The development and contrubutions of painting in the Middle Ages Cimabue, an Italian painter, was the first famous painter of the city of Florence. Cimabue's painting of the Madonna Enthroned is painted in a traditional style based on the medieval art of the Byzantine Empire. His faces and figures are rendered stiffly, and placed vertically without size relationship to the figures around them. Cimabue's works have great personal force and effect, even though the forms …showed first 75 words of 539 total…

…showed last 75 words of 539 total…the image. In the Arnolfini Wedding Portrait, the bride and groom stand shoeless to indicate that they stand on holy ground. The single burning candle in the chandelier symbolizes God's presence. The dog symbolizes fidelity in the marriage and the fruit in the background represents wealth. The mirror on the rear wall reflects the couples backs along with the artist. This picture is a perfect expression of the symbolic realism that dominated northern European paintings.