This work is 12 feet tall. Cimabue

This work is 12 feet tall. Cimabue utilized hierarchical scale with the characters in this piece ( the concept that bigger is better and most important). Hierarchical scale means putting things in order of importance relative to size. In this piece the angels in the upper portion do not count towards the hierarchical scale because it is only utilized between human beings, not celestial.
The prophets at the bottom are from the old testament. One way to pick out prophets in paintings is that they are typically holding scrolls which suggests a reference to ancient rome when scrolls were the paper of choice before the invention of the codex. Prophets represents the order of the universe- more essentially- “they know because god knows”.
The christ child on the madonna’s lap does not look in the least like a baby or child, which was typical for this period because the artist Cimabue didn’t bring in a model of a child to understand how a baby/child looks. Later during the italian proto renaissance you will see this corrected but still not fully understood.
The madonna looks like she is dressed in black because lapis lazuli pigment powder is extremely expensive due to the fact it is an import, most of which was coming from the middle eastern regions. This is extremely important to note especially for any works around this period because of the lapis lazuli pigment being expensive, any work it is involved in means the patrons paying for it have the money to spare. The real original color of the madonna’s robe is an ultramarine, it just faded to black over time.

Cimabue also made a tentative experimentation with lines in this piece and a bit of exploration with the body and anatomy.