain silvery tone peculiar to Cima, but which in his later works merges into a delicate gold. His conceptions are usually calm and undramatic, and he has painted scarcely any scenes (having depicted religious ones almost exclusively) that are not suggestive of "sante conversazioni". His Incredulity of St. Thomas (
National Gallery,
London) and his beautiful Nativity (Venice,
Santa Maria dei Carmini, 1509) are hardly aught else. But most of his paintings represent Madonnas enthroned among the elect, and in these subjects he observes a gently animated symmetry. The groupings of these sainted figures, even though they may not have a definitely pious character, and the impression of unspeakable peace.[1]
Among his pupils were his son, Carlo da Conegliano, and
Vittore Belliniano. It is unclear if
Francesco Beccaruzzi, who was born in Conegliano in 1492, received direct training from Cima.[1]
Virgin and Child withs St John the Baptist and St Mary Magdalene (1511–1513) - Tempera on panel, 167 x 110 cm, Louvre,
Paris.
Virgin and Child with Saints Sebastian, Francis, John the Baptist, Jerome, Anthony of Padua, and an Unidentified Female Saint, and Two Donors (c. 1515) - Oil on panel,
Harvard University Art Museums,
Massachusetts.