Bartolomeo Vivarini

Bartolomeo Vivarini (c. 1432–c. 1499) was a Venetian painter of the Renaissance, known to have been at work from 1450 to 1499. He belonged to a family of painters: his brother Antonio Vivarini and his nephew Alvise Vivarini, possibly also his pupil, both painted. He is said to have learned oil painting from Antonello da Messina and to have made the first oil painting in Venice, a large altarpiece of 1473 in nine sections showing Saint Augustine and other saints, in the basilica of San Zanipolo. Most of his work, however, is in tempera, with firm outlines, good colour and figures of dignified devotion. Because vivarino is Italian for goldfinch, he sometimes signed his pictures with a drawing of the bird. Here: Nursing Madonna.