219 



CIGNAROLI, QIAMBETTINO. 



CIMON. 



250 



upon him, he enjoyed the friendship and correspondence of many of 

 the reigning princes of his time, and acquired great wealth. He was 

 also made a count by Ranuzio II., his native sovereign. 



Being invited to paint the Duomo of Forli, he removed thither with 

 his family, and resided there for the remainder of his life. While 

 Forli was occupied by some German troops during the war between 

 the pope and the emperor, Cignani presented a picture to the com- 

 mander of the forces, who in return, besides a handsome gift in money, 

 issued an extraordinary order to his troops to refrain in every way 

 from molesting the good people of the city. The citizens testified 

 their gratitude to Ciguani by enrolling him among their nobility. In 

 1708, when the Clementine Academy was instituted, Cignani was 

 elected president. He died September 6, 1719, leaving two sons, one 

 of whom, Felice, was a painter. 



Cignaui painted an infinite variety of subjects sacred, classical, and 

 even comic. His colouring is pleasing and brilliant, and his finish most 

 elaborate. His chief work is the Duomo at Forli, an immense compo- 

 sition, ingeniously disposed, which represents the 'Assumption of 

 the Virgin.' 



CIGNARO'LI, GIAMBETTI'NO, one of the most distinguished of 

 the Italian oil-painters of the 18th century, was born at Salo, near 

 Verona, in 1706. He studied first under Santo Prunati, and after- 

 wards, according to report, with Balestra. There are several excellent 

 works in oil by Cignaroli in Verona, Pontrernoli, Pisa, and at Parma. 

 In the last-named place there is a 'Journey into Egypt,' in the church 

 of Sant' Antonio Abate, much praised by Lanzi. In his style Cigna- 

 roli resembled Carlo Maratti, but he was inferior to him in colouring : 

 liia carnations are occasionally green, with shadows and half-tints, 

 and sometimes too red. He was a great admirer of the works of 

 Guido and of Correggio. With the exception of some works executed 

 in his youth in Venice, he did not paint in fresco ; he found the prac- 

 tice injurious to his health. 



Cignaroli lived chiefly at Verona, where he educated a numerous 

 school, and he died there in 1770, possessed of considerable wealth. 

 He executed several works for other places, aud had several invitations 

 to visit foreign courts, all of which however he declined. In 1769 the 

 emperor Joseph 17. visited Cignaroli in his studio, and observed after- 

 wards, that in Verona he had seen two very rare things the amphi- 

 theatre and the first painter of Europe. 



He is said to have been a very accomplished man ; he was a pcet 

 and a writer upon art. A good collection of books on the arts was 

 bequeathed by him to the Academy of Verona, which preserves his 

 bust. A very flattering memoir of him, by Padre Ippolito Bevilac- 

 qua dell' Oratorio, was published at Verona in 1771, the year after his 

 death. 



CI'GOLI, LUDOVICO CARDI DA, Cavaliere, a very celebrated 

 Florentine painter, was born at Cigoli in 1559. He was one of the 

 great reformers of style of the Florentine school, and one of those 

 masters whose works formed an epoch in the history of painting in 

 TiiHcany. Cigoli was the first who successfully opposed the anatomical 

 school of the imitators of Michel Angelo, and he was seconded in his 

 efforts by his friend Gregorio Pagani. 



Cigoli wag the scholar of Santo di Titi, but his style was founded 

 upon the works of Karroccio and Correggio, and had much in common 

 with the eclectic school of the Caracci. His drawing was generally 

 correct, and in colouring and chiaroscuro he was superior to Barroccio, 

 but inferior to Correggio, especially in local tones. His chief pro- 

 ductions are large altar pieces, some of which are among the finest 

 pictures in Italy. The ' Lame Man healed by St. Peter,' in St. Peter's 

 at Rome, painted for Clement VII., is a very celebrated work, though 

 now destroyed, and was pronounced by Andrea Sacchi the third 

 picture in Home : the first being the ' Transfiguration ' by Raffaelle, 

 ami the second the ' Communion of St. Jerome ' by Domenichiuo, 

 now hanging opposite to each other in the same room in the Vatican. 

 There is also at Florence a ' Martyrdom of St. Stephen,' at the Nuns 

 of Monte Domini, which Pietro da Cortona pronounced to be one of 

 the finest pictures in Florence. The ' Lame Man Healed ' has been 

 engraved by Dorigny, C'allot, and Scacciati. As a fresco-painter, Cigoli 

 .was not successful. He was also an architect ; and he wrote a prac- 

 tical treatise on perspective, ' Prospettiva pratica di Ludovico Cigoli 

 Cav. e Pittore,' with diagrams engraved in copper by his brother 

 Bastiano Cardi. He invented a perspective-machine, for drawing 

 objects in perspective from nature without the assistance of rules. 

 Cigoli died at Rome in 1613, shortly after the completion of some 

 frescoes painted for Paul V., in that pope's chapel in the church of 

 Santa Maria Maggiore. Cigoli was himself dissatisfied with his works, 

 and wished to repaint them, but the pope would not permit him. He 

 was a Cavaliere of the Tuscan order of San Stefano, and a Knight of 

 1UU, 



(Baldinucci, Xotizie tlei Profeuari dd Ditegno, <kc. ; Lanzi, Sloria 

 Pitlwica, <tc.) 



