Cimabue, pseudonym of Cenni di Pepo, was an Italian painter who lived in Tuscany between the mid-thirteenth and early fourteenth centuries and is considered the artist who was among the first to make the transition from the representation of hieratic and idealized figures of Byzantine tradition towards real subjects, endowed with humanity and emotions, which will be the basis of Italian and Western painting. For the first time, the Louvre is dedicating an exhibition to him on the occasion of the restoration of one of his most famous paintings - the Maestà, rightly considered "the founding act of Western painting" - and the acquisition of the Mocking of Christ, a panel rediscovered in 2019 and now included in the list of French national treasures.
