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.
He is a representative of the 14th century school of painting in
Bologna
Bologna ( , , ; ; ) is the capital and largest city of the Emilia-Romagna region in northern Italy. It is the List of cities in Italy, seventh most populous city in Italy, with about 400,000 inhabitants and 150 different nationalities. Its M ...
, his natal city and the place where he was most active. Surviving works in Bologna include a
polyptych 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, in
Ferrara
Ferrara (; ; ) is a city and ''comune'' (municipality) in Emilia-Romagna, Northern Italy, capital of the province of Ferrara. it had 132,009 inhabitants. It is situated northeast of Bologna, on the Po di Volano, a branch channel of the main ...
, completing a set of now-lost statues for
Ferrara Cathedral and a
confraternity altarpiece now in the
Vatican Museums, and in
Udine
Udine ( ; ; ; ; ) is a city and (municipality) in northeastern Italy, in the middle of the Friuli-Venezia Giulia region, between the Adriatic Sea and the Carnic Alps. It is the capital of the Province of Udine, Regional decentralization entity ...
, 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, 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. 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 Metropolitan City of Bologna
Trecento painters
1300s births
1369 deaths
Gothic painters
Year of birth unknown
Fresco painters
{{Italy-painter-14thC-stub