Bartolomeo Vivarini

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Bartolommeo Vivarini (c. 1432 – c. 1499) was an Italian painter, known to have worked from 1450 to 1499. His brother Antonio and his nephew (also possibly his pupil) Alvise were also painters.

He learned oil painting from Antonello da Messina, and is said to have produced, in 1473, the first oil picture done in Venice. Housed in in the church of S. Giovanni e Paolo, it is a large altar-piece in nine divisions, representing Augustine and other saints.

Most of his works, however, are in tempera. His outline is always hard, and his colour good; the figures have much dignified and devout expression. As "vivarino" means in Italian a goldfinch, he sometimes drew a goldfinch as the signature of his pictures.

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This article incorporates text from the Encyclopædia Britannica Eleventh Edition, a publication now in the public domain.