CIMABUE, GIOVANNI, was born at Florence, in the year 1210, of 

 a noble family. During his youth he was sent by his father to study 

 letters at the convent of Santa Maria Novella. When some Greok 

 artists came to ornament the convent-church with paintings, ho 

 abandoned studies to which ho was little inclined, and devoted his 

 attention to watching them, and he was ultimately permitted to aa.-ist 

 th"iu. Studying earnestly aud practising diligently, he soon became 



B10G. DIV. VOL. II. 



noted as one of the best painters of the day, and executed many works 

 for religious persons aud communities. His fame having spread abroad, 

 he was invited to adovnthe church of St. Francis at Assisi. He painted 

 part of the walls in concert with certain Greek painters ; but having 

 far surpassed his assistants, his courage aud ambition increased, and 

 he went on with the work alone. He was recalled to Florence by 

 private affairs, aud obliged to leave his work uncompleted. It was 

 afterwards finished by Giotto. After his return to Florence, among 

 other pictures he painted a Madonna for the church of Santa Maria 

 Novella, which was of a size so unusual at that time, and was considered 

 so novel and splendid, that it was carried to the church in procession ; 

 and according to the tradition, when Charles of Aujou visited the 

 church, multitudes who had not yet obtained a sight of the picture 

 accompanied him with such rejoicing and festivity, that the street was 

 afterwards called Borgo Allegri, literally ' Merry Borough." Cimabue 

 was engaged as an architect, in conjunction with Aruolfo Lapi, to 

 build the church of Santa Maria del Fiore ; but he died shortly after, 

 in the year 1300. 



Previously to the time of Cimabue, painting had sunk to a merely 

 mechanical occupation, and was chiefly in the hands of Greeks, who 

 worked after certain fixed patterns, each blindly copying his prede- 

 cessor. Cimabue's right to be considered as the restorer of the art 

 has been warmly urged, and as warmly contested. It appears probable 

 that a re-action had taken place, and that contemporary or even 

 preceding artists had shown an inclination to abandon the mechanical 

 dryness of the modern Greek artificers, when Cimabue took up the 

 profession. The ardour of his disposition however, and perhaps his 

 rank iu society, induced him to venture upon the most notable 

 deviations from the cramped style of the period ; and the revival of 

 the art would probably have been delayed some time longer, had it 

 not been for the impulse which it received through him. While 

 adhering to the traditional types in his religious subjects, he put some 

 life into the heads and into the action of his figures, abandoning the 

 cold straight lines of his Greek instructors. He is supposed to have 

 been the first to recur, after a long interval, to the study of nature, 

 and to have drawn from the living model, though but sparingly. Nor 

 is it the least debt which painting owes to Cimabue, that he discovered 

 and fostered the genius of Giotto. 



Cimabue worked in fresco and distemper, oil painting being a later 

 discovery. Some of his works still exist; the principal are iu the 

 church of Santa Maria Novella at Florence, and that of St. Francis 

 at Assisi. 



(Vasari ; Baldinucci ; Lanzi.) 



CIMARO'SA, DOMENI'CO, one of the most celebrated composers 

 of the Italian theatre, was born at Naples in 1754. To Aprile he 

 was indebted for his first instructions in music, but he completed his 

 studies under Durante at the Conservatorio of Loretto. His general 

 education was also of a superior kind, and he was not only esteemed 

 for his professional ability, but for his well-informed mind and amiable 

 temper. The first work that made him known was ' L'ltalitma iu 

 Londra,' performed in 1779. But it is ' II Matrimonio Segreto ' which 

 will transmit his uamo to posterity; for of his thirty operas, most of 

 which were in their day the admiration of all amateurs, the last- 

 mentioned is the only one now ever performed. When this was 

 brought out at Vienna it so delighted the Emperor Joseph II., that at 

 its conclusion he invited the singers and band to a supper, then sent 

 them back to the theatre, and the whole piece was repeated ; the only 

 instance on record of the encore of an entire opera. In 1787 Cimarosa 

 was invited by the Empress Catharine to St. Petersburg, where ho 

 produced three operas. He returned to Naples, and having shown 

 no little partiality for the French during their occupation of that 

 city, very narrowly escaped the sanguinary proscription which dis- 

 graced the restoration of the old royal family. He died at Venice iu 

 1801. 



Cimarosa excelled most in comic opera, but his ' Orazi e Curiazi ' 

 proves that he could compose well in a different style. He is the 

 link which unites the old and modern schools, his scores exhibiting an 

 instrumentation much stronger than that of Paisiello, though inferior 

 in vigour and richness to that of Mozart. 



CIMON (Klfuaf), the name of two Athenians, one the father (Herod, 

 vi. 34) and the other the son of Miltiades. The memory of the elder 

 Cimon i ists almost entirely on the fame of his son ; scarcely anything 

 is known of him except that he was remarkably stupid. Cimon, the 

 son of Miltiades and Hegesipyle, was born about B.C. 502. Miltiades 

 died in prison, and Cimon had to pay the fine which had been 

 imposed on his father. Without the aid of the opulent Callias, who 

 is said to have assisted him, fifty talents would probably have made 

 a large and inconvenient inroad on his patrimony (Herod, vi. 136.) 

 The anecdotes which remain of Cimou's early youth are not creditable 

 either to his morals or to his intellect. The worst excesses are laid 

 to his charge. Although little confidence can be given to the details 

 of these numerous reports, so much seems to be clear, that he did not 

 do as others of his rauk did, or as it was expected that the son of 

 Miltiades would do. He even neglected what in Athens were usually 

 deemed the essential branches of a liberal education. On the other 

 hand, the stupidity which is ascribed to him at this period, and the 

 reputation for which fixed on him his grandfather's nickname Coalemua 

 (6 Kofaepos, 'the idiot'), was probably nothing more than a natural 



