Paris Art Studies - Cima da Conegliano (Conegliano
c. 1460 – Venice c. 1518)
c. 1460 – Birth of
Giovanni Battista Cima da Conegliano younger son of Pietro a “cimatoro”,
well-to-do sheep shearer who’d acquired land and houses in Conegliano. His
older brother, Antonio, will continue the family business of weaving and
investments in Conegliano.
1480 – Death of
father. Cima known to be working in Venice as painter.
1486 – Record of
payment of 32 ducats to magister
Giovanni Battista pictor for banner
for the tanners’ guild of Conegliano. Cima marries a local girl, Corona, from
Conegliano around this time.
1487 – Second
recorded commission for preacher Leonardo Sangiovanni canon of the Lateran for
his family chapel in San Bartolomeo in Vicenza.
1492 – Commission for
altarpiece for Santa Maria dei Battuti from “eminent painter permanently
residing in Venice.” The painter accepts a lower fee than usual as a favor to
his home town. Beginning of a long collaboration (until 1495) with the church
of San Giovanni in Bragora in Venice.
1497 – Commission of
altarpiece “Incredulity of St Thomas” for altar of Scuola de San Tommaso
Apostolo in church of San Francesco at Portogruaro in Venice.
1498 – Birth of his
second son Riccardo (later a Benedictine monk). After the death of his first
wife Cima marries Maria, with whom he will have 3 daughters (Pellegrina,
Corona, Petronilla) and three sons (Riccardo, Sebastiano, Luca).
1499 – Execution of
altarpiece for the chapel of Saint George in Santa Maria della Carità in
Venice.
1502 – Birth of
Pellegrina. Works again for San Giovanni in Bragora, paints altarpiece of Sts
Constantine and Helen. Wars on the continent induce his brother Antonio to move
with his family to Venice around this time.
The two brothers
remain very close.
1511 – Documents from
painters’ guild in Venice prove Cima’s exalted position and influence among his
colleagues.
1517 or 1518 – Death
of Cima (mentioned in receipt for masses for salvation of his soul paid for by
his son Pietro.)
1877 – The
English art historian and critic John Ruskin “discovers” Cima. He is much
impressed by the quality of the Saraceno dal Zio altapiece in the church of the
Madonna dell’Orto in Venice. The National Gallery in London acquires 9
paintings by Cima between 1858 and 1938.
1891 – Don
Vincenzo Botteon, curate of the church of St Martin in Conegliano is
commissioned by the town hall to reorder local archives and old documents. This
leads to the discovery of the first documents recording the life and work of
Cima, a local painter only remembered though oral traditions.
1983 –
Publication of first monograph of the painter by Peter Humfrey.
2010 – Major
retrospective in Conegliano.
Predecessors and
contemporaries in Venice:
Antonello da Messina
1430 – 1479
Gentile Bellini 1429
– 1507
Giovanni Bellini c.
1426 – 1516
Vittore Carpaccio
1460 – 1526
Alvise Vivarini 1446
– c. 1502
Giorgione 1477 – 1510
