Holly Flora, Cimabue and the Franciscans. Renovatio Artium. Studies of Art in the Renaissance. London andTurnhout: Harvey Miller Publishers for Brepols, 2018, 287 pp., 152 color photographs.

The painter Cimabue (ca. 1240–1302) has long been recognized as “the first light of the Italian Renaissance.” With his reliance on classical paradigms (via the Byzantine) and renewal of the practice of naturalism in art, Cimabue’s revolutionary impact is recognized to this day. However, as explained by Holly Flora in her compelling new book, the renovatio in art is not the only perspective for understanding a painter who was not just a forerunner, but important in his own right, and a full participant in the cultural ferment of his time and place. Addressing the visual arts in context, Flora defines her topic as “the intersection of two histories: that of Cimabue, and that of the Franciscans,” in order to provide new insight into “the religious motives and artistic means that fueled the period’s visual and spiritual transformations” (8).