Giovanni Battista Cima

(also Cima da Conegliano). Born circa 1459 in Conegliano, Treviso Province; died there 1517 or 1518. Italian Renaissance painter of the Venetian school.

Cima’s early career was influenced by Bellini and Antonello da Messina. Later influences were Giorgione and Titian. Cima’s paintings were characterized by a rich golden palette, majestic simplicity of human forms, and subtle expression of the poetic bond between nature and man. Examples are The Baptism (1494, Church of San Giovanni in Bragora, Venice), The Entry Into the Temple (Picture Gallery, Dresden), and Annunciation (1495, Hermitage, Leningrad).