CIMABUE, GIOVANNI, one of the regenerators of the art of painting, was born at Florence in 1240. The early historians of art differ in the accounts they give of his education. Vasari maintains that his instructors were some Greeks who had been engaged to restore the ancient paintings in a Florentine church; while Lanzi denies this statement, and asserts that art was at this time better understood in Italy than in Greece. At the time that Cimabue appeared, the arts and sciences had fallen into neglect in consequence of the civil wars which had long desolated the peninsula. So highly valued were his efforts for the restoration of painting, that on one occasion an altar-piece, which he completed for a church in his native city, was inaugurated with a triumphal procession by his grateful countrymen. Some of Cimabue's works are still preserved in Florence, but his masterpieces are believed to be the frescoes in the church of St. Francesco at Assisi. (For a critical estimate of Cimabue's works, and their influence on subsequent art, see article PAINTING.) In addition to the benefits which he conferred on painting by his contributions to it, Cimabue rendered most important service to it indirectly by discovering and fostering the genius of Giotto, the greatest of all his pupils. Cimabue died in 1300.