Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 5.djvu/792

778 Syrians, from whom, however, they were from a very early period politically separate. Cilicia appears as an indepen dent kingdom under a monarch named Syennesis, in the time of Alyattes, king of Lydia, G10 B.C. (Herod., i. 74), and even after it passed under the Persian empire it con tinued to be governed by its own kings, all of whom appear to have borne the name, or rather appellation, of Syennesis. From its position Cilicia attracted much attention during the expedition of the younger Cyrus (401 B.C.), as well as in that of Alexander, whose first great victory over the Persian king was fought at Issus, in the narrow pass between Mount Amanus and the sea (333 B.C.) Cilicia now passed under the Macedonian rule, and was subject to the Seleucidan kings of Syria. But owing to the feeble and unsettled character of the government under the later monarchs of that dynasty, the western portion of the country, or Cilicia Trachea, became the stronghold of numerous pirates, who carried their depredations to such an extent as to compel the Romans to wage regular war upon them. It was not till GO B.C. that they were finally subdued by Pompey, and Cilicia was regularly constituted as a Roman province, which, however, comprised, in addition to Cilicia properly so called, Pamphylia, Pisidia, Isauria, Lycaonia, and a large part of Phrygia. This was the extent of the province when it was governed by Cicero as proconsul (51-50 B.C.), who obtained some successes against the mountain tribes of Mount Amanus, of which he was im moderately proud. Under the Roman empire Cilicia was again reduced to its natural limits, but did not receive its final constitution as a province till the time of Vespasian. It retained its condition as such under the Roman and Byzantine empires till it fell, with the rest of Asia Minor, under the Seljukian Turks in the llth century. After the break-up of the Turkish monarchy Cilicia was seized by the Armenians, who from the mountain districts of Mount Amanus and Taurus gradually made themselves masters of the whole country, of which they retained possession, notwithstanding frequent struggles with the Lusignans the lords of the neighbouring island of Cyprus till both were expelled by the Ottoman Turks in the 15th century. From that period Cilicia has continued to form part of the Turkish empire, with the exception of the brief interval from 1833 to 1840, during which it was annexed to his dominions by Mehemet Ali, viceroy of Egypt ; but after the defeat of that ruler by the allied powers he was compelled to evacuate Cilicia, which was reunited as before with the Ottoman empire.

1em  CIMABUE, (1240 to about 1302), painter, was born in Florence of a creditable family, which seems to have borne the name of Gualtieri, as well as that of Cimabue (Bullhead). He took to the arts of design by natural inclination, and sought the society of men of learn ing and accomplishment. Vasari, the historian of Italian painting, zealous for his own native state of Florence, has left us the generally current account of Ciniabue, which later researches have to a great extent invalidated. We cannot now accept his assertion that art, extinct in Italy, was re vived solely by Cimabue, after he had received some training from Grecian artists invited by the Florentine Government to paint the chapel of the Gondi in the church of S. Maria Novella ; for native Italian art was not then a nullity, and this church was only begun when Cimabue was already forty years old. Even Lanzi s qualifying statement that Grecian artists, although they did not paint the chapel of the Gondi, did execute rude decorations in a chapel below the existing church, and may thus have inspirited Cimabue, makes little difference in the main facts. What we find as the general upshot is that some Italian painters preceded Cimabue particulaily Guido of Siena and Giunta of Pisa ; that he worked on much the same principle as they, and to a like result ; but that he was nevertheless the most advanced master of his time, and, by his own works, and the training which he imparted to his mighty pupil Giotto, he left the art far more formed and more capable of growth than he found it. The undoubted admiration of his contemporaries would alone demonstrate the conspi cuous position which he held, and deserved to hold. For the chapel of the Rucellai in S. Maria Novella he painted in tempera a colossal Madonna and Child with Angels, the largest altarpiece produced up to that date ; before its removal from the studio it was visited with admiration by Charles of Anjou, with a host of eminent men and gentle ladies, and it was carried to the church in a festive proces sion of the people and trumpeters. Cimabue was at this time living in the Borgo Allegri, then outside the walls of Florence ; the legend that the name Allegri (Joyous) was bestowed on the locality in consequence of this striking popular display is more attractive than accurate, for the name existed already. Of this celebrated picture, one of the great landmarks of modern and sacred art, some details may be here given, which we condense from the History of Painting in Italy by Messrs Crowe and Cavalcaselle. &quot; The Virgin in a red tunic and blue mantle, with her feet resting on an open-worked stool, is sitting on a chair hung with a white drapery flowered in gold and blue, and carried by six angels kneeling in threes above each other. A. deli cately engraved nimbus surrounds her head, and that of the infant Saviour on her lap, who is dressed in a white tunic, and purple mantle shot with gold. A dark-coloured frame surrounds the gabled square of the picture, delicately traced with an ornament interrupted at intervals by thirty medal lions on gold ground, each of which contains the half-figure of a saint. In the face of the Madonna is a soft and melan choly expression ; in the form of the infant, a certain freshness, animation, and natural proportion ; in the group, affection but too rare at this period. There is sentiment in the attitudes of the angels, energetic mien in some prophets, comparative clearness and soft harmony in the colours. A certain loss of balance is caused by the overweight of the head in the Virgin as compared with the slightness of her frame. The features are the old ones of the 13th century ; only softened, as regards the expression of the eye, by an exaggeration of elliptical form in the iris, and closeness of the curves of the lids. In the angels,, the absence of all true notions of composition may be considered striking; yet their movements are more natural and pleas ing than hitherto. One indeed, to the spectator s right of the Virgin, combines more tender reverence in its glance that any that had yet been produced. Cimabue gave to the flesh-tinte a clear and carefully fused colour, and im parted to the forms some of the rotundity which they had lost. With him vanished the sharp contrasts of hard lights, half-tones, and shadows.&quot; In a general way, it may be said that Cimabue showed himself forcible in his paintings, as especially in heads of aged or strongly characterized men ; and, if the then existing development of art had allowed of this, he might have had it in him to express the beautiful as well. He, according to Vasari, was the first painter who wrote words upon his paintings, as, for instance, round the head of Christ in a picture of the Crucifixion, the words addressed to Mary, Ahdier ecce films tuns. Other paintings still extant by this master are the follow ing : In the Academy of Arts in Florence, a Madonna and Child, with eight angels, and some prophets in niches, better than the Rucellai picture in composition and study 