With the legal name of Cenni di Pepi, and the common moniker of Cimabue, came a revolution in medieval Italian art. As the most celebrated Florentine artist of his generation, Cimabue (pronounced chee ma BOO ay) is hailed for transitioning Italian art out of the flatness of Byzantine icons to the beginnings of the naturalism that would culminate a few centuries later in the High Renaissance.

Not working in a vacuum, his counterpart and sometime rival, Duccio (1250/1255-1318/1319) possessed similar creative greatness and regard in the competing artistic capital of Sienna. The 14^th (trecento or 300) and 15^th (quattrocento or 400) centuries saw Florence and Siena as the center of growth (Florence’s population doubled) and urbanization due to increased international trade and banking – becoming the banking center for not only all of Italy but also most of Europe – and as a result also art.