Instead of paying attention to his lessons, Cimabue spent the whole day drawing men, horses, houses, and various other fancies on his books and odd sheets, like one who felt himself compelled to do so by nature.

Fortune proved favourable to his natural inclination, for some Greek artists were summoned to Florence by the government of the city for no other purpose than the revival of painting in their midst, since the art was not so much debased as altogether lost.

In this way Cimabue made a beginning in the art which attracted him, for he often played the truant and spent the whole day in watching the masters work.

Thus it came about that his father and the artists considered him so fitted to be a painter that if he devoted himself to the profession he might look for honourable success in it, and to his great satisfaction his father procured him employment with the painters.

Thus by dint of continual practice and with the assistance of his natural talent he far surpassed the manner of his teachers.
For they had never cared to make any progress and had executed their works, not in the good manner of ancient Greece, but in the rude modern style of that time.