Giovanni di Paolo

Giovanni di Paolo , c.1403-1483, major Italian painter of the Sienese school. Typical of the Sienese painters of his era, he paid scant attention to the artistic innovations made in nearby Florence, but often depended on the style established by the Sienese masters of the 14th cent. Fortunately, Giovanni di Paolo was endowed with great imagination. His first dated work (1426) was the Pecci altarpiece (major panels in Siena; predella panels in the Walters Art Gall., Baltimore). He produced a tremendous number of works during his long career. Many paintings have remained in Siena, but there are probably more examples of his art in the United States. The Metropolitan Museum has several of his paintings; among them is a delightful scene of Paradise; in the Philip Lehman collection is the exquisite Creation of the World. The Madonna and Child in a Landscape (Mus. of Fine Arts, Boston) exemplifies his inclination toward pure fantasy and disregard for the laws of perspective. Giovanni di Paolo is best represented by six highly expressive scenes from the life of St. John the Baptist (Art Inst., Chicago). Examples of his work are in the National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.; the Johnson Collection, Philadelphia; the Gardner Museum, Boston; the Fogg Museum, Cambridge; and at Yale Univ.

Giovanni di Paolo (b Siena, c.1400; d Siena, 1482). One of the most attractive and idiosyncratic painters of the Sienese School, sometimes called Giovanni dal Poggio, from the district of the city where he lived. Little is known of his life, but there are a considerable number of surviving works by him—all small-format religious panels (the earliest known dates from 1426). He may have been taught by Taddeo di Bartolo and was influenced notably by Gentile da Fabriano and Sassetta, but his style is highly personal and engaging, with rather whimsical figures inhabiting strange landscapes. After centuries of neglect his reputation was revived by Berenson, who called him ‘the El Greco of the quattrocento’.

Giovanni di Paolo (active 1417; d. 1482). One of the most attractive and idiosyncratic painters of the Sienese School, sometimes called Giovanni dal Poggio, from the district of the city where he lived. Little is known of his life, but there is a considerable number of surviving works by him—all small-format religious panels (the earliest known dates from 1426). He may have been taught by Taddeo di Bartolo and was influenced notably by Gentile da Fabriano and Sassetta, but his style is highly personal and engaging, with rather whimsical figures inhabiting strange landscapes. After centuries of neglect his reputation was revived by Berenson, who called him ‘the El Greco of the quattrocento’.