チマブーエの名高い聖母

Frederic Leighton was 24 and unknown in England when this enormous canvas, more than five metres wide, appeared at the Royal Academy's summer show in 1855. It shows a scene from Vasari's lives of the painters, the medieval master Cimabue leading his celebrated Madonna in procession through Florence, the young Giotto walking at his side. Within a day Leighton's life changed. Queen Victoria bought the picture on the opening day for 600 guineas, noting in her diary that Prince Albert was so enchanted he made her buy it. That single purchase turned an untried young painter into a coming man, and Leighton would end his life as President of the Royal Academy and a lord. The painting has hung on loan in the National Gallery since 1988, still owned by the Crown that first bought it.