Altichiero da Zevio (), also called Aldighieri da Zevio, was an Italian painter much influenced by

Giotto Giotto di Bondone (; – January 8, 1337), known mononymously as Giotto, was an List of Italian painters, Italian painter and architect from Florence during the Late Middle Ages. He worked during the International Gothic, Gothic and Italian Ren ...

, certainly through knowledge of the frescoes in the Cappella degli Scrovegni in Padua and quite possibly through having been trained in Florence by one of Giotto's pupils. Altichiero worked in Verona and

Padua Padua ( ) is a city and ''comune'' (municipality) in Veneto, northern Italy, and the capital of the province of Padua. The city lies on the banks of the river Bacchiglione, west of Venice and southeast of Vicenza, and has a population of 20 ...

. Works by him survive in the church of Sant'Anastasia in

Verona Verona ( ; ; or ) is a city on the Adige, River Adige in Veneto, Italy, with 255,131 inhabitants. It is one of the seven provincial capitals of the region, and is the largest city Comune, municipality in the region and in Northeast Italy, nor ...

and in the Cappella di S Felice (originally Cappella di S Giacomo) in the basilica of Sant'Antonio (Il Santo) and the Oratorio di San Giorgio in Padua. His stature was compromised for a long time through his supposed collaboration with a certain Jacopo Avanzo or Avanzi, but study of the documents and historiography demonstrated Atichiero's authorship of the frescoes in both the Santo and the Oratorio di San Giorgio. It has been argued that the hand of an assistant (conceivably Jacopo Avanzo or Jacopo Avanzi, both Bolognese painters) can be seen in some early scenes in the Santo (Cappella di S Felice, originally the Cappella di S Giacomo) – although it was certainly Altichiero who was paid to decorate the chapel, and he received 792 ducats in the summer of 1379. Altichiero was probably born somewhere near Zevio. He became an important member of the della Scala household in Verona, and around 1364 painted a series of

fresco Fresco ( or frescoes) is a technique of mural painting executed upon freshly laid ("wet") lime plaster. Water is used as the vehicle for the dry-powder pigment to merge with the plaster, and with the setting of the plaster, the painting become ...

es based upon

Flavius Josephus Flavius Josephus (; , ; ), born Yosef ben Mattityahu (), was a History of the Jews in the Roman Empire, Roman–Jewish historian and military leader. Best known for writing ''The Jewish War'', he was born in Jerusalem—then part of the Judaea ...

's ''

The Wars of the Jews ''The Jewish War'' is a work of Jewish history written by Josephus, a first-century Roman people, Roman-Jews, Jewish historian. It has been described by the biblical historian Steve Mason (biblical scholar), Steve Mason as "perhaps the most in ...

'' at the della Scala palace of Sala del Podestà. The last record of Altichiero is a Paduan archival document of September 1384. At that time he was in Verona or about to go there. The Florentine art historian

Giorgio Vasari Giorgio Vasari (30 July 1511 – 27 June 1574) was an Italian Renaissance painter, architect, art historian, and biographer who is best known for his work ''Lives of the Most Excellent Painters, Sculptors, and Architects'', considered the ideol ...

is the source of the tradition that Altichiero returned to Verona after working in Padua.

References

Secondary Sources

* 1330 births 1390 deaths 14th-century Italian painters Italian male painters Trecento painters Gothic painters Fresco painters {{Italy-painter-14thC-stub