250px, ''St. George and the Dragon'' Vitale da Bologna (–1360), also known as Vitale di Aymo de' Cavalli or Vitale degli Equi, was an Italian painter of the

Early Renaissance Renaissance art (1350 – 1620 AD) is the painting, sculpture, and decorative arts of the period of European history known as the Renaissance, which emerged as a distinct style in Italy in about AD 1400, in parallel with developments which occ ...

. He is a representative of the 14th century school of painting in

Bologna Bologna (, , ; egl, label=Emilian language, Emilian, Bulåggna ; lat, Bononia) is the capital and largest city of the Emilia-Romagna region in Northern Italy. It is the seventh most populous city in Italy with about 400,000 inhabitants and 1 ...

, his natal city and the place where he was most active. Surviving works in Bologna include a

polyptych A polyptych ( ; Greek: ''poly-'' "many" and ''ptychē'' "fold") is a painting (usually panel painting) which is divided into sections, or panels. Specifically, a "diptych" is a two-part work of art; a " triptych" is a three-part work; a tetrapt ...

in the church of San Salvatore (1353) and fresco fragments in the right apsidal chapel of Santa Maria dei Servi. Vitale was also active in Pomposa, where he painted the frescoes in the apse of the

Pomposa Abbey Pomposa Abbey is a Benedictine monastery in the ''comune'' of Codigoro on the Adriatic coast near Ferrara, Italy. It was one of the most important in northern Italy, famous for the Carolingian manuscripts preserved in its rich library, one of the w ...

, in Ferrara, completing a set of now-lost statues for Ferrara Cathedral and a

confraternity A confraternity ( es, cofradía; pt, confraria) is generally a Christian voluntary association of laypeople created for the purpose of promoting special works of Christian charity or piety, and approved by the Church hierarchy. They are most c ...

altarpiece now in the

Vatican Museums The Vatican Museums ( it, Musei Vaticani; la, Musea Vaticana) are the public museums of the Vatican City. They display works from the immense collection amassed by the Catholic Church and the papacy throughout the centuries, including several of ...

, and in

Udine Udine ( , ; fur, Udin; la, Utinum) is a city and ''comune'' in north-eastern Italy, in the middle of the Friuli Venezia Giulia region, between the Adriatic Sea and the Alps (''Alpi Carniche''). Its population was 100,514 in 2012, 176,000 with t ...

, where he was called to work for the Patriarch of Aquileia, Bertrand de Saint Geniès. In Udine, he painted a fresco cycle for the main chapel of the

Duomo ''Duomo'' (, ) is an Italian term for a church with the features of, or having been built to serve as, a cathedral, whether or not it currently plays this role. Monza Cathedral, for example, has never been a diocesan seat and is by definition n ...

, as well as frescoes in the adjacent confraternity chapel of St Nicholas. He is last registered in Bologna in 1359, and is thought to have died in December of that year or early 1360. His masterwork is the panel with ''St. George and the Dragon'', held in the

Pinacoteca Nazionale di Bologna The National Art Gallery of Bologna (''Pinacoteca Nazionale di Bologna'') is a museum in Bologna, Italy. It is located in the former Saint Ignatius Jesuit novitiate of the city's University district, and inside the same building that houses the ...

. Also notable is the ''Madonna dei Denti'' ("Madonna of the Teeth", signed and dated 1345), in the Davia-Bargellini Museum in Bologna. Universally attributed to him are the large ''Nativity'' fresco originally from the confraternity church of Santa Maria della Mezzaratta in the Bolognese countryside, now detached and conserved in the Pinacoteca Nazionale di Bologna, and the fresco known as the ''Madonna del Ricamo'' ("Embroidering Madonna"), originally from San Francesco, Bologna, and now in deposit at the Museo della Storia di Bologna.Gibbs, Robert, 'Vitale da Bologna'
Grove Art Online

References

Italian Renaissance painters 14th-century Italian painters Italian male painters Painters from Bologna People from the Province of Bologna Trecento painters 1300s births 1369 deaths Gothic painters Year of birth unknown Fresco painters {{Italy-painter-stub