According to the great art historian and painter Giorgio Vasari, the 13th-century painter Cimabue was the “grandfather of the Italian Renaissance.” Born in Florence in 1240, he worked during a time when art was strictly confined to religious devotion and the style was Italo-Byzantine, devoid of naturalism and perspective. But Cimabue thought differently. He imbued his Madonnas and saints with soft expressions and a splendid sense of tenderness. He soon began to experiment with spatial depth and perspective, overlapping figures and employing shadows. This exhibition, the Louvre’s first dedicated to the artist, includes 40 works centered around two of his masterpieces: the Maestà (1280–90) and the heretofore-unseen panel Christ Mocked (circa 1280). —Elena Clavarino