BARTOLOMEO VIVARINI
was a member of one of Venice's famous families of artists. Both his
brother Antonio Vivarini (c. 1419-c. 1480) and Antonio's son Alvise
Vivarini (c. 1445-1515) are also broadly represented in Venice.
Arts historian
Paul Holberton describes Bartolomeo Vivarini as "an essentially derivative
but charming painter at his peak in the 1470s" who "joined and then
succeeded his older brother Antonio."
At the Church
of S. Maria Formosa is Vivarini's's polyptych of the Madonna of Mercy
(1473). Huddled around the Madonna appear to be portraits of the parish
priest, the curate and members of their flock, reflecting the fact that
the congregation subscribed to pay for the altarpiece. At the Church
of S. Giovanni in Bragora are a Resurrection (1498) and a tripych
of the Virgin Mary between St. John the Baptist and St. Andrew
(1478). At the Church of S. Eufemia is a triptych of S. Rocco and
an Angel with a lunette of the Mother and Child (1480). Several
of his polytychs are in the collection of the Accademia in Venice.
Bartolomeo is
represented by two prestigious altarpieces at the Church of S. Maria
Gloriosa dei Frari: The Virgin Enthroned with the Child on her Knee
[Madonna della Salute] (1482), a polyptych in the Bernardo Chapel, and
S. Marco Surrounded by Angels (1474), a triptych in the Cornaro
Piscopia Chapel described by Lorenzetti as "a masterpiece of stylization
and polychromy."